I sat through the lecture yesterday. It was a well rehearsed speak from somebody who didn't know elk very well. Yakima Valley received the first batch of elk from yellowstone by train back in 1913 or something like that. 180 animals, but only half survived the first year. They then brought a second load, and those got dumped off in Ellensburg. Thats how the two different herds occured. They established Oak Creek over 50 years ago to try to keep the elk from doing so much agriculture damage. The elk migrate to the lowest valleys, which eventually turned mostly into orchards. Orchards or orchardists and elk don't really get along. Now 120 miles or so of fence help keep the elk from getting into the valley. Some still do, but its getting better and better. They have also opened up incentive hunts to those that take special classes, so that if an elk does get through, she or spike I think, can be harvested by hunters. Anyhow, 50 years of training have the elk show up like cattle. there are multiple feeding stations around, and still lots of rangeland on the LT Murray for even more elk. There was close to a 1000 head behind my house out in the LT over CHristmas. These were free range moving elk, and was quite a sight to see. Some of these elk come all the way from Rainier. The guy also claims there are several hybrid Roosevelts in the bunch. He also claims there is a cow there that has come for the last 20 years. It looks much like a feedlot, so has great lack of aesthetics, but I still enjoy seeing all of them. It does wonders for recruiting would be shed hunters.
