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Wyoming sticks with elk feedgroundsJACKSON, Wyo. (AP)--As the federal National Elk Refuge looks to reduce the number of elk needing supplemental feed in the winter, Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials don't intend to eliminate state feedgrounds or reduce elk feeding in the nearby Gros Ventre area. The state agency said it will work with a recently signed bison and elk management plan calling for fewer elk on winter feed by increasing hunting on the Grand Teton National Park elk herd segment, which mainly winter on the National Elk Refuge. But Game and Fish will not seek to close or reduce feeding on the three feedgrounds it operates up the Gros Ventre drainage from the refuge. Some conservationists advocate closing the three Gros Ventre feedgrounds because they believe concentrated elk on feed increases the chances of disease transmission. State biologist Doug Brimeyer said the problem with reducing or eliminating Gros Ventre feeding is that the National Elk Refuge would likely have to accept more elk as they move down drainage in search of food, landowners would have to take action to keep elk and cattle separate, and the Gros Ventre elk population would have to be reduced by 1,000 to 1,500 head. Game and Fish biologist John Henningsen said relocating the Gros Ventre feedgrounds was not on the table because the locations have been "fine-tuned" over the years. The department also said it is not looking at expanding feedgrounds to the Buffalo Valley, where elk have been fed in "emergency" situations in recent winters. At a final meeting in Jackson in middle June, Game and Fish officials outlined the last of seven brucellosis management action plans for elk herds in northwest Wyoming. The plans have been designed to minimize the risk of brucellosis transmission from wildlife to cattle and between wildlife. The move came after the state cattle industry lost its brucellosis-free status four years ago. It has since regained it. Brucellosis is a disease that can cause cattle to abort. Game and Fish officials did say a controversial test-and-slaughter operation is not proposed for the Jackson herd. That experimental program, under which feedground cow elk that test positive for brucellosis are killed, has been used for two winters at the Muddy Creek feedground in Sublette County. Brandon Scurlock, brucellosis feedground habitat program supervisor for the Jackson/Pinedale area, said the results of the five-year pilot project need to be evaluated before determining if that project should be expanded. 6/25/07
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