Bison and Elk PLan

November 29, 2001 6-10 p.m. Snow King Resort

JACKSON, WYOMING

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Meeting Objectives:

1. Define Areas of Agreement by Management Issue
2. Identify a range of potential alternatives to be considered in the EIS


Meeting Facilitator: Elaine Walsh with the Center for Resolution

This meeting started with a large group discussion of Alternatives Development for the EIS and
quickly broke into small group brainstorming documented below. A representative from each
small group presented the information that they developed to the large group. From the small
group brainstorming, several possible areas of agreement were suggested. They were discussed
by the whole group and are listed below.

Possible Areas of Agreement – established by the whole group

Define health

Elk herd to be here forever

Establish satellite feeding areas - 10 different places to enhance NER dispersal of elk

Small Group Brainstorming for Alternatives Development

1. Viable elk herd on the refuge

2. Keep what winter range there is, expand as possible

3. Supplemental feeding at some level for a variety of reasons
4. Management decisions must consider a broad array of factors in the ecosystem
5. History is important

• Involve tribes in the process

• Analyze how management of elk/bison affects other species and their
•     supporting habitats
• All managing agencies should have all management tools truly available
• Natural regulations a tool – immuno-contraception
• Hunting a tool – How does use of management tools/practices affect
•      distribution of animals and behavior
• Maintain supplemental feeding on refuge and other feed grounds
• Consider how livestock management affects elk and bison management options
• Also consider how let it burn policies affect elk/bison mgt options
• Reevaluate bison herd growth – research history of bison in JH
• Broad diversity of plants and animals is important
• Elk should enjoy priority on the NER – DON’T FEED BISON!
• Investigate options for elk and bison to winter naturally – historical migration
• Weather a factor in defining winter and summer range
• Supplemental feeding appropriate when conditions warrant
• Phase out supplemental feeding to allow herd to seek it’s own natural population
•    level, make supplemental feeding emergency backup
• Bison should develop according to their habitat, not a number limit
• Winter recreation is growing, impact on elk spreading out
• Finding systems to increase habitat including feeding earlier
• Ground freezes and elk are not fed in a timely way
• Hunting season may need adjusting to have satellite feeding areas
• Long term goal, to enhance herd and feed to support them
• Wolves and bears must be considered in the feeding equation
• To have satellite feeding areas snow and wolves present problems
• Irrigation on refuge could enhance feed
• Concentration perpetuates disease
• Consider disease/transmission in dispersed herds
• Is hay better than pellets, possible to go back to hay
• Elk ranch considered for winter feeding elk
• Park should feed not irrigate to enhance elk habitat
• Can sportsmen cover expense of feeding through permits
• USFS must be a player
• 11-13,000 elk in herd/ 7,500 on refuge
• Increase feeding to maintain healthy herd with those numbers
• Irrigate on refuge to sustain numbers
• Increase winter range, find way for elk to migrate further south
• 300-400 max bison number
• Teton herd should be reduced and redistributed by hunting
• Charge $ to finance elk mgt program
• Increase elk herd to feed grizzly bears and wolves
• Distributing elk & bison to smaller groups needs a process
• Burning grasslands to spread out feeding
• Fire is good, work with USFS
• Satellite feeding grounds are not viable alternatives
• Consider water quality with 3’s and distribution of both elk and bison
• Recall the reason for developing the refuge in the first place,
•    supplemental feeding
• Promote existing winter range, burning, ag
• Look at risk of disease in elk and bison mgt options
• Define "natural" – historical vs current circumstances
• Natural winter range is compromised – used by other than elk and bison
• Loss of winter range forces focus on summer range in estimates of
•    carrying capacity
• Do research on how elk are managed without sup feeding
• Identify existing winter range and possibilities for expansion
• Set boundaries for bison herd and agency responsibility when bison are outside
•    the boundaries on private land
• Public or private entity should assume responsibility ($) for damage by bison to
•    private land/property/livestock
• Analyze ecological factors in setting herd objectives vs, setting population
•    to meet recreational needs
• Priority of plan, what to do in event of major catastrophe?
• Vaccinate elk calves on refuge – avoid diseases by using existing technology
• Recognize that large elk herd is important to JH community and the country
•    revenue from multiple uses is for both State and community
• First define what wildlife is, what it means today, define management
• Bison herd also important to state and community
• Need long-term studies on bison before a cap for the population is set
• Bison don’t have same value as elk, do have high cultural and religious value to
•    Native Americans, more destructive on environment, may not have same
•    economic values, but does equal ecological value
• Management should have flexibility to manage predators on the NER
• Keep a cap of 400 bison on the refuge
• Keep elk as primary species on the NER
• Keep hunting as primary management tool on the JH Elk herd
• If winter feeding on refuge is eliminated or reduced, it will drastically reduce
•    the elk and bison numbers in this ecosystem
• Dispute above because habitat is reduced by ½, herd is reduced by ½
•    (from Murie’s 1930 study) so why the justification of feeding?
• More than ½ winter habitat has been taken away – To JH and the Hoback blocking
•    previous migration to the Red Desert
• Bison – hunting should be the primary mgt tool with no hunting in GTNP
• Hunting is a difficult tool to use for bison, can’t hunt them in the GTNP, would be
•    ok to hunt in NER
• Oppose vaccination of wild animals
• Look into ways of decreasing the amount of cattle, as a way to increase
•    forage for wildlife
• There is not enough cattle in the ecosystem to negatively impact forage for wildlife
• Manage to wildlife objectives by expanding or restricting hunt areas in NER
• Hunting will be the primary means of managing elk and bison in GTNP and NER

Elk Management

• Allow Wyoming Game and Fish to set population objectives for elk, bison and all other
•    wildlife as set by Wyoming statutes and processes
• Elk managed for maximum sustainable summer range in GYE
• When elk are in refuge, minimize human impact other than subsistence use
• Manage elk as top priority on the NER
• Maintain and enhance subsistence uses of elk

• Control bison population to the minimum aesthetic value and manage as a secondary
•    species to the elk in GYE
• Move bison to the Red Desert
• Set bison management to not interfere with elk management
• Control bison population

• Utilize NPS areas to cultivate forage during winter for elk population on the refuge
•    (additional winter forage)
• Maximize ag/irrig practices on NER
• Feeding the primary means to maintain wintering elk pops. Manage forage for
•    maximum winter use on NER

• Access to BTNF for subsistence use
• Develop hunting rotation in GTNP

• Control predators (wolves and bears) on NER to a minimum
• Manage predators outside of GTNP and NER to ensure healthy herd of elk

• Stable number of elk
• Increase herd due to predation
• What is the rationale for inverting the ratio of elk and bison in pre-settlement times?
• Flexibility – no two years are the same
• Don’t manage on convenience or budget but on ecological basis
• Coordinate hunting in YNP and GTNP
• Implement good land husbandry practices – irrigate to enhance productivity
• Continue feeding
• Consider hay instead of pellets
• Study practices on how many feed grounds for disease control
• More bison licenses – equal to those given to tribes
• Cost benefit analysis of each elk
• Remove cattle grazing from GTNP and National Forests
• Ensure hunting for future generations
• See archaeological record of animals in valley
• Jackson Hole bison herd is feral, not wild
• Stable numbers of elk and bison
• Increase hunting in GTNP
• Emphasis on managing vegetation – use agronomists
• Feed hay and disperse feeding
• Feed earlier and late in year
• Understand history of NER – common problems
• Give elk precedence over bison in NER
• Sacrifice some browser species
• Establish herd limit for bison and maintain through hunting on all public lands
• Phase out feeding
• Reestablish historical migration corridor to the south
• Control bison herd though giving to participating tribes to reestablish free-ranging
•     herds on reservations
• Alter Fed hunting laws in GTNP and YNP accommodate migration of elk herd
• GTNP needs to actively manage elk and bison herds
• Don’t’ stop feeding elk
• Keep more areas open for longer during hunting season – lead to reduce feeding
• Involve treaty tribes in process
• Elk refuge, not a bison refuge