Last week, the state filed a motion to intervene in support of the Wyoming Game and Fish in a lawsuit over five elk feeding grounds in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Attorney Andrea Santarsiere with Western Watersheds Project, the plaintiff in the case, says concentrated numbers of elk at feeding grounds cause severe damage to land and water quality.
But feeding grounds have long been used to keep elk and cattle from mingling, thereby stopping the spread of diseases that the two species are capable of exchanging. But Santarsiere says there’s an easier way—fences.
“Environmental conservation groups have offered to help fund the cost of those fences,” Santarsiere says. “And frankly if Wyoming Game and Fish Department didn’t spend the close to two or three million dollars they estimate they spend on feed lots every year, I think that money would go a long way in building fences to keep elk and domestic cattle separate.”
But Wyoming Game and Fish Chief Game Warden Brian Nesvik says fences aren’t a good solution.
“When the snow depths get deep enough, elk need to have somewhere to go at lower elevations in order to find forage. And historically that’s what they did. In fact, some believe that they would migrate south as far as the Red Desert.”
Nesvik says fences, like highways, would block other migratory species like mule deer and pronghorn from moving through.
Nesvik says the department recognizes that feeding grounds aren’t a perfect solution and that they are continuing to look for alternatives.