Long winter takes heavy toll on feed program

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-This year’s supplemental winter feed program on the National Elk Refuge was among the longest and most costly in the history of the controversial program, refuge officials said Tuesday.

Sunday was the last day wildlife managers distributed alfalfa pellets for the elk and bison herds wintering on the refuge.
With a winter of heavy snows persisting into April, wildlife managers used about 4,100 tons of feed supplement natural forage, which alone cannot sustain the herds that officials have said are too large for the 25,000-acre refuge.

This year’s supplemental feed season lasted 98 days - two days shy of the program’s record and well beyond the 74-day average.
“It’s hard to comprehend how large and expensive this feeding program has become,” refuge manager Steve Kallin said in a statement. Kallin was not available for comment early Tuesday.

Up to 100,000 pounds of the alfalfa pellets were distributed daily, at a cost of about $8,200 dollars a day for the feed alone, said Eric Cole, a wildlife biologist on the refuge.
The supplemental feed is paid for through funding from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the National Wildlife Refuge System. The cost of the program compounds the budgetary woes facing land and wildlife management agencies across the board, Cole said.

This year, wildlife managers counted more than 8,000 elk and 900 bison feeding on the refuge. The 2007 Bison and Elk Management Plan, the federal document outlining management for the refuge, identified target herd sizes for elk and bison as 5,000 and 500, respectively.

A bison hunt last fall harvested more than 260 animals, and officials believe future hunting will successfully cull that herd in a few years.

Similarly, refuge officials are working with wildlife management agencies to put together elk hunting plans more aggressive than what has been seen in the past.
With too many animals vying for food on a land base not sustainable for those populations, officials worry that disease could take a heavy toll on the herds.
Kallin has said it is imperative for the long-term health of the elk herd that the population be reduced and that officials work to enhance natural ground forage on the refuge. Last year, officials began installing an extensive - and some said costly - irrigation program.

When former refuge manager Barry Reiswig left the post last year, he was highly critical of the feed program, which he said set conditions for disaster because of the unnatural way the animals ‘’bunch” together when being artificially feed. Bunching increases the risk of spreading diseases.

Perhaps the most serious threat is Chronic Wasting Disease, which has not reached the elk herd and is still some 100 miles away from it, according to ongoing monitoring efforts by state and federal wildlife officials.

COURTESY PHOTO
Elk must rely on natural foraging as winter feeding has ended.

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Long winter takes heavy toll on feed program | Planet JH News Article: General Environment

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