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Tractors began doling out pellets Monday to keep elk out of trouble.
By Rebecca Huntington
The National Elk Refuge started feeding elk Monday to respond to complaints of damage to haystacks and commingling with cattle, which creates a risk of spreading disease from wildlife to livestock.
Moreover, refuge manager Barry Reiswig said unprecedented wolf activity on the refuge has contributed to pushing elk off the refuge and onto private lands. At least three elk were shot by hunters legally this week on private land.
But Reiswig said Tuesday that the decision to feed was not based on a lack of forage or deep snow on the refuge. While deep snow blanketed town, the refuge sits in a rain shadow and had only five inches of snow as of last week, he said. Reiswig called claims that elk were starving "nonsense."
"The elk are in good condition," Reiswig said, adding that the refuge daily monitors the body condition of the wildlife.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department requested the refuge begin artificial feeding Jan. 11 after fielding complaints about commingling with livestock and damage to private hay. The conflicts had been building for about 10 days, according to Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.
Brimeyer agreed with Reiswig that natural forage conditions on the refuge "were pretty ideal" until just after the Christmas holiday. However, deeper snow on surrounding private lands might have exacerbated conflicts by encouraging elk to seek an easy meal by getting into ranchers' hay, he said.
By last Wednesday, Game and Fish had reports of elk on horse feedlines in Cache Creek and near cattle feedlines in Kelly, the Gros Ventre River drainage and Spring Gulch.
Cache Creek resident Dan Winder reported more than 40 elk around his hayfield. Winder recently found about 15 elk in a corral eating his hay along with an expensive stallion kicked out of the corral, he said Friday. Several years ago, he had a bull elk gore one of his colts in the neck, he said.
"I don't mind feeding a few elk," he said. "What I'm mainly concerned about is the safety of my animals."
Winder was pushing last week for the refuge to begin artificial feeding because "the second they start feeding [the elk] leave."
Spring Gulch rancher Russ Lucas also had elk frequenting his horse feedlines. In fact, Lucas put out extra hay near the horses to discourage elk from moving onto nearby cattle feedlines.
Preventing elk and cattle from mixing is a state priority following a string of brucellosis outbreaks beginning in November 2003 in cattle herds in northwestern Wyoming. Infected elk from nearby feed grounds were the suspected source of the disease in cattle.
In Teton County, cattle in two herds tested positive for exposure to the disease and both herds were destroyed as a result. Moreover, Wyoming lost its brucellosis-free status, triggering requirements that Wyoming cattle undergo testing before being shipped out of state.
Brucellosis is a disease that infects elk, bison and cattle and can cause animals to abort their first pregnancy. It is considered a human health hazard and the federal government has been trying to eradicate the disease for decades.
Private rancher forced to feed
Lucas gave a rough estimate that his family is spending as much as $100 per day to feed up to 150 elk to keep them away from the cattle. Lucas called Reiswig about a week ago to ask why feeding hadn't begun on the refuge, he said.
Beginning about 10 days ago, elk started leaving the refuge in search of food and many wound up in Spring Gulch, Lucas said.
"They're way past being hungry," Lucas said. "We plan on sending the Elk Refuge a bill for feeding their elk."
Even now that the refuge has begun feeding, the elk will likely have to be chased out of Spring Gulch, according to Brimeyer, who estimated that more than 200 elk are on private lands there.
Although the Lucas' haystacks are fenced, the elk show up each morning when they hear the tractors start up to distribute hay to cattle and horses, Brimeyer said. A tractor engine is a dinner bell on the refuge, too, where the machines are used to distribute alfalfa pellets to elk. The elk won't leave the private hay voluntarily, Brimeyer said.
Game and Fish also allows a limited quota hunt for up to 125 elk through January on the northern end of Spring Gulch to try to discourage elk from remaining on private ranches.
Another Spring Gulch rancher, Brad Mead, turned to a one-time hunt as "a last resort" several years ago to deter elk from mingling with cattle on his ranch after other methods, such as trying to chase off the elk, failed, he said.
"It was somewhat effective for a while," he said.
Mead, who served on the governor's brucellosis task force following the state's loss of free status, called the elk movements between Spring Gulch and the refuge a "complicated interaction."
While feeding on the refuge reduces the number of elk in Spring Gulch, Mead said: "I don't think you could feed on the refuge enough so there wouldn't be any elk in Spring Gulch. Hay is hay to elk, they don't care if it's on the refuge or somewhere else."
Moreover, disease adds another factor managers must take into account. Feeding increases the prevalence of brucellosis among the elk herd with an average of 30 percent showing exposure to the disease on feed grounds versus less than 3 percent among free-ranging elk. While on the governor's task force, Mead voted to explore alternatives to artificial feeding since it maintains higher disease rates among the elk.
The risk of spreading diseases including other maladies besides brucellosis is one reason refuge managers have tried to hold off on feeding.
But delaying feeding means more elk head onto the Lucas' land where the ungulates eat private hay and increase disease risks to livestock.
Such conflicts are one reason a draft proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to feed elk on the refuge only in above average winters is contentious. The service collected public comment on the proposal last fall and is now analyzing those to prepare a final elk and bison management plan.
Wolf packs wrangle elk
Adding yet another wrinkle to an already complex problem, two wolf packs are frequenting the refuge and dispersing elk, according to Reiswig.
The Flat Creek Pack, with three adult wolves and four to five pups, and the Teton Pack, with six adults and four pups, both have home ranges overlapping the refuge. The Flat Creek Pack is a new pack that formed last year. Although multiple packs have visited the refuge before they haven't been on the refuge as frequently as the current packs are, according to managers.
"We've had more wolf activity this fall than we've ever had," Reiswig said.
On Friday morning, wolves moved between 300 and 400 elk to the northeastern corner of the refuge, putting the animals very near the Lucas ranch. Although the refuge is fenced, the elk can exit the refuge underneath the Gros Ventre River Bridge. Moreover, refuge officials have documented tracks showing elk are able to exit through elk jumps entrances designed with a 6-foot drop to allow elk onto the refuge but to discourage them from leaving. Elk were able to vault six feet to the top of the jumps and then leave the refuge, Reiswig said.
Wildlife managers monitored the elk on the northern end of the refuge over the weekend. Brimeyer estimated about 500 elk against the refuge fence Saturday night.
While some elk might have left the refuge over the weekend, most stayed inside the fence until feeding began Monday, the managers said.
Said Brimeyer: "Our fear was that without feeding, that situation would just continue to escalate over time."
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