Herd Horrors
Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge on Ten Most Imperiled List
Feeding programs, overpopulation and disease are creating a "wildlife time bomb" at the elk refuge, a new report says.By Amy Linn, 6-22-09
National Elk Refuge
A grim future is predicted for the 25,000-acre National Elk Refuge in Wyoming unless the sprawling home to elk and bison gets an infusion of new policies and resources, according to a new report from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The group ranks the wildlife sanctuary—which has one of the largest concentrations of elk in the world—as one of America’s Ten Most Imperiled Refuges.
The refuge was established in 1912 in the wilderness south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks in an effort to resuscitate elk herds, which had faced mass starvation after bitterly cold winters and human encroachment, PEER notes. The results have not been good.
An artificial feeding program began, causing a population explosion; the overcrowded elk decimated plants that provide natural forage; and the animals are at risk for devastating diseases, creating a “time bomb” in the making, the PEER report says.
Here are some highlights straight from the group’s announcement:
-- Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a relative of mad cow disease, has been discovered within 45 miles of the refuge. Like mad cow, CWD is believed to be caused by prions, highly infectious agents (shed by feces and urine) that can live in soil for decades. “Further spread into the already stressed, dense herds will, in all probability, produce a cataclysmic wildlife disaster.”
-- Overcrowding at the refuge allows elk herds to become “a reservoir of brucellosis.”
-- The refuge has only seven employees, leaving it with “no resources to undertake urgently needed management, research, and education tasks.”
-- Thanks to the feeding program, the wintering population of elk climbed to 7,500; the wintering numbers of bison rose from 13 animals in 1980 to more than 2,500.
To keep the area from becoming a CWD “death zone,” PEER recommends immediate action such as elk and bison herd reductions and the creation of a multi-agency task force to create a workable master plan.
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Really though should we be surprised by any of this considering all the Winter range mansion mow-overs that have squeezed them into what amounts to a giant Mcdonalds parking lot of wildlife food addiction and migration altered unnatural conscentration that generally fosters weakness and laziness(actually sounds like the current status of a lot of American culture)combined with about 17 of the past 20 years being exceptionally mild with littl or no winter kill and no J-Hole tourists wanting to watch wolves get the snow all blood spattered-Yea big mystery there.
Whow it will make one heck of a sub-division! Just what Jackson needs another housing development! You can bet the plans are stuffed in some desk waiting to emerge.
By Mickey Garcia, 6-23-09
Repent! The End is Near! You have sinned mightily!
I'd rather see wildlife treated as though it were wild. Resources should be invested in protecting linkage corridors and buying up grazing allotments on nearby private and public lands instead of irrigating and buying pellets.
Even the ranchers are fighting this idea of shutting the refuge down. Each fall they stage a protest in town, driving thru here with trucks loaded with hay for the refuge and for the elk. They know quite well that, if the refuge is shut down, the elk will have to rely on the grazing that they use for their cattle and they don't want that!! Remember, the ranchers in this valley were the ones who put this program together to help the elk during the winter when THEY pushed them off the traditional winter feed grounds.
Also, contrary to the nonsense being spouted about the refuge, the herds "DO NOT" all hang out together. The area in the refuge is huge and the elk spread themselves out all over the place. They do not hang out in one huge group.
As to the disease problems within the herds, everyone needs to remember that many of the diseases being spread around, even in the wild ungulates, has been brought to our shores from other countries through their livestock.
Remember, the elk have been using the refuge since 1912, it is now locked into their genes and collective memory. Their natural migratory routes have been cut by ranching, and human use and if they do manage to shut this refuge down, it will be a fiasco.
As to the idea of hunting. We have an extended elk hunt around here which even reaches into the Grand Teton National Park. But shooting elk to control their numbers is a lot different than shooting an animal because it's starving to death. Think about that.
Many organizations including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition are working to buy out grazing allotments (recently in the Gros Ventre), secure conservation easements, purchase some keys parcels and enhance the available habitats. This is all good work, but it only mitigates the problem. It doesn't solve it. There are more elk in Jackson than the habitat can support.
As for diseases, if you're entirely focused on wildlife, brucellosis isn't a big deal. It's a pain in the butt for ranchers, but it has little impact on wildlife populations. However, Chronic Wasting Disease has been found within 100 miles of the refuge. CWD is basically mad cow for deer and elk. There is no treatment. Live tests for the disease in elk are still being tested in Rocky Mountain National Park, and post-mortem tests are still not considered 100% accurate. Like all contagious diseases, increased wildlife density contributes to it. People can likely be infected with CWD by eating an infected animal as they can with mad cow. If a person gets CWD, their brain and spinal column will gradually turn to mush, and they will die. If you want to kill the Jackson Hole economy get that in there and see what happens to outfitters and the hunting culture.
Wild animals often die unpleasant deaths. I'd rather see a healthy wildlife population than every individual animal pampered and protected.
Ya like Golf?
Up here in Montana, it appears our elk are just ... elk and don't require such extraordinary human species interventions. Can any scientist shed light on this weak subspecies (Wyoming Wapiti) and why it requires such extraordinary coddling?