M
manny15
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-06 AT 11:27AM (MST)[p]I just thought this was interesting, since one of the magor factors of low deer and elk nubers started when the tree huggers put a halt clearcut logging;;;proof positive
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while elk may be magnificent to see and a challenge to hunt, you probably don't want them dropping by your farm or ranch for dinner. When they do, they have a tendency to eat you out of house and home.
Just such a situation has existed in recent years in Benton County where herds of elk have been expanding their range from the Coast Range into the lush Willamette Valley in search of the greener pastures to be found on the many farms and ranches that dot the valley floor. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to keep the elk where they are, and with over $8,000 in funding from the Access and Habitat Program combined with help from a couple of private landowners, they are doing just that.
?People who graze cows in the CoastRange barely make a living at it,? explains Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Mid-Coast district wildlife biologist Doug Cottam. ?Many just earn enough to pay their property taxes. They like the elk and they like to hunt, but they just can't make it with large numbers of
elk on their property.?
Elk herds grazing on private agricultural lands can inflict substantial economic damage by eating the hay crops which were intended to be used as food for a farmer or rancher?s cattle and other domestic animals.
One of the primary reasons that elk are moving from Coast Range forests to the edges of the Willamette Valley is due to the decline in logging and fire suppression in the Coast Range resulting in the loss of big game foraging areas. Traditional clearcutting opened up patch-es of forest, allowing the growth of succulent grasses and shrubs which elk and deer utilized. Now many of those areas are growing up into young stands of Douglas firs, containing less forage for big game animals, and new clearcuts are not being created.?The elk are coming to the edge of where we want them,? explains Cottam.
?We don't want them in the Willamette Valley.? One effective way to control the movement of elk is to provide diversionary crops designed to keep them in particular areas during specific times of the year.
This is the approach ODFW is taking, enlisting the help of landowners who are willing to provide a forage base for local elk herds. Tom and Sue Guss, who own 110 acres near Blodgett in western Benton
County, and Mike Hartwig who owns a 75-acre ranch, also near Blodgett, are landowners who have recently been working with ODFW staff to provide a stable source of forage for local elk herds.
Work on both properties involves plowing and discing pastures then planting them with an elk forage mix of grasses and legumes. Because of the region?s high rainfall, which leaches the soil giving it a low pH more suitable to growing bracken fern than elk food, the pastures must also be limed before planting.
?We finished on the Guss property last September and the place looks absolutely beautiful,? reports Cottam.?It's the greenest thing out there. The elk have found it and are using it.? A total of five acres have been worked on the property. A herd of about three dozen elk are currently using the area along with
numerous black-tailed deer. In addition to the current project in cooperation with ODFW, the Guss? have done a considerable amount of wildlife habitat enhancement of their property on their own.
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while elk may be magnificent to see and a challenge to hunt, you probably don't want them dropping by your farm or ranch for dinner. When they do, they have a tendency to eat you out of house and home.
Just such a situation has existed in recent years in Benton County where herds of elk have been expanding their range from the Coast Range into the lush Willamette Valley in search of the greener pastures to be found on the many farms and ranches that dot the valley floor. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to keep the elk where they are, and with over $8,000 in funding from the Access and Habitat Program combined with help from a couple of private landowners, they are doing just that.
?People who graze cows in the CoastRange barely make a living at it,? explains Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Mid-Coast district wildlife biologist Doug Cottam. ?Many just earn enough to pay their property taxes. They like the elk and they like to hunt, but they just can't make it with large numbers of
elk on their property.?
Elk herds grazing on private agricultural lands can inflict substantial economic damage by eating the hay crops which were intended to be used as food for a farmer or rancher?s cattle and other domestic animals.
One of the primary reasons that elk are moving from Coast Range forests to the edges of the Willamette Valley is due to the decline in logging and fire suppression in the Coast Range resulting in the loss of big game foraging areas. Traditional clearcutting opened up patch-es of forest, allowing the growth of succulent grasses and shrubs which elk and deer utilized. Now many of those areas are growing up into young stands of Douglas firs, containing less forage for big game animals, and new clearcuts are not being created.?The elk are coming to the edge of where we want them,? explains Cottam.
?We don't want them in the Willamette Valley.? One effective way to control the movement of elk is to provide diversionary crops designed to keep them in particular areas during specific times of the year.
This is the approach ODFW is taking, enlisting the help of landowners who are willing to provide a forage base for local elk herds. Tom and Sue Guss, who own 110 acres near Blodgett in western Benton
County, and Mike Hartwig who owns a 75-acre ranch, also near Blodgett, are landowners who have recently been working with ODFW staff to provide a stable source of forage for local elk herds.
Work on both properties involves plowing and discing pastures then planting them with an elk forage mix of grasses and legumes. Because of the region?s high rainfall, which leaches the soil giving it a low pH more suitable to growing bracken fern than elk food, the pastures must also be limed before planting.
?We finished on the Guss property last September and the place looks absolutely beautiful,? reports Cottam.?It's the greenest thing out there. The elk have found it and are using it.? A total of five acres have been worked on the property. A herd of about three dozen elk are currently using the area along with
numerous black-tailed deer. In addition to the current project in cooperation with ODFW, the Guss? have done a considerable amount of wildlife habitat enhancement of their property on their own.
