Mt. St Helens Starving elk

Thanks for sharing.
Goes to show that population control is definitely necessary. Trying to sustain a herd that keeps growing is a tough proposition. Especially if the natural recources are limited. Sad to see, especially since it happened before.

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"
 
Wow, that really sucks. its ashame that it could of been prevented. hopefully they will learn from it.
 
There is a big link over at another website named blacktailcountry.com that covers this, what a shame it is.
 
Very disturbing to watch...sad to see such great animals in such agony!!
 
LAST EDITED ON Apr-12-06 AT 08:32AM (MST)[p]I've seen a clip they did on KATU (local news channel) and showed all the elk dying or dead. I don't understand why they aren't bringing some supplemental food (alfalfa, grain, etc.) to the herd until they find a solution to the problem. Do they want the numbers down? On that clip they showed some nice bulls and calfs at the end of their ropes, pretty disgusting.
 
They aren't bringing in supplemental feed, probably because they don't want more animals on the habitat than it can provide for. That is "good science management."

Having said that, I know we all would probably love to have way more elk in the woods than there is now. But,unless Bill Gates jumps in here we don't have enough money to supplement mother nature on a large scale.

However, there are other opportunities that may have, or at least should have been looked at. Transplanting elk from an area overpopulated to one that is trying to recover is one idea.

On the other hand, maybe it's good city people see how nasty 'ol
mother nature can be.
 
They sure have enough money to supplement the elk over here in yakima so i think they could do a little supplementing over there.
 
kirkl,
No doubt. I live one mile from a feeding station and they are STILL making the daily trip. Maybe the feed here in Kittitas Valley is close so costs are down. I know that local sportsmans group help supplment the costs. There is a lot that they could do. It is all about the money.
 
Missinmt, ya theres lots of hay farmers over here so maybe that helps, plus there trying to keep them out of orchards, if there was no orchards i wonder if they would do the same to the elk over here, let them fend for themselves. Do you live by the thorp feeding station.
 
A WDFW buddy of mine explained to me that the reason that they wont open up the Loo-Wit for hunting, is because of an agreement with the tribes. If they allow hunting for the general public, beit by limited draw or whatever, it automatically entitles the tribes to go in and hunt. In his own words, "if the tribes were to go into the Loo-Wit and hunt elk, the herd would be decimated within 2 years". "They are in such a confined area and have grown so accustomed to their boundaries and lack of human pressure, that it would be comparable to hunting in a high fenced ranch".
I hope that they do not open it up to hunting! Allocate funds to relocate a bunch of the elk to other areas (not tribal lands!) and set up a limited feeding schedule when needed to keep the remaining animals healthy.
My buddies and I have been all over that area. It has got to have one of, if not the largest bull to cow ratio of any other herd in the state. I say, use this unit as a breeding stockpile for replenishing other units.
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Eric
 
There's a guy on the blacktail.com website mentioned above saying it's a form of botulism thats killing them...sounds like he might be one of the guys featured on the newscast. ???
thats probably not good at all.
 
LAST EDITED ON Apr-13-06 AT 06:49PM (MST)[p]Could be right. I know botulism can be a huge problem for areas with overcrowded duck populations. When too many waterfowl congregate in the same place, botulism can wipe out thousands of birds. I would imagine other wildlife could be susceptible to the same problems.
 
This issue was brought up at the at the April 8th commission meeting. I beleive that extra elk permits were allocated for the adjacent units to help control the surrounding/migrating populations. It was also mentioned that this herd has a number of external issues, an important one being public viewing.

Hopefully some good will come from the bad.
 
fairchaser is right they did bring it up at the commission meeting and they did add permits in surrounding units.A few years ago they relocated some out of there and may do it again
 

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