Idaho Mountain Express: No elk feeding in Elkhorn this winter

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Friday, October 9, 2009

No elk feeding in Elkhorn this winter

SV Elkhorn Association denies proposal

By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

There will be no elk feeding program in Sun Valley this year after the Sun Valley Elkhorn Association chose not to allow the Wood River Elk Trust to set up a feeding program on property it owns on a ridge between Fireweed and Paintbrush roads in Elkhorn.

At an association meeting on Sept. 25, the elk trust proposed an alternative to feeding elk at The Community School's barn on Sagewillow Road. A longtime feeding operation was terminated in 2007 after a conflict with neighboring homeowners who argued that the feeding was bringing elk into residential neighborhoods. Sagewillow Road resident Chris Leady said elk caused about $240,000 in damage to landscaping throughout the neighborhood.

The Community School had been feeding the elk ever since it received the barn and surrounding property as a gift from longtime Sun Valley resident and philanthropist Ed Dumke. Dumke also bequeathed to the school his longstanding tradition of feeding elk that winter on the property, which he had been doing since the 1970s.

However, the Sun Valley Elkhorn Association decided shortly after the Sept. 25 meeting not to allow the proposal and instead follow the opinion of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which said that if the elk were not fed, they would eventually return to natural nearby winter ranges.

Fish and Game Magic Valley Regional Wildlife Biologist Regan Berkley said it would probably take about five years of no feeding for the elk to move away from the area and into Independence, Parker and Keystone gulches. She said the elk would probably continue to eat landscaping during that time.

Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich, whose wife is a member of the elk trust, said the decision not to feed could lead to elk starving in the Elkhorn area this winter.

"We will have some carcasses out there this winter that will need to get hauled away," Willich predicted in an interview. "If cougars and wolves start wandering down, then the city will have to step in and so something. We're going to have to watch this experiment carefully."

Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com

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A better plan

10/12/09 - 08:50

Elk eating landscaping shouldn't be the issue. They built here they knew the area, or should have, and they should live with it. The problem is the elk are becoming domesticated by the feeding operation. The F&G feeds elk but they do it where there is less of a chance of them becoming domesticated. They don't feed elk 300 yards up the hill from a large residential area. The elk need to find a winter range that will sustain them without depending on people hauling food to them. A week or two ago I read a comment about the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, I did some research and although they have some views I don't agree with they may be able to help create a natural sustainable range in our area.

Reply to A better plan

word

10/12/09 - 11:13

there is already a natural sustainable range in the area--it's called Sawtooth National Forest.

Reply to A better plan

MFNs

10/12/09 - 12:03

The elk are free to use the roads and highways to make it to lower elevations where winter prairie can be found, just as they did before the roads highways and other man made obstacles were placed in their way, they can not winter in the sawtooth forest, so if their mentally weak and can't understand the obvious trails south they deserve to go hungry, become weakened, starve to death, and feed those SIRIUS god like collectivist rogue styled group think wolves.

Peace man.

Trazan

10/12/09 - 03:26

Feed the elk if you care about life. Feed the elk if your a hunter. The Status Quo can deal with it. Those prices for landscape destruction are inflated and so are their egos. You can't eat money .

john

10/10/09 - 07:58

What is it with the Mayors of The Wood River Valley.

THEY ARE ALL IDIOTS!

Wayne,
The elk will not starve. If some of them do succumb to the effects of winter, it is an indication that the herd has outgrown the carrying capacity of its chosen territory. Thus they will eventually migrate or reach a balanced number. This is nature.

10/10/09 - 07:06

The Sun Valley Mayor is an idiot. How could he think the lives of a few elk could be more important than our revered landscaping? Doesn't he realize how much effort goes into watering and trimming all of these expensive plantings? For god's sake man, get your priorities straight! This is Elkhorn, where the SVEA is beloved by all, and their rules have always been praised as sensible and well thought out, (just like the F&G). We also need to praise part time residents like Chris Leady, who know that preserving 30 years of tradition, and the loss of the local elk population through starvation, are nearly not as important as a beautiful yard. I don't care if it means 100 Elk will die, we need to make sure all of Elkhorn's landscaping is always kept looking it's best. Thank God for the SVEA, the Fish & Game and the small handful of residents whose plants were nibbled on; if it wasn't for them we would never have known that the Sun Valley Mayor was such a loser.....imagine, putting wildlife before landscaping.....bah! I say we start the impeachment process immediately! And while we're at it, we should also look into changing Elkhorn's name to something more fitting, like "Hungry Elk Village" or "Dead Elk Valley".

10/10/09 - 06:43

The Sun Valley Mayor is an idiot. How could he think the lives of a few elk, and the loss of "Elkhorns" namesake could be more important than our revered landscaping? Doesn't he realize how much effort goes into watering and trimming all of the expensive plantings? For god's sake man, get your priorities straight! This is Elkhorn, where the SVEA is beloved by all, and their rules have always been praised as sensible and well thought out, (just like the F&G). We also need to praise part time residents from California, like Chris Leady, who know that preserving 30 years of tradition, and a bunch of dead elk are nearly not as important as his beautiful yard....seriously, he really has some nice plants, and I don't care if it means 100 Elk will die, we need to make sure his lawn is always kept looking it's best. Yep, tha

London

10/09/09 - 16:21

Hey man, Elkhorn is wintering range, let em range, and let the wolves kill em in the yards, on the driveways, golf courses, and city roads, let nature bleed itself out where all can see it first hand.