Interesting item involving feedlots for elk on the Bridger-Teton N.F. Valid arguments of both sides, seems to me. The “feedlots are needed, proponents say, because human activities have reduced the elk’s winter range.” An overpopulation of elk at Mt. St. Helens National Monument also are being fed. There isn’t enough forage to sustain the herd, which has dramatically increased since the 1980 eruption created new habitat for them, but photos of starving elk caused a public outcry. So, the elk get food deliveries in the winter months.
Similar argument can be made for active forest management: Humans have disrupted fire cycles, developed forests, etc., so management is needed to maintain forest health. As opposed to letting nature take its course.
Steve
Wyo. governor wants to help Forest Service fight enviro group’s ‘extreme’ agenda
Scott Streater, E&E reporterThe state of Wyoming is entering a contentious legal battle between the Forest Service and an environmental group that has challenged the continued use of elk feeding grounds on Bridger-Teton National Forest that it says have the potential to cause great harm to elk.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) said the state will attempt to intervene in the federal lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming by the Western Watersheds Project. The group challenged a Forest Service special-use permit to allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to operate five winter feedlots on Bridger-Teton.
The feedlots have been operated in some form for decades. But the group says the Forest Service has never conducted any environmental analysis until recently into the impacts of the feedlots and their contributions to spreading diseases. The main concern is chronic wasting disease, which is related to mad cow disease and is easily spread among elk and deer populations through animal-to-animal contact and exposure to contaminated feed and water.
Bridger-Teton has granted Wyoming Game and Fish a 20-year special-use permit to continue operating the feedlots.
“We’re trying to get the feedlots closed before chronic wasting disease gets in them. After it gets in them, it’s basically too late,” said Jonathan Ratner, director of the Western Watersheds Project’s Wyoming office.
But Mead said in a statement that the feedlots help wildlife officials to screen elk for various diseases, including brucellosis, and to be able to vaccinate the elk if problems are discovered.
What’s more, he said, the “feedgrounds prevent large numbers of elk from dying during the winter” by providing a steady source of food. They also help landowners keep the elk from foraging on private agriculture and ranchlands.
“Western Watersheds promotes policies that are extreme,” Mead said in a statement. “We reject the notion that you cannot balance the environment with industries, especially agriculture. In Wyoming, we continue to set an example for the nation.”
In addition, the feedlots are needed, proponents say, because human activities have reduced the elk’s winter range.
Elk are a popular big-game target of hunters, with some paying thousands of dollars to kill mature bulls.
But locating the feedlots “on public land also leads to serious ecological impacts, including reduced stream bank stability and impacts to water quality, as well as heavy use of vegetation in the area. Additionally, concentrating prey species can skew predator distribution as grizzlies, wolves and scavengers may be drawn to feedlot areas,” according to a statement from Western Watersheds Project.
The group has asked the court to determine that the feedlots on national forestland violate the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act, as well as the Wyoming Wilderness Act. And it wants the court to throw out the Forest Service’s approval of the permit and to “[e]njoin the Forest Service from permitting winter elk feeding on lands in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.”
Ratner said the governor’s statement that the feedlots help prevent large numbers of elk from dying each winter “is completely untrue” and that the feedlots are not necessary.
“There are studies that show more elk winter in winter ranges, not feedlots, and there is more than enough forage for them not to be treated like livestock,” he said.
There are two sides to the arguement. On the Sawtooth NF about 30 or more years ago a large herd of elk got stranded in a valley due to deep snow.. They needed to cross a not too high mountain range to reach the desert. Feeding became an emergency option. The next year the elk liked where they were fed so stayed. Now, none of the elk know there is winter range acorss the mountain so feeding has become a permanent fixture. Without it, all the elk would likely perish. How do you now teach elk to move one? Maybe a light snow year will give them the option to move if they do not have a plate in front of them.
There are two sides to the arguement. On the Sawtooth NF about 30 or more years ago a large herd of elk got stranded in a valley due to deep snow.. They needed to cross a not too high mountain range to reach the desert. Feeding became an emergency option. The next year the elk liked where they were fed so stayed. Now, none of the elk know there is winter range acorss the mountain so feeding has become a permanent fixture. Without it, all the elk would likely perish. How do you now teach elk to move one? Maybe a light snow year will give them the option to move if they do not have a plate in front of them.
A trail of bread crumbs (food pellets)?
Elk, a word to the wise. Beware of bread crumb trails and ginger bread houses (aka feedlots). Don’t forget what happened to Hansel and Gretel.