T
trapper_john
Guest
This is an article wrote by Jacky Hancey that was in the Herald Journal September 23, 2008. The division plans to remove this herd from where they winter. We can't let this die the elk in this area need our help.
There have always been elk on the Millville face. Years ago, before the fence was built, they would go clear down west to Highway 165. So there had to be depredation money paid out some years. Then in 1948-49 the big game fence was built. It went from Logan to Blacksmith Fork canyons. It has done a good job, except during the winters that have a lot of snow. Those years, what little feed isn't dried up and gone is covered heavily with the snow. Then, those animals stand behind that fence and starve to death. They can't get back up in the mountains to the little draws and areas where there might be something for them to eat.
We?ve fed them some years in Millville Canyon and straight east of 3rd South a few years. The winters of 1983-84 were the worst. Four hundred to 500 elk came out there. A lot of them were sick, and we ended up burying 297 of them that winter. Another dozen we hauled home with us, where we had 3 to 5 vets working on them. They only learned that they had something like shipping fever in cattle. The decision of Wildlife Resources people was to have some pellets made with antibiotics in them. We were able to get the rest of the herd healthy and we have fed them ever since.
That was the year that we organized the Cache Valley Wildlife Federation. We had 300 members. We built that hay barn (to fit 100 tons of hay) that year. The work and materials were all donated. A lot of help came from Cache Valley Builders, and Randy Watts did a lot of work. After a couple of years the decision was made by Wildlife Resources not to help out with the feeding program, but that we could still harvest hay off of ground they owned, which we did with all of the time, labor and fuel donated.
Then a couple of years ago, they decided to cut us off from the hay ground as well, deciding it should be deer habitat. The property is in Richmond, and the Bud Phelps? property, west of Logan, they said had too many weeds. True enough, the deer herd is suffering. But, that dry, steep, rocky mountain west of where we feed elk is not good deer habitat. The sage down on the flat is good for deer and I always feed 30 to 40 deer along with the elk. There?s is a good bunch of healthy sagebrush out there that the elk have not damaged at all. We do not feed on the sage brush area. We keep the gates shut the best we can. We do all of the work, and the sportsman group here has offered money for hay this year. My family uses our own trucks and hay equipment to harvest the hay. Still, they tell us they are going to get rid of that elk herd and we are not going to be allowed to feed them any more.
I know the UDWR thinks what they are doing is right but it has been tried before and didn't work then; it won't work now ? the elk will be back and they will either starve, cause a lot of damage or get slaughtered by the UDWR. It just doesn't seem right to feed them at Hardware and not Millville. We only have a few days left to get hay in the barn if we're to save this herd; I challenge the UDWR and those who hunt elk to do what is right. If the sportsmen of this valley want to save the Millville elk herd they'd better tell Gov. Jon Huntsman, Mike Slyter, the director of the UDWR, and Jim Karpowich, the head of the UDWR, that what is happening is wrong, and they better speak up now before its too late.
????????????????
Jacky Hancey is a lifelong Cache Valley resident with ranch property in the Millville area.
There have always been elk on the Millville face. Years ago, before the fence was built, they would go clear down west to Highway 165. So there had to be depredation money paid out some years. Then in 1948-49 the big game fence was built. It went from Logan to Blacksmith Fork canyons. It has done a good job, except during the winters that have a lot of snow. Those years, what little feed isn't dried up and gone is covered heavily with the snow. Then, those animals stand behind that fence and starve to death. They can't get back up in the mountains to the little draws and areas where there might be something for them to eat.
We?ve fed them some years in Millville Canyon and straight east of 3rd South a few years. The winters of 1983-84 were the worst. Four hundred to 500 elk came out there. A lot of them were sick, and we ended up burying 297 of them that winter. Another dozen we hauled home with us, where we had 3 to 5 vets working on them. They only learned that they had something like shipping fever in cattle. The decision of Wildlife Resources people was to have some pellets made with antibiotics in them. We were able to get the rest of the herd healthy and we have fed them ever since.
That was the year that we organized the Cache Valley Wildlife Federation. We had 300 members. We built that hay barn (to fit 100 tons of hay) that year. The work and materials were all donated. A lot of help came from Cache Valley Builders, and Randy Watts did a lot of work. After a couple of years the decision was made by Wildlife Resources not to help out with the feeding program, but that we could still harvest hay off of ground they owned, which we did with all of the time, labor and fuel donated.
Then a couple of years ago, they decided to cut us off from the hay ground as well, deciding it should be deer habitat. The property is in Richmond, and the Bud Phelps? property, west of Logan, they said had too many weeds. True enough, the deer herd is suffering. But, that dry, steep, rocky mountain west of where we feed elk is not good deer habitat. The sage down on the flat is good for deer and I always feed 30 to 40 deer along with the elk. There?s is a good bunch of healthy sagebrush out there that the elk have not damaged at all. We do not feed on the sage brush area. We keep the gates shut the best we can. We do all of the work, and the sportsman group here has offered money for hay this year. My family uses our own trucks and hay equipment to harvest the hay. Still, they tell us they are going to get rid of that elk herd and we are not going to be allowed to feed them any more.
I know the UDWR thinks what they are doing is right but it has been tried before and didn't work then; it won't work now ? the elk will be back and they will either starve, cause a lot of damage or get slaughtered by the UDWR. It just doesn't seem right to feed them at Hardware and not Millville. We only have a few days left to get hay in the barn if we're to save this herd; I challenge the UDWR and those who hunt elk to do what is right. If the sportsmen of this valley want to save the Millville elk herd they'd better tell Gov. Jon Huntsman, Mike Slyter, the director of the UDWR, and Jim Karpowich, the head of the UDWR, that what is happening is wrong, and they better speak up now before its too late.
????????????????
Jacky Hancey is a lifelong Cache Valley resident with ranch property in the Millville area.
