Fewer elk. Sicker elk. That’s what the experts expect if Wyoming keeps on feeding.
by
WyoFileDecember 15, 2023
Elk are fed in close quarters on the National Elk Refuge. Photo: Angus M. Thuermer Jr. // WyoFile)
The projections of eight biologists — including three employed by Game and Fish — paint a dire picture of shrinking, CWD-riddled elk herds on the eve of the state’s first-ever elk feedground management plan.
By Mike Koshmrl,
WyoFile
If Wyoming keeps throwing hay to help elk survive the winter, the state is creating a future where wapiti will be ravaged by chronic wasting disease and dramatically reduced in number.
Hunter opportunities, likewise, will fall off significantly.
At least that’s what the experts expect.
Eight experts, to be exact, including three employees of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Here are their projections for what’s coming to northwest Wyoming elk herds in two decades if state officials entrusted to manage the herds continue feeding while always-lethal CWD propagates:
Prevalence of CWD in the feedground herds of western Wyoming will reach 42%. The sickness, a cousin of mad cow disease, poses a
grave threat to ungulate populations in the West and beyond, and it’s likely to be inflamed by high concentrations of animals on historic feedgrounds meant to keep elk numbers propped up and off private land.
At a typical state feedground, elk mingle more closely than when they’re foraging on natural winter range. (Mark Gocke/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)
Because the prion disease typically kills its ungulate hosts in fewer than three years, those fed herds would shrink significantly. Keep feeding elk with CWD on the landscape and northwest Wyoming’s Afton, Fall Creek, Piney, Pinedale and Upper Green River elk herds would be lopped nearly in half, declining from roughly 16,000 elk today to 8,300 animals in 20 years.
The eight experts projected that outcomes for the elk herds two decades out are the best if the feedground program is terminated abruptly. Even a three-year phaseout comes with trade-offs compared to cutting feeding cold turkey, causing long-term increases in CWD prevalence and a smaller population.
The scenarios contemplating what happens if elk feeding continues with CWD endemic were assembled by the U.S. Geological Survey, which
prepared a detailed report to help the Bridger-Teton National Forest decide what to do with
two up-for-review elk feedgrounds.
USGS-feedingCWD-reportDownload
So far, CWD, which causes sponge-like lesions in the brain, is just starting to make inroads into the feedground region. A single elk, a cow shot by a hunter in Grand Teton National Park three years ago,
tested positive in the feedground region, though mule deer with the deadly malady are
being found with
greater frequency west of
the Continental Divide.
USGS disease ecologist Paul Cross told WyoFile that it’s impossible to know what CWD transmission will look like over time with certainty within the feedground-dependent elk herds.
“There’s no analogous case that we can look at,” Cross said. “In the absence of that, I think our best option was to convene a scientific panel.”
The experts
The eight experts are listed in an appendix to Crosses’ report, “Evaluating management alternatives for Wyoming elk feedgrounds in consideration of chronic wasting disease.”
They are: Emily Almberg, with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Justin Binfet, with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; Hank Edwards, with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (now retired); Nathan Galloway, with the National Park Service;
Glen Sargeant, with the U.S. Geological Survey; Brant Schumaker, with the University of Wyoming; Daniel Walsh, with the U.S. Geological Survey; and Ben Wise, with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
NDA readers, one of the experts is from ND. Glen Sargent works for the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center USGS in Jamestown.
