State poised to close more eastside elk winter range

Doug Huddle

Elk of the Colockum, including management of their winter range, will be the focus of an evening meeting held by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on Jan. 6 in Ellensburg.

Agency officials will discuss the pending late winter/spring closure, for a third year, of the Whiskey Dick and Quilomene wildlife areas to entry by motor vehicles.

Some 44,000 acres of lower elevation habitat along the Columbia Basin that breaks west of the river and north of Interstate 90 will be off-limits to motorized activity from the first of February through the end of April. Significant numbers of the approximately 3,500-head Colockum herd spend their winters in these locales.

These motor vehicle bans coincide with similar closures of wintering grounds on the Oak Creek, Wenas and L.T. Murray wildlife areas that harbor portions of the Yakima elk herd.

State wildlife managers say disturbance from street vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles has a two-fold consequence on these lands that are dedicated to supporting these big game animals and as well as other wildlife.

For the overall health and fitness of the herd, elk must stay in these lower elevation zones through early spring taking advantage of the rough forage they offer, until the annual 'green-up' starts and the elk can begin their migration back up into mountain forests. Pregnant cow elk especially are adversely affected by being forced off winter grounds.

A second dilemma posed by disturbance to elk on these state lands is that they often flee to neighboring private property including agricultural lands where they eat cattle forage and destroy both crops and fences.

Legitimate claims for said damage and resultant monetary losses must, by law, be paid by the department with funds from the sale of hunting licenses together with associated tags and permits.

Since the first winter's motor vehicle ban in 2008, department biologists have been studying the movements of radio-tabbed elk in the closed area to assess the closure's effects. Currently, the whereabouts of 46 transmitter-collared animals are being regularly documented to determine how and where the animals are ranging in the absence of mechanical disturbance.

Advice and feedback on Colockum elk management is provided to district and regional department staff by the Kittitas Big Game Management Roundtable including Kittitas Field and Stream Club, Kittitas County Cattlemen's Association, Wenatchee Sportsmen and the Kittitas Audubon Chapter as well as several WDFW wildlife area citizens advisory committees.

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Source: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/01/01/1796162/outdoors-state-poised-to-close.html

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