WDFW's "Final Solution": Euthanize Severely Affected Elk

[bbarnes]

They did a elk and forest experiment in the STARKY UNIT in eastern Oregon with active elk and a high fence.Some on needs to contact ODFW and get some info on it.

[bbarnes]

Richard Cockle/The OregonianBiologist Martin Vavra examines two Rocky Mountain cow elk on the vast Starkey Experimental Forest and Range, which closed Saturday for the winter. Most elk remain wild on the vast research enclosure surrounded by 27 miles of 8-foot fence in northeastern Oregon's Blue Mountains. These were raised by humans almost since birth and are unafraid, but sometimes they can turn aggressive.
LA GRANDE -- Biologists buttoned up the lonesome Starkey Experimental Forest and Range for the winter Saturday, banishing the public from the large fenced wildlife research enclosure until May 1.

Relatively unknown to most Oregonians, the Starkey Project in northeastern Oregon's Blue Mountains encompasses 40 square miles of alpine meadows and pine and fir forests surrounded by an 8-foot fence. It is open to the public from May until November or December.

Field crews plan to spend much of this winter live-trapping and radio-collaring up to 40 Rocky Mountain elk and as many deer inside the fence, one reason the gates have been locked.

"We can't afford to have people driving around when we are trapping," said Martin Vavra, who worries about possible disturbances to captured animals. He is the Starkey Project team leader and supervisory rangeland scientist at the U.S. Forest Service's Forestry and Range Science Laboratory in La Grande.

Field crews expect to feed 450 captive elk and 250 deer inside the fence over the winter. More than 300 tons of hay have been stockpiled against the likelihood of heavy snows. The project ranges from 3,500 to almost 5,000 feet in elevation.

"We have to feed seven days a week. We'll have to feed those elk every single day," said Starkey biologist Brian Dick.

The enclosure, 28 miles southwest of La Grande along Oregon 244, is a joint research effort of the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The fenced area is roughly equivalent in size to half of metropolitan Seattle. It has a $1.1 million annual budget and is staffed by three permanent scientists and a four-person field crew.


Uncertainty now clouds its future, owing to changes in the makeup of Congress, the forthcoming Barack Obama presidency and the sluggish national economy. That's nothing new to project administrators. The project was saved twice over the past decade by public and political pressure after President George W. Bush penciled it out of the federal budget.

The idea for the enclosure came from Jack Ward Thomas, former chief of the U.S. Forest Service and onetime chief research wildlife biologist at the habitat laboratory in La Grande. Thomas launched the Forest Service's shift toward conservation and, after retiring, held down an endowed chair as a Boone and Crockett professor at the University of Montana's School of Forestry in Missoula.

The 8-foot, high-tensile, woven-wire fence was erected in 1989 and was designed to have a springlike effect that gives when an elk or deer runs into it. Instead of suffering a broken neck, elk and deer bounce off unhurt, and bears and cougars easily climb over it and coyotes go under.

At first, plans for the enclosure triggered dark speculation by conspiracy theorists. They feared it would be a concentration camp for political dissidents or a United Nations black helicopter base. Meanwhile, some conservationists objected that it was in the middle of Rocky Mountain elk and mule deer migration corridors.

Opponents mounted signs on trees with Thomas' face in a rifle's scope sight.

That's mostly forgotten now, and the Starkey Project has dramatically influenced management of public lands across the Western United States. Starkey scientists demolished a popular myth that elk require "thermal cover," trees 40 feet tall with up to 70 percent canopy closure, to survive frigid winters. That finding changed the way timber sales are laid out across the West.

They also proved that mature, branch-antlered bull elk produce the strongest calves. That prompted a shift in the mid-1990s by Fish and Wildlife to "spike only" elk hunts.

Research continues. From May to November, scientists monitor 40 elk, 40 deer and 40 domestic cattle with global positioning systems, automated telemetry and computers. In some cases they record heart rates and breathing of captive animals.

Goals at the enclosure originally focused on measuring the impacts of intensive timber management on deer and elk, studying competition for forage among wildlife and cattle, and understanding the effects of motorized traffic on wildlife.

Since then, reductions in commercial logging have shifted the focus from intensive timber management to fuel reduction programs, Vavra said. Some 2,000 acres inside the fence have been cleared to simulate fuel reduction projects that are now widespread across the West to prevent wildfires.

The research has generated surprises. For example, pluralism appears rare in the natural world, and elk, deer and cattle don't like one another. Elk keep away from domestic livestock, and deer avoid elk, Vavra said.

Starkey scientists also discovered that ATVs disrupt wildlife far more than hikers, mountain bikes and horseback riders, he said. That has implications for federal proposals to ban motorized traffic from some public lands, including 4,200 miles of roads that might be placed off-limits to vehicles on northeastern Oregon's Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Starkey scientists someday hope to build on the ATV research by determining whether quieter machines have a softer impact on wildlife, Vavra said. They'd also like to look at the effects of prescribed fires on wildlife. And researchers might someday capture and monitor cougars to explore their interaction with elk, deer and livestock, he said.

The biggest study area inside the fence is 20,000 acres, and it is almost indistinguishable from the surrounding mountain country, say biologists. Inside that area, "there are elk that live and die without us putting our hands on them," Dick said.

[Mudman]

I have a solution!  The cuts are posted danger stay out for 60 days!  Right.  Why?  Because its toxic/bad.  Acknowledged danger from their postings right?  Ok so we all agree its bad right?  Well the way I see it is they should fence or man the sprayed areas to ensure all wildlife remains clear until its deemed safe again.  Simple.

[bbarnes]

Here is just a few things that have been done in the Experimental Forest and Oregon's research biologists:

Proceedings, Western Section, American Society of Animal Science TEMPOROSPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF ELK, MULE DEER, AND CATTLE: RESOURCE PARTITIONING AND COMPETITIVE DISPLACEMENT
http://wwws.isu.edu/departments/bios...al.%202002.pdf


Some Responses of Riparian Soils to Grazing Management in Northeastern Oregon
http://www.rmrs.nau.edu/awa/ripthrea...khouse1985.pdf

Density-dependent effects on physical condition and reproduction in North American elk: an experimental test
http://www.isu.edu/bios/CV_Pub/Bowye...al.%202005.pdf

The Starkey Databases: Spatial-Environmental Relations of North American Elk, Mule Deer and Cattle at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in Northeastern Oregon
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/journa...004_kie001.pdf

Effects of bull age on conception dates and pregnancy rates of cow elk
Noyes, JH | Johnson, BK | Bryant, LD | Findholt, SL | Thomas, JW
Journal of Wildlife Management. Vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 508-517. 1996.
http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewreco...&setcookie=yes


https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu:844...20Kauffman.PDF

Elk distribution and modeling in relation to roads
The Journal of wildlife management ISSN 0022-541X CODEN JWMAA9 Source / Source 2000, vol. 64, no3, pp. 672-684 (1 p.3/4)
We tested performance of 3 aspects of an elk (Cervus elaphus)-road density model that has been used extensively throughout western North America but has not been sufficiently validated. First, we tested the hypothesis that elk selection of habitats increases with increasing distance away from open roads. This forms the empirical basis for the model. Second, we compared the model's predictions of relative elk habitat selection, or habitat effectiveness (HE), with observed values at varying levels of road density. And third, we examined the potentially confounding effects of different spatial patterns of roads on model predictions. We conducted our study during spring and summer, 1993-95, at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range (Starkey), northeast Oregon. Selection ratios were calculated using >100,000 recorded locations of 89 radiocollared female elk, with locations mapped in relation to 0.1-km-wide distance bands away from open roads. Selection ratios increased with increasing distance from open roads, and varied between seasons, but not among years or individual animals. Linear regression models, using distance to open roads as a predictor, accounted for significant variation in selection ratios during spring and summer. Model predictions of HE, as measured by number of elk locations, corresponded only weakly, however, with observed values of HE. The contradictory results of these 2 analyses may be explained in part by our simulation results, which showed that potential reductions in elk HE vary strongly with the spatial pattern of roads, which is not measured by the elk-road density model. Our results suggest that (1) management of roads and related human activities during spring and summer should remain an important consideration for modeling and managing the elk resource; and (2) a spatially explicit road component is needed for elk habitat models.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1441580

Journal of Mammalogy 84(3):1076-1088. 2003
doi: 10.1644/BBa-020
DAILY AND SEASONAL MOVEMENTS AND HABITAT USE BY FEMALE ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK AND MULE DEER

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1644/BBa-020


Niche partitioning among mule deer, elk, and cattle: Do stable isotopes reflect dietary nich?
http://www.isu.edu/departments/bios/...Ecoscience.pdf

Title: Effects of roads on elk: implications for management in forested ecosystems. Author: Rowland, Mary M.; Wisdom, Michael J.; Johnson, Bruce K.; Penninger, Mark A. Date: 2004 Source: In: Transactions of the 69th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference: 491-508
http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/24797


Effects of male age and female nutritional condition on elk reproduction
Spring calf:cow ratios in some Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus) populations of northeast Oregon have declined by almost 80% over the last 40 years. Studies have identified the age of breeding males and the nutritional condition of females as potentially contributing factors. We conducted a study in 2 trials, from 1989 to 1993 and from 1995 to 1999, to assess the effects of male age on conception dates and pregnancy rates of female elk in northeast Oregon. Results of the first trial, reported previously, showed a significant influence of male age on conception dates but not on pregnancy rates. The second trial, reported here, was intended to validate findings of the first. trial and to evaluate the interaction of male age and female nutritional condition. We managed an elk population within a 78-km2 enclosure to allow a single cohort of males to function as herd sires as they matured from 1.5 to 5.5 years of age. From animals killed in December, we estimated pregnancy rates, age, nutritional condition (kidney fat index, [MFI]), and lactation status of females and the conception dates of their fetuses. Mean conception dates occurred 1 week earlier as male age increased and were related to KFI in females. Nutritional condition of female elk was 67% higher in 1995 when breeding was by yearling males than in years when breeding was by 4-year-old or 5-year-old males. Pregnancy rates did not differ among ages of males. We used analysis of covariance with female nutritional condition as the covariate to evaluate the interactive effects of male age and female nutritional condition on conception dates of females bred by males of different ages across 2 trials. Mean conception dates (adjusted for female nutritional condition) pooled by age of males decreased from 4 October with yearling male sires to 21 September with 5-year-old male sires. Mean KFI of pregnant, lactating female elk was 118 during the validation and 148 during the initial trial. Pregnancy rates did not differ by male age between trials. We stress the importance of understanding the interactions between age of males and nutritional condition of females prior to interpreting the results of management strategies designed to retain older males because of the many factors that affect calf elk survival.
Revue / Journal Title

The Journal of wildlife management ISSN 0022-541X CODEN JWMAA9
Source / Source

2002, vol. 66, no4, pp. 1301-1307 [7 page(s) (article)] (23 ref.)

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14389083

Title: Estimates of the values of elk in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington: evidence from existing literature.
Author: Bolon, N.A.
Date: 1994
Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-316. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Servcie, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 38 p
http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/9059

DIET COMPOSISTION, DRY MATTER INTAKE, AND DIET OVERLAP OF MULE DEER, ELK, AND CATTLE
http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/js...%20Overlap.pdf

Modeling animal movements using stochastic differential equationsz
Haiganoush K. Preisler1*,y, Alan A. Ager2, Bruce K. Johnson3 and John G. Kie2
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/st...K_MOVEMENT.pdf

Livestock grazing effects on forage quality of elk winter range
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4003399

An exploratory data analysis (EDA) of the paths of moving animals

-►psu.edu [PDF]
DR Brillinger, HK Preisler, AA Ager, JG Kie - Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 2004 - Elsevier
... work presents an exploratory data analysis of the trajectories of deer and elk moving
about in the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in eastern Oregon.






PREDICTION OF FORAGE QUALITY USING NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY ON ESOPHAGEAL FISTULA SAMPLES FROM CATTLE
ON MOUNTAIN RANGE 1

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/55/4/971.pdf

Long-Term Research at the USDA Forest Service�s Experimental Forests and Ranges
http://urbaneco.org/Archives/uefn/Lugo_2006_Exp_For.pdf

Statistical methods for analysing responses of wildlife to
human disturbance
http://gis.fs.fed.us/psw/publication...ler001_jae.pdf

Date and plant community effects on elk sedge forage quality
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/dspace/bitst...ND23330013.pdf

[PDF] ►Stochastic differential equations: a tool for studying animal movement


HK Preisler, DR Brillinger, AA Ager, JG Kie, � - Proceedings of IUFRO4, 2001 - Citeseer
... was used to monitor the locations of radio-collared female elk and deer foraging
in a 9000 ha fenced region of the Starkey experimental forest in Oregon

Fecal Nitrogen and dietary quality relationships in juvenile elk
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3809547


http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/34/3/539.pdf

Management Strategies for Sustainable Beef Cattle Grazing on Forested Rangelands in the Pacific Northwest
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3899872

Herbivore Optimization by North American Elk: Consequences for Theory and Management

http://www.wildlifejournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.2193%2F0084-0173%282006%29167[1%3AHOBNAE]2.0.CO%3B2

INFLUENCE OF PREVIOUS CATTLE AND ELK GRAZING ON THE SUBSEQUENT QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF DIETS FOR CATTLE, DEER, AND ELK GRAZING LATE-SUMMER MIXED-CONIFER RANGELANDS

[idahohuntr]

I quit share he works for WDFW but not for long ,there broke according to the director so layoffs are coming 

I would greatly appreciate it if you would please refrain from making these false allegations about me.  Thank you.

[KFhunter]

Some good discussion here, I'm catching up on this issue myself as I've never seen an Elk on this side of the state suffering from hoof rot.

Either the spray is more prevalent there, or the rainfall has something to do with it.  I know we have sprayed areas and was thinking about hoof rot as a went through an area sprayed recently.

[luvtohnt]

Can someone point me to a press release or website that has information about what herbicides the timber companies use in SW Washington? All of the chemicals mentioned above are noy applicable for forest use (i.e. they will kill all the trees).

Thanks,
Brandon

[Bob33]

Either the spray is more prevalent there, or the rainfall has something to do with it.

Or it is something else.

[jongosch]

It varies from place to place, luvtohnt, but I have a copy of a few DNR Forest Practices Applications.  They're supposed to all be available on the DNR website.  Just as an example let's take one I have from 2012, applicable to a 3,416 acre unit near the Willapa Headwaters.  This document allows for the spraying of the following aerial chemicals on that unit, a combination of herbicides and adjuvants:

Accord Concentrate/ Rodeo
Accord XRT II
Arsenal AC
Atrazine 4L Drexel
Atrazine 4L Sipcam
Atrazine 4L Mana
Compadre
Forestry Garlon XRT
Garlon 4 Ultra
Grounded
In-Place
Metcel VMF
Polaris AC
Polaris AC Complete
Polaris SP
Point Blank
Riverdale 2,4-D L V-6 Ester
Sulfomet
Sulfomet XP
Sulfomet Extra
Sylgard 309
Syltac
Transline
Velpar DF
Velpar L

The document does not make clear which chemicals were actually used, nor in what quantities, nor on which day they were to be sprayed.  It does specify that each of these 26 chemicals was to be sprayed within 100 feet of surface water.

[Curly]

Kind of interesting going back and reading some of the old news about hoof rot..........especially the comments.

http://tdn.com/lifestyles/hoof-rot-might-mean-fewer-elk-hunting-permits-in-certain/article_cae04410-950d-11e3-ab51-001a4bcf887a.html

[Landowner]

...I've never seen an Elk on this side of the state suffering from hoof rot...  I know we have sprayed areas and was thinking about hoof rot as a went through an area sprayed recently.

May I ask why?

I spray all the time and the thought has never crossed my mind. 

[wolfbait]

transport the lookout pack there and let them take care of it. There wouldnt  be a hoof rot problem for too much longer then.

At a Wolf Meeting: Was talking to a teacher yesterday at the meeting who and brought some students to watch the proceedings.
He was telling us about one of his buddies that works for one of the counties in SW Washington. That he was out plowing the road to clear snow off. And a bunch of WDFW  employees would not let him continue up the road. He said that they had a horse trailer with kennels in the back. He said he had to threaten them with the cops before they would let him to continue to do his job. Sounds like you are right about  transplanting wolves already on Mt. St. Helens.

[pianoman9701]

...I've never seen an Elk on this side of the state suffering from hoof rot...  I know we have sprayed areas and was thinking about hoof rot as a went through an area sprayed recently.

May I ask why?

I spray all the time and the thought has never crossed my mind.

Dayton is a completely different topography from the wetside tree farms where these affected elk are found. For one thing, the bacteria  they're finding which cause the hoof deformities grow in damp climates and soil. You're area doesn't support that. Secondly, the forage for the elk over here is being almost completely eliminated. This is not the case in your area either. You may spray for broad leaf to allow your wheat to grow, but ungulates can still feed nutritiously on that wheat and on grasses in the sparse tree stands and creek/river areas between growing plots. There is no such feed for them on this side when the clear cuts are sprayed.

Even if it's proven that herbicides are not related to the hoof disease (and that hasn't been proven), the nutrition of the elk over here is horrible. The thickly-planted tree stands provide few grasses and broadleaf for them to forage and the cuts are sprayed until they're completely dead. That covers about 99.9% of the land where they live and feed.

[DIYARCHERYJUNKIE]

   what happened to Weyco producing feed for ungulates by clear cutting?  Now they spray them down till no feed grows.  They plant the timber so thick you can't walk through it for the first ten years.  Now they want to charge for public use at the worst time possible for them.  The animals are infected and diseased.  Diseased animals should not be consumed.  Their bad management has devastated the Sw wa elk herds and they need to be held responsible these are our resources they have damaged strictly to maximize profits. 

[pianoman9701]

  what happened to Weyco producing feed for ungulates by clear cutting?  Now they spray them down till no feed grows.  They plant the timber so thick you can't walk through it for the first ten years.  Now they want to charge for public use at the worst time possible for them.  The animals are infected and diseased.  Diseased animals should not be consumed.  Their bad management has devastated the Sw wa elk herds and they need to be held responsible these are our resources they have damaged strictly to maximize profits.

The WDFW, in my opinion, has put up the smoke screen of treponemes and will not take any action for our hunters or wildlife to determine the role that starving and poisoning our elk plays in this disease. I'm heartbroken that it's come to this and that big business has taken the lead role in determining the course of action to be taken.