Elk Feedground Management: WGFD releases first of three elk feedground action plans
Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) Pinedale-based biologists introduced the first of three planned feedground management action plans (FMAP) for western Wyoming’s state-run winter elk feedgrounds.
The goals are to protect private landowners and property from damages, manage or mitigate wild elk populations through hunting and reduce wildlife disease transmission of brucellosis and chronic wasting disease (CWD) between elk and livestock.
On Feb. 26, Pinedale Region Supervisor John Lund presented the Pinedale Elk Herd Feedground Management Action Plan FMAP at a public workshop attended by outfitters, hunters, wildlife watchers and advocates.
“The FMAP is our internal guidance,” he said. “They are directions we’ve given ourselves – a list of priorities for each individual feedground.”
The Pinedale Herd Unit includes the Fall Creek, Muddy Creek and Scab Creek feedgrounds, located on the rugged western slope of the Wind River Range. Each is near livestock operations, with rough landscapes or insufficient native range for expansion.
One FMAP strategy the audience questioned is to explore options and landowner interest and assist with development of elk occupancy agreements be-tween interested landowners and funding entities.
But how would a voluntary agreement work and what is the time frame?
“It’s all up in the air until we start having conversations about it,” Lund replied. “There is a lot of interest in talking about it.”
Pinedale herd
The Pinedale herd’s overall count, which was done recently at feedgrounds and via aerial observations, is at its population target of just under 1,900 animals, according to Pinedale Region Wildlife Supervisor Brandon Scurlock.
He explained, because this winter has been extremely mild, elk behavior is shifting somewhat.
The Fall Creek Feed-ground, created to reduce damage to private lands, usually counts about 700 elk. This year they ranged nearby but off of the feedground itself, Scurlock said.
The Scab Creek Feed-ground typically starts feeding earlier to keep elk in the vicinity and to minimize elk and livestock commingling. At 767 elk, this herd is up from last year’s 720 animals.
Muddy Creek Feed-ground is small and also close to several livestock operations, with 342 elk counted last month compared to 448 the year before, according to Scurlock.
Most of the elk staying on their native range are adult bulls and young spike bulls, he explained, and feeding hay ended at Scab Creek and Muddy Creek in mid-February.
“This seasonal weather is affecting elk movement off of the feedgrounds,” he said.
Other priorities for the Pinedale FMAP include finding grants for tractors and storage as needed, encouraging more hunters and taxidermists to collect CWD samples and seeking CWD research partners and funding. The wish list includes an incinerator in Sublette County for carcass disposal.
CWD review
Lund reviewed the agency’s history of its CWD Management Plan leading to the new FMAP for the Pinedale Elk Herd Unit.
CWD, which is fatal for wild ungulates and difficult to test for, spread from the southeastern part of Wyoming west into mule deer and elk herds in western Wyoming, with concerns congregated elk at feedgrounds would transmit diseases.
It is caused by a mutated prion animals shed, which can remain active in soil for an unknown amount of time, according to Biologist Jared Rogerson.
He cited a wild sheep scrapie fatal epidemic which reappeared with virulence when sheep were returned to the same cleared landscape 16 years later, due to persisting prions.
Pinedale wildlife biologists have not developed a trigger for any specific CWD prevalence on feedgrounds, according to Lund, and no ongoing or upcoming CWD research projects are planned at this time.
CWD wasn’t confirmed in the Pinedale herd until 2017, in elk which might have frequented a feedground, Scurlock said.
“Over the last five years, for the Pinedale Herd Unit as a whole, the current prevalence is 0.3 percent,” Rogerson stated.
There is no known cure or quick live test for afflicted wildlife. CWD is now only confirmed with a carcass necropsy.
While studying CWD, Lund said it grew clear the physical aspects of winter elk feedgrounds needed more attention.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approved the Winter Elk FMAP in March 2024. It set overall feedground management standards of reducing commingling with livestock, scattering hay in a wider area and adjusting later starts and early endings to supplemental feeding.
Reducing winter kill and competition with other wildlife for winter range are also priorities.
While the elk feed-grounds only operate in winter, each has unique characteristics due to geography, land ownership, neighboring ranches and stored forage.
Next steps
This FMAP took about a year to prepare after gathering public input and observations from biologists and the public, according to Lund.
“Every feedground is
different,” Lund said. “They all have different issues, but these three were most similar.”
The Pinedale team is debating which FMAP will come next – the Upper Green Herd north of Highway 189/191 in Sublette County or the Piney Herd Unit, south of the highway.
Joy Ufford is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
