Protect Habitat For Treasured Wildlife
by Lloyd Dorsey, Wyoming Wildlife
Federation-Jackson Field Office
2-1-2001
Folks in Jackson Hole have been wrangling over "the elk situation" for fully a century. In the January 24 [Jackson Hole] Guide, the article "Lower Elk Numbers Spark Concern" once again highlights some of that heartfelt concern.
Various sources expressed worry about wildlife numbers and effects; some thought the elk numbers too high, some too low, some thought predators might be too numerous, and the article made clear that our elected officials were hearing some of those concerns.
It might be beneficial to our community if folks would stand back and look at our wildlife populations in a large context, and not react to too small of a picture. For instance, the latest Game and Fish Department Annual Report 2000 shows elk in Wyoming, most of which are in this western part of the state, are at a population level of 106,688, fully 36% over the population objective of 78,535. 36% over objective! And hunter success in Wyoming for elk hunters has ranged between 33 and 42% among the past 5 years. Higher than anywhere else in North America! Doesn’t appear, in the big picture, that we’re short of elk.
According to wildlife biologists, calf crops for elk are also within the range of variability over the past 25 years or so. Survivability of elk calves waxes and wanes for a variety of reasons. Some influences are predator related, some habitat and weather related, some are disease related. Of course, trends in moose populations are also affected by some of these same variables. Some local moose populations, relatively recent arrivals to Wyoming in fact, may indeed be stabilizing or even slightly trending down.
Are predators to blame? Or, as some studies indicate, are moose coming into reasonable balance with the habitat in western Wyoming after peaking some years ago? How many moose do we kill on our highways, how many are killed unlawfully during the fall hunting season? Many factors contribute to big game survival rates.
Ever wonder why there aren’t many moose today in Yellowstone Park? Beaver either? Note, too, that there aren’t many healthy stands of aspen or willow left on winter ranges in Yellowstone for moose and beaver to use. Studies indicate that herbivory by large populations of elk on aspen and willow communities, coupled with historic lack of a needed wildfire regime, probably plays a part in lower moose numbers and depresses other wildlife species populations like songbirds and beaver as well. The same thing likely happens here in Jackson Hole.
Diseases affect elk populations. Our elk in western Wyoming are probably sicker than any elk herds outside a research facility or game farm in North America. Rather than concentrate on predators being "the bad guys", we perhaps should be alarmed by the potential of chronic wasting disease, pasteurella, necrotic stomatitus, scabies, skin mites, liver flukes, lungworm, lice, brucellosis, and bovine tuberculosis. Our elk are susceptible to these and more. Why? Most likely because we cluster most of them together here in the western part of our state and feed them during the winter, building the herds up to what arguably are unsustainable levels. Nowhere else in North America is this done on such a scale.
Allowing the elk to spread out across the landscape and use their ancestral winter ranges and migration routes like the pronghorn and mule deer would go far to alleviating these problems. Habitat, habitat, habitat. Feedlines are not habitat.
It would be irresponsible for us to demonize wolves, lions, and bears for living in our ecosystem at the same time we aren’t effectively dealing with wildlife diseases and habitat protection on an appropriate geographic scale. The end results probably won’t be to our liking. We might be temporarily overrun with elk now, but Mother Nature will correct our folly, one way or another. We’d do well to watch closely and follow her example.
Our human community prospers every day from the scientific method and implementation of responsible biology when it comes to our personal health and the health of our families. We should encourage the use of the same when it comes to management of our treasured wildlife and habitat resources.
(Lloyd Dorsey is the Jackson Representative for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. He has lived in Jackson Hole for 25 years, and is an avid hunter and backpacker. He can be reached at 733-1707 or ljdorsey@aol.com)
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