Where Xutos uncovers public records of death

Wild and stock elk face winter threats behind fences

By Nathaniel Hoffman, 2-27-07

	Idaho Department of Fish and Game aerial photo, taken this winter, showing animals inside the fenceline at Blackfoot Mountain Ranch.

Wildlife trapped on elk ranch to be shot

First published in Wild Idaho News

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) is making plans to kill about 20 deer, at least four moose and a dozen wild elk that are wintering inside the fenceline of a large elk ranch near Blackfoot.

The animals have been in the same fenced area as domestic elk and cannot be released into the wild, said Mark Gamblin, IDFG’s regional supervisor in Pocatello.

“The situation is the Department of Fish and Game cannot allow those animals to return to free roaming status because there is a risk, however small, that they could carry a communicable wildlife disease back to the free ranging herds,” Gamblin said.

The wildlife is penned in on the Blackfoot Mountain Ranch, owned by former Denver Bronco linebacker Rulon Jones.

Jones testified recently before the Idaho State Senate’s Agricultural Affairs Committee where he told law makers fenced hunting is becoming the norm in many parts of the world.

“We provide a hunting experience that I am very proud of,” Jones told the committee, which was considering a batch of bills to further regulate game farms across the state.

Jones would not answer any questions from a WIN reporter following the hearing, including questions about the public wildlife trapped on his property.

IDFG has been aware that wild deer were behind Jones’s fence since he opened the ranch last fall and, according to IDFG emails obtained by WIN, warned him that any wildlife caught behind the fence when domestic cervids were released would have to be killed.

In early January, a snowmobiler contacted IDFG about the deer, saying they appeared to be starving. IDFG conservation officers have observed the animals on several occasions from the air and ground and are concerned the deer may not make it through the winter.

“It’s possible that they could starve,” Gamblin said.

Jones has had problems with wild game behind his fences before, as do many of the large elk ranches that have opened up in Idaho in the last several years. It is IDFG policy to kill all wildlife that comes into contact with domestic elk.

In 2005, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) ordered two moose, one elk and 23 deer killed after the animals crossed a snow bridge into Jones’s Broadmouth Canyon Ranch in Ogden Valley, Utah. DWR requested that Jones pay a fee for each animal killed.

Gamblin said it is illegal in Idaho to own or hold the public’s wildlife, but that given the unique nature of large shooter bull ranches, it is not clear if charges against Jones would be upheld in court. He said Jones is cooperating with IDFG and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) to help destroy the animals as early as this week.

As previously reported in WIN, Jones began operating his Idaho ranch last year before obtaining a conditional use permit, as required by Bingham County. At his August Bingham County Planning and Zoning hearing, Jones acknowledged problems on his Utah ranch with the ingress of wild game and IDFG officials told the county that wildlife was likely already trapped inside the fence outside of Blackfoot.

As a result, the county required Jones to double fence the entire pen.

At the recent hearing in Boise, Jones’s wife, Kathy Jones, said they have not put in the second fence. She said the county did not provide specific guidelines on the double fencing and that it would be economically “extremely difficult” to construct.

“We are struggling with that because that is not state of Idaho guidelines,” Kathy Jones told the Senate agriculture committee. “We are law abiding people.”

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