When the state lost its brucellosis-free status last year, there was a public outcry to do something to stop the spread of the disease. Ranchers claimed brucellosis was costing them their livelihoods, and they blamed elk for its presence in their cattle. The solutions that have been debated since then include increasing vaccination efforts in the state’s elk herds, testing and slaughtering infected animals, and phasing out feedgrounds. All are controversial, and all trigger emotional responses.

If you clear away the cloud of hype that surrounds the issue, there are practical and realistic options that do not spell doom for either Wyoming’s elk herds or our ranching legacy, but they do require creative, forward-thinking leadership.

In January, the Wyoming Outdoor Council together with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance submitted a plan to Governor Freudenthal that offered a solution to the state’s brucellosis problem. The report was entitled Brucellosis Solutions for Elk and Cattle in Wyoming. At the same time, the Brucellosis Task Force presented its findings to the governor.

The two proposals are in marked contrast to each other. The task force’s recommendations include, among other things, a pilot program that would test all the cows in the Pinedale elk herd and slaughter any found to be infected with brucellosis. Our proposal calls for the strategic phasing out of select feedgrounds. “I’d like someone on the Brucellosis Task Force to explain just what the benefits, if any, are to Wyoming taxpayers, elk hunters, or the Pinedale elk herd from a million dollar fence or test and slaughter project,” says Robert Barrett, a Pinedale elk hunter.

“The test and slaughter program will have a significant impact on the Pinedale elk herd,” says veterinarian Ken Mills, who served on the Governor’s Brucellosis Task Force. “Strain-19 vaccine efficacy in elk is questionable. In fact, no brucella vaccines are great. It will be very difficult to get the infection rate to zero. Unless you do get to zero, you only need one infected elk to reinfect the herd.”

So why is the Brucellosis Task Force promoting the test and slaughter pilot program as a way to deal with the brucellosis problem? That answer is unclear, but on the surface at least it appears that people are too wary of the political consequences of phasing out feedgrounds—both among hunters who fear reduced numbers of elk and ranchers who fear elk on their private lands—to touch.

Balancing the Needs of Elk and Ranchers
Feedgrounds are known to concentrate animals and disease. Scientists agree on this. Elk at feedgrounds test anywhere from 8 percent to 54 percent positive for exposure to brucellosis, while among free-ranging elk the rate is as low as zero.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Write to the Governor and ask him to support the Brucellosis Solutions for Elk and Cattle in Wyoming. Tell him to call for the gradual phase out of select feedgrounds.

Governor Dave Freudenthal
Governor’s Office
State Capitol, Room 124
Cheyenne, WY 82002
Phone: (307) 777-7434
Governor@state.wy.us

But elk feedgrounds were created for a reason. Ranches now occupy much of the elk’s former winter range. Ranchers do not want the animals depredating their property, stealing forage from their livestock, or commingling with their cattle and spreading disease. If the elk are confined to feedgrounds, they wreak much less havoc on the surrounding private property. Ranchers, therefore, want the elk to stay put.

Many hunters are also in favor of maintaining the feedgrounds because they believe eliminating them would cause a precipitous decline in elk numbers. This concern, coupled with those of ranchers, are the reason the solution the Wyoming Outdoor Council and its allies are advocating testing a phase-out program in a select number of feedgrounds before even considering a statewide closure.

We recognize that any phase-out of feedgrounds must be mitigated both to protect private property and to ensure healthy elk populations. In our letter to Governor Freudenthal that accompanied the brucellosis solutions report, we wrote, “While an overnight closing of all feedgrounds would be unacceptable on many fronts, we believe that one of your adopted strategies should address the feeding issues. We propose programs to carefully and incrementally over time eliminate feeding in some of these feedgrounds, which will allow for careful monitoring and adaptive changes based on resource conditions and stakeholder needs.”

Models of Successful Phase-outs
Feedgrounds have been successfully phased out in Wyoming. The northern Jackson elk herd that winters in the Buffalo Valley is no longer being fed. This action has not brought about any elk die-off, and a variety of tools have been used to protect private property rights and improve habitat in the area. The cow-calf ratios in the Buffalo Valley are among the highest of any segment of the Jackson herds; elk hunting is among the best in the region; and blood tests of hunter-harvested elk indicate that seroprevalence for brucellosis in the herd is nearly zero. Elk also have been weaned successfully of supplemental feeding at certain times at North Piney.

This is the kind of model conservationists point to in the plan we submitted to the Governor. We believe it is most appropriate to phase out feeding in the Gros Ventre Valley where three feedgrounds are currently operating. Three feedgrounds are currently operating in this area. Elk have been fed here for more than 50 years. The main reason for feeding this herd, which is approximately 2,800 strong, has been to keep them away from livestock wintering operations. Today, only three widely dispersed winter ranches are operating in the valley with a total of approximately 150 horses and 85 cattle.

Test and Slaughter the Only Alternative?
The Brucellosis Task Force’s alternative to our solutions report seems like an expensive and violent option. Building fence lines, testing hundreds of animals, and slaughtering up to 10 percent of the Pinedale herd hardly seems like a model to be used with other infected herds. Nor does it provide any vision for treating other wildlife diseases that spread rapidly among the congregated animals found at Wyoming’s feedgrounds. “This is another costly remedy doomed to fail in achieving any meaningful ecological objective,” says Dr. Bruce Smith, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Elk Refuge biologist. “Wyoming continues to sidestep the root problem of too many elk on too little habitat and the consequence disease problems and threats that situation engenders.”