A long-awaited evaluation of northwest Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds kicks off in 2025 with the Jackson and Pinedale elk herds, two populations of wapiti that have long been lured toward human-doled hay lined out in the winters.
Whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department overhauls the feeding system or merely tweaks it will depend, in part, on whether parties influential to wildlife policy buy into the proposed changes. At least one of those parties — big-game outfitters — is going into the process with an open mind, and will even consider supporting feedground closures under certain conditions.
“We’re going to work really hard to make sure that all the residents of the state of Wyoming know what the herd objectives are right now, and we are going to require the Game and Fish to maintain those,” said Sy Gilliland, past president of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association. “That said, if the herd objectives are maintained and protected, whatever happens with the feedgrounds is kind of a moot point.”
Gilliland said he’s open to multiple scenarios. Continuing with the elk feedgrounds could gain his favor, he said. But so could securing new winter range habitat that would enable feedgrounds to be closed.
“Whatever they come up with,” Gilliland said. “The key is to maintain the same number of elk on the landscape that we have now.”
Wildlife biologists who know the herds best and are most familiar with a grave threat to wild ungulates — chronic wasting disease — predict that ceasing feeding will chart the best course forward for the herds. Heeding the science is not a choice wildlife managers have the authority to make, however. Closing feedgrounds will also require buy-in from the governor and the Wyoming Livestock Board, due to a 2021 law. Additionally, Game and Fish’s new elk feedground management plan is structured in a way that inhibits top-down policy changes.
“This entire plan and any kind of actions that we take will require public support,” said John Lund, regional supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish’s Pinedale Region.
Regional biologists and wardens, Lund said, are still working through what its process will look like for the Pinedale Herd review. They’re not yet sure if they will hold a series of public meetings or just one gathering.
The Pinedale Herd, which numbers roughly 2,000 elk, heads for the Muddy Creek, Scab Creek and Fall Creek feedgrounds to wait out winter in the Wind River Range foothills. Feedgrounds in the Green River Basin are historic, in operation since the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
“We’ll interact heavily with impacted stakeholders, for any decision that we make or any change that we’re going to make,” Lund said. “Say, a landowner or a cattle producer, we will be working closely with them and communicating with them.”
In Game and Fish’s Jackson Region, meanwhile, supervisor Brad Hovinga and his colleagues are starting with the Jackson Herd.
“We felt like it was an appropriate place to start because of the processes with the Fish and Wildlife Service right now,” Hovinga said.
Historically one of Wyoming’s largest elk herds, with a goal of 11,000 animals, the Jackson Herd is drawn to the federally managed National Elk Refuge during the heart of winters. The refuge, which is 112 years old, has spent the last five years trying to wean the herd off of alfalfa pellets via a plan that dates to 2007 but wasn’t implemented until winter 2019-’20. For the most part, the tactics — delaying the onset of feeding in the winter, and ending it earlier in the spring — have not been effective.
“The ultimate goal was to reduce the number of elk wintering on the refuge to 5,000,” Refuge Biologist Eric Cole said. “It was always somewhat optimistic to assume, in a five-year time span, that we were going to achieve that.”
During 2025, the refuge aims to complete an update to its 2007 plan, Cole said. A draft environmental impact statement outlining a proposal could come as soon as January or February, he said.
Concurrently, Game and Fish will be reviewing two state-run feedgrounds up the Gros Ventre River drainage that the Jackson Elk Herd also uses. Patrol Cabin and Fish Creek remained the only state-operated feedgrounds after the closure of the Alkali Feedground on the Bridger-Teton National Forest in 2019.
With only two feedgrounds under state jurisdiction, the Jackson Herd may be “the least complex,” Hovinga said.
“The National Elk Refuge is maybe not in our control,” he said. “The feedgrounds that we need to plan around, there’s less of them with less conflict potential than in some of the other areas of the state.”
Similar to the Pinedale area, Hovinga and the Jackson Region staffers will work closely with ranchers, outfitters and other stakeholders on any changes. Proposals will be outlined in a document called a “feedground management action plan” that will be developed for each herd.
It’s not only parties that have historically championed elk feeding that will be trying to sway the outcome of the coming planning process.
“We’re not asking for a stop tomorrow,” said Jared Baecker, the Wyoming conservation manager for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “We recognize that this is a 100-year process, and it’s going to take some time.”
“We do want the department to work with some urgency, because of the threats of diseases,” he added. “We think those are significant and real threats that need to be addressed as soon as possible.”
The elk were here for thousands of years before the introduction of non-native, invasive cattle. Elk need to receive the highest habitat priority ahead of cattle. Cattle “ranching” is responsible for the degradation of our native ranges, introduction of invasion weeds such as cheat grass, trashing of riparian areas and polluting ground water. It is pass time to remove cattle from our public lands.
How can you prove only the wildlife carried this disease. Is it possible that maybe the cattle that roam in the elk territory could be the ones that carry it to the elk. Also , why do the cattle roam in the summer in elk range but elk cannot feed close to cattle range. It seems one-sided to me
t try to defend the elk as it is wonderful to see them in their natural habitat. I have become a person that is loosing faith and trust from our government some agencies
It will take a serious effort, but elk can be baited with alfalfa, etc, along pretty much any path. Using this method, elk could be lured along a path that would not overly impact ranches and guide elk onto former winter ranges on public lands, such as to the Little Colorado and Red Deserts.
G&F has used this tactic to lure elk from one feedground location to another and shown it to be effective. Once elk learn new migratory pathways, they will repeat it year after year. This would avoid hundreds, if not thousands, of elk dying during the winter.
Of course, ranchers with public land grazing allotments would have to leave some forage on our public lands for the elk to subsist on. Let’s see how much they whine about having to do that.
There is a book titled “The elk of Jackson Hole” authored by Chester Anderson, first published in 1958. If memory serves, it was a Wyoming Game and Fish publication.
It is available on Amazon, or possibly from Game and Fish.
It contains a lot of good information regarding lost migration routes, how feed grounds were established and the problems they presented way back when. A good read for anyone who is interested.
well, we are responsible, whether we are talking feed grounds, migration or management. We, have parked our homes, ranches, cattle right in those wintering grounds!
Why, why would the welfare Outfitters, who’ve been allowed to leverage the State’s wildlife at pennies to the dollar, be a factor here? Why can’t the Game and fish ever make a move without getting the “ok” and sign-off by these commercial users of OUR wildlife?
It is nice to see that someone in some state is managing game. That doesn’t happen in my state which is Washington State. It is really sad!
I have never been to the elk refuge and witnessed the feeding. However, my daughter was there two years ago in the spring. She witnessed elk dying and stumbling around the pellets would get in their feet and be wet and cause hoof rot. Why did they start feeding elk there 112 years ago, was it to help the elk or was it to draw tourist to view them? Common sense tells me Jackson is a poor place to winter for a grazing animal. The snow was 3 to 4 deep on the level. How could elk and calf elk feed? I would think the elk have to migrate further to suitable grazing or you have to keep feeding them.
Research, Rod. A simple google search will tell you why the National Elk Refuge was started.
The health of the herd comes way before any outfitter desire. It’s up to all of the public.
Can you inform readers about the game fence above Pinedale, and how keeping Elk off their natural Winter Range in valley, which became cattle ranches lead to the necessity for the feed grounds in the first place? Many readers might not know that side of the equation.