Elkhunter
New member
Refuge feeding debate ignites
Proponents, opponents disagree over validity of disease risks.
By Rebecca Huntington
Jackson Hole citizens, conservationists, hunters, ranchers and wildlife biologists divided into two stark camps during a public hearing Tuesday over whether to feed elk on the National Elk Refuge.
One camp called for feeding to continue and elk numbers to remain at current levels on the 25,000-acre preserve north of Jackson.
"We've taken their habitat," said Afton hunting outfitter Lynn Madsen, describing Jackson Hole's winter elk habitat as hay bales and alfalfa pellets because the native range is populated by second homes.
"If we're going to have elk, we're going to have to feed them," he said.
But the other camp, which testified Tuesday, urged refuge managers to phase out feeding to reduce the risk of increasing the spread of diseases, particularly chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain-wasting malady in deer and elk.
"If we want Jackson Hole elk to survive CWD, quality habitat is the best hope and, in my opinion, supplemental feeding in the presence of CWD is our worst nightmare," said wildlife biologist and Jackson filmmaker Shane Moore.
CWD detected on elk game farms has reached infection rates of 85 percent due to the artificial concentration of animals, he said. Although elk feed grounds only concentrate elk in winter, sites such as the refuge pack more elk per square mile than game farms, he said.
Tuesday's public hearing is one of three meetings scheduled this week throughout the region to gather public input on a draft management plan for elk and bison, which winter on the refuge and summer in Grand Teton National Park.
The service is accepting public comment through Nov. 7 on a draft environmental impact statement, which analyzes six alternatives for managing elk and bison on the refuge and in the park. Refuge Manager Barry Reiswig and Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott attended Tuesday's hearing at the Virginian Lodge and took notes on the comments.
More than 50 people attended the hearing and roughly 20 spoke. No one supported the refuge's proposed action, which sought to strike a compromise by feeding elk during only above-average winters. Refuge officials estimated elk would be fed roughly five out of 10 years under that scenario compared to feeding nearly every year under current operations.
In addition, the proposal calls for lowering the cap on refuge elk numbers from a maximum of 7,500 to between 4,000 and 5,000 elk. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department goal of the overall Jackson Elk Herd population would remain at 11,000, according to the plan.
Feeding proponents said the refuge could not feed only part-time without starving elk. Moreover, hunters said refuge officials needed to more carefully consider the toll predators are taking on elk before adding another variable.
Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner and Jackson attorney Clark Allan said the state already has had federal mandates "rammed down our throats" to maintain 500 grizzly bears and 13 wolf packs.
"If you're going to have the predators," he said, "you've got to have the prey base."
Cutting elk numbers would reduce food for bears and wolves as well as prey for hunters, he suggested.
"We really ought to be talking about increasing numbers" because of hits the elk are taking from predators and as a hedge against losses from diseases in the future, he said.
Clark said refuge managers should avoid selecting a cure that might be worse than the problem it would solve and called disease concerns raised by others a "boogey man."
In general, hunters, outfitters and ranchers said they would rather risk diseases in the future, which are an unknown, than quit feeding now and suffer significant reductions in elk numbers.
"I'm not convinced that CWD is an elk disease," said B.J. Hill, who outfits hunts in the Pacific Creek drainage near Moran.
But reducing feeding would put the elk herd at risk, he said.
"Between you guys not feeding and the wolf, it will be a wreck," he said. "[The elk herd] is the greatest thing Jackson Hole has got next to the Grand Teton."
But conservationists, outfitters and wildlife biologists said feeding puts elk at risk in the long-term and could ultimately devastate the herd.
"What we're doing here is playing Russian roulette with the current system," said Franz Camenzind, a Jackson wildlife biologist, who spoke as a private citizen.
The disease brucellosis, which is not fatal to elk, is the "canary in the mine shaft," which shows feeding puts elk at risk, he said. Elk on feed grounds average a 30 percent exposure rate for brucellosis compared to less than 3 percent on native range.
Camenzind and others argued that reducing elk numbers and dispersing animals on native winter range would be the best way to protect elk from CWD in the future. CWD has not been detected in northwestern Wyoming but was found in a deer in the Big Horn Basin about 150 miles away.
Moore said three scientific panels assembled by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian government have each advised those governments that supplemental feeding should be prohibited to minimize impacts from CWD. Moreover, CWD experts have said it's a matter of when, not if, CWD will show up on elk feed grounds in northwestern Wyoming, he said.
Teton Valley, Idaho, resident and wildlife biologist Joel Berger said: "The question really is a question of risk."
Marcia Kunstel, a Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance board member and owner of a dude ranch that sits above the refuge, recommended ending feeding to ensure elk survival.
"I would hate to see this elk population devastated by disease," she said.
Proponents, opponents disagree over validity of disease risks.
By Rebecca Huntington
Jackson Hole citizens, conservationists, hunters, ranchers and wildlife biologists divided into two stark camps during a public hearing Tuesday over whether to feed elk on the National Elk Refuge.
One camp called for feeding to continue and elk numbers to remain at current levels on the 25,000-acre preserve north of Jackson.
"We've taken their habitat," said Afton hunting outfitter Lynn Madsen, describing Jackson Hole's winter elk habitat as hay bales and alfalfa pellets because the native range is populated by second homes.
"If we're going to have elk, we're going to have to feed them," he said.
But the other camp, which testified Tuesday, urged refuge managers to phase out feeding to reduce the risk of increasing the spread of diseases, particularly chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain-wasting malady in deer and elk.
"If we want Jackson Hole elk to survive CWD, quality habitat is the best hope and, in my opinion, supplemental feeding in the presence of CWD is our worst nightmare," said wildlife biologist and Jackson filmmaker Shane Moore.
CWD detected on elk game farms has reached infection rates of 85 percent due to the artificial concentration of animals, he said. Although elk feed grounds only concentrate elk in winter, sites such as the refuge pack more elk per square mile than game farms, he said.
Tuesday's public hearing is one of three meetings scheduled this week throughout the region to gather public input on a draft management plan for elk and bison, which winter on the refuge and summer in Grand Teton National Park.
The service is accepting public comment through Nov. 7 on a draft environmental impact statement, which analyzes six alternatives for managing elk and bison on the refuge and in the park. Refuge Manager Barry Reiswig and Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott attended Tuesday's hearing at the Virginian Lodge and took notes on the comments.
More than 50 people attended the hearing and roughly 20 spoke. No one supported the refuge's proposed action, which sought to strike a compromise by feeding elk during only above-average winters. Refuge officials estimated elk would be fed roughly five out of 10 years under that scenario compared to feeding nearly every year under current operations.
In addition, the proposal calls for lowering the cap on refuge elk numbers from a maximum of 7,500 to between 4,000 and 5,000 elk. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department goal of the overall Jackson Elk Herd population would remain at 11,000, according to the plan.
Feeding proponents said the refuge could not feed only part-time without starving elk. Moreover, hunters said refuge officials needed to more carefully consider the toll predators are taking on elk before adding another variable.
Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner and Jackson attorney Clark Allan said the state already has had federal mandates "rammed down our throats" to maintain 500 grizzly bears and 13 wolf packs.
"If you're going to have the predators," he said, "you've got to have the prey base."
Cutting elk numbers would reduce food for bears and wolves as well as prey for hunters, he suggested.
"We really ought to be talking about increasing numbers" because of hits the elk are taking from predators and as a hedge against losses from diseases in the future, he said.
Clark said refuge managers should avoid selecting a cure that might be worse than the problem it would solve and called disease concerns raised by others a "boogey man."
In general, hunters, outfitters and ranchers said they would rather risk diseases in the future, which are an unknown, than quit feeding now and suffer significant reductions in elk numbers.
"I'm not convinced that CWD is an elk disease," said B.J. Hill, who outfits hunts in the Pacific Creek drainage near Moran.
But reducing feeding would put the elk herd at risk, he said.
"Between you guys not feeding and the wolf, it will be a wreck," he said. "[The elk herd] is the greatest thing Jackson Hole has got next to the Grand Teton."
But conservationists, outfitters and wildlife biologists said feeding puts elk at risk in the long-term and could ultimately devastate the herd.
"What we're doing here is playing Russian roulette with the current system," said Franz Camenzind, a Jackson wildlife biologist, who spoke as a private citizen.
The disease brucellosis, which is not fatal to elk, is the "canary in the mine shaft," which shows feeding puts elk at risk, he said. Elk on feed grounds average a 30 percent exposure rate for brucellosis compared to less than 3 percent on native range.
Camenzind and others argued that reducing elk numbers and dispersing animals on native winter range would be the best way to protect elk from CWD in the future. CWD has not been detected in northwestern Wyoming but was found in a deer in the Big Horn Basin about 150 miles away.
Moore said three scientific panels assembled by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian government have each advised those governments that supplemental feeding should be prohibited to minimize impacts from CWD. Moreover, CWD experts have said it's a matter of when, not if, CWD will show up on elk feed grounds in northwestern Wyoming, he said.
Teton Valley, Idaho, resident and wildlife biologist Joel Berger said: "The question really is a question of risk."
Marcia Kunstel, a Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance board member and owner of a dude ranch that sits above the refuge, recommended ending feeding to ensure elk survival.
"I would hate to see this elk population devastated by disease," she said.
