F&G allows for elk depredation hunt in Salmon area 

And Idaho hunters wonder where their Elk go… They really need to recognize the facts here….

SALMON — An influx of elk seeking food in all the wrong places in Lemhi County has led wildlife managers to expand hunting opportunities for the ungulates where they are raiding ranchers’ haystacks or foraging in fields where cows seasonally congregate.

Elk seeking food in lower elevation river valleys — where the bulk of people live — instead of mountain slopes has in recent years proved a particular challenge for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Locally, deep snows, subzero temperatures, an uptick in the size of some elk herds and habituation to humans are among factors driving a trend that both landowners and wildlife managers say has become more pronounced this winter.

Fish and Game has sought to lessen conflicts in the Salmon area by depredation hunts, with dozens of tags allocated to sportsmen and dozens to affected landowners to give to hunters of their choice. Yet the plan, which went into effect with the new year, generated rumors that Fish and Game was shooting and killing problem elk.

Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Tom Curet said the Salmon office fielded several calls this week from residents responding to the false report.

While the agency has the authority to remove elk causing property damage or other harm — and then donate the meat to local food banks — Curet said the preferred practice is to open opportunities for sportsmen as well as allow landowners some say in the matter.

“We are not killing elk,” he said of the local Fish and Game office.

The hunts are designed to place enough pressure on elk that they will migrate to their winter range, said Curet.

“The elk must learn agricultural ground is not where they need to make a living; they can make a living up on the hill away from private land,” he said.

The strategies underway in the Salmon area come as wildlife managers in other parts of Idaho are struggling to address marauding elk or herds whose winter range has been destroyed or diminished by everything from wildfires to development.

In a rare move, Fish and Game is now providing food to both elk and deer whose crucial wintering habitat in the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area east of Idaho Falls was consumed last summer by the fast-moving, human-caused blaze known as the Henry’s Creek Fire.

Gregg Losinski, regional conservation educator with Fish and Game, said the attempt to lure elk to the fire-ravaged area is mostly aimed at keeping them off agricultural lands and out of trouble. But the deer that depended on the Tex Creek range to survive the winter will suffer if they don’t take advantage of the feeding program, he added.

“The elk are tough; they’re not going to starve. But it’s a tougher proposition trying to keep the deer alive,” Losinski said.

Contrary to popular belief, ungulates don’t always take to feeding, he said. And whether the animals were fed in time or will stay with the feed is still an open question.

In Lemhi County, rancher Paul Edwards said he has seen more elk congregate on his owned and leased properties for the last several years.

“The elk are crowding us tighter and harder,” he said.

Edwards is among those ranchers and sportsmen who contend wolves are pushing the elk out of the hills and onto private lands, as much for safety as for food.

Wildlife managers say wolves could be a component but no data suggests that. Their efforts have centered on helping landowners elk-proof their properties with fences and panels paid for by sportsmen’s dollars.

Those costs have spiraled to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually even as regional Fish and Game offices such as Salmon’s are seeking permanent positions for seasonal workers assigned to address landowners’ concerns about ornery elk.

Curet said a good relationship between Fish and Game and agricultural operators is vital to their mutual success.

“It’s really important we keep working together on these issues. We want healthy, robust elk populations but we don’t want headaches for landowners,” he said.

Source: F&G allows for elk depredation hunt in Salmon area | Post Register