In Wyoming, elk feedgrounds have been utilized to feed elk in winter and reduce impacts to private property since 1909. Research has shown that feedgrounds might actually be detrimental to elk by proliferating the deadly disease CWD. Photo by Mark Gocke
by Julia Barton
Each winter, elk herds in northwestern Wyoming are gathered onto
feedgrounds where state and federal agencies provide the ungulates with forage
to eat throughout the colder months. The practice began in 1909 following a
particularly harsh winter and has been used in Wyoming ever since to maintain a
high elk population and keep them off private property.
It’s clear now: what was initially intended to bolster elk
populations may actually be to their detriment. Diseases spread more easily
between animals in feedgrounds given their close quarters. With chronic wasting
disease inching its way into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, feedgrounds may
allow for the always-fatal CWD to decimate elk numbers.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department recognizes these
concerns, and was directed in 2018 by the state’s Game and Fish Commission to
develop a CWD management plan. Given the wide scope of CWD, the department in
2020 launched a separate feedground management plan. The 96-page document was released in February, but to
the dismay of conservationists, the department doesn’t plan to close any of its
21 feedgrounds.
“I remember the very first meeting. [Department director]
Brian Nesvik said that no option was off the table,” Kristin Combs, executive
director for Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, told Mountain Journal. “And literally in the next sentence, he was like,
‘This is not a feedground closure plan.’ So basically options were off the
table from the get go, and that hobbled any progress that could have been
made.”
Wyoming Wildlife Advocates in collaboration with the Sierra
Club last fall released a report analyzing
feedground alternatives, noting that Wyoming is the only state to routinely feed
elk. Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado have seen increased elk populations over
the past 25 years, according to the report, limiting co-mingling between elk
and livestock, and mitigating disease transmission without the use of feedgrounds.
The map above shows the 21 elk feedgrounds that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department currently operates in western Wyoming. The Alkali feedground is slated for decommission this year. Map courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department
These states have elk conflict plans, something Wyoming
lacks, Combs explained. State funding is used to mitigate conflict between elk
and livestock, and compensate ranchers that lose forage to elk during the
winter. It isn’t cheap, but neither is maintaining feedgrounds. Wyoming spent more
than $3 million to run its 21 department-operated feedgrounds in 2022,
according to the plan.
“Other states years ago just decided that it's not healthy
to feed elk, so they got rid of this system,” Combs said. “But they helped
livestock producers transition into preventing conflicts by giving them some
resources … and Wyoming just didn't do that.”
Elk are more likely to cause damage to private property and
attract wolves near livestock without feedgrounds, the plan states. As such, a
large contingency of ranchers prefers feedgrounds to dealing with conflict on
their property, and the plan promises to protect these livestock producers.
It also outlines four “sideboards” that must be followed,
including adhering to the department’s process for reviewing and changing elk
population objectives; prioritizing hunting for population management;
minimizing private property damage, disease transmission to livestock and
negative impacts to livestock producers; and minimizing competition between
other wintering wildlife.
Combs believes the sideboards demonstrate where the plan
goes wrong, showing priority for the livestock industry over the health of the
elk.
The plan also mentions the role wolves play in complicating
elk management. The carnivores naturally prey on elk, particularly weak ones,
which actually helps keep populations healthy by culling sick animals, which limits
disease spread, according to Combs said. Indeed, experts believe predators in
Yellowstone National Park have helped elk herds stay healthy. But the plan
authorizes the killing of wolves that drive elk from feedgrounds.
“We’re going against the thing that nature wants to do,”
Combs said. “Elk and wolves have evolved together to be able to make each other
stronger … and disease has been allowed to propagate because of the lack of
predators and these management decisions that have been made to artificially
concentrate elk into high densities.”
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About Julia Barton
Julia Barton is a freelance journalist and communications specialist based out of Bozeman. A Montana native, she earned a journalism degree from the University of Southern California and reports on the environment, outdoor recreation and the arts.
