In an area that’s hosted hungry elk for weeks - like the zone near Miller Butte where tourists pack into horse-drawn sleighs - the grasses and sedges can get depleted to just a hundred pounds per acre, or even less.Įvery gram of forage detected within this 13.27-inch-wide metallic ring equates to 100 pounds of grasses, sedges and forbs per acre. In a wet, grassy meadow that elk haven’t yet grazed, there can be upwards of 4,000 pounds of forage per acre. “This is sized so that each gram of accessible forage here is 100 pounds per acre,” Cole said of the ring. Then, Cole drops a 13.27-inch-wide metallic ring, using the vegetation within to estimate its weight. Impenetrable snow and ice that an animal couldn’t realistically hoof its way through is left in place, but the more powdery material is moved to the side. To do this, the biologist mimics an elk, pawing down through the snowpack with his gloved hand. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)įor over 20 years, Cole has determined when to start feeding elk by systematically measuring the amount of grasses, sedges and forbs that are accessible to foraging elk. Historically feeding begins once grasses, sedges and forbs decline below 300 pounds per acre. National Elk Refuge biologist Eric Cole measures the forage remaining on the federal property once or twice a week in the time leading up to the elk feeding season. Over time, as new generations of elk are born, a larger percentage of the herd could cease to know the National Elk Refuge as a place to go, the theory goes. When it’s not, they tend to hoof it back up to the natural winter ranges and state-run feedgrounds up the river valley. Now there’s a new, always-lethal malady - chronic wasting disease - that’s been confirmed in the herd.ĭata from GPS-collared elk in the Jackson Herd shows animals that drift down from the Gros Ventre River area are much more likely to remain on the refuge if feeding is occurring, Cole said. But the practice also curtails natural migrations, inflates the herd size beyond the natural carrying capacity of the landscape and is proven to spread diseases, like bacterial hoof rot. Elk feeding has long engendered support because it props up populations and keeps the wild ungulates away from haystacks, highways and neighborhoods. Fish and Wildlife Service to take a long look at modifying the way it manages elk on its property bordering the town of Jackson. Outfitter and wildlife photographer Stephen Leek drummed up national support for feeding the Jackson Elk Herd through images of their suffering and death that appeared in magazines like Outdoor Life and a lecture tour. “The percentage of the Jackson Elk Herd using refuge feedgrounds has increased by nine percentage points compared to the baseline.”Įlk feeding on the 24,700-acre refuge is a historic practice started after a series of harsh early-20th-century western Wyoming winters killed what settlers described as tens of thousands of animals. “In fact, to date, we’ve been going in the wrong direction,” Cole said. But so far, the new policy isn’t weaning the elk herd off feed. The method entails truncating the feed season - ending the distribution of pellets early and, starting this winter, delaying when elk feeding begins. Now, after 110 years, the federal refuge is attempting to cut back on the elk herd’s dependence on human-provided feed.
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