Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials this week clarified their plans for managing a herd of elk that frequents northwest Ketchum, but the future of the herd remains in question.
Appearing before the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday, Feb. 9, Randy Smith, Fish and Game wildlife population manager, urged concerned citizens not to feed wild elk and assured the public his agency would act in their best interest.
However, several citizens among a crowd of 50 area residents expressed doubt that Fish and Game's management policies will serve the long-term interests of some 100 elk that spend their winters on Warm Springs Ranch and the surrounding properties.
Some citizens asked why the elk are not being fed—as they have been in years past—while others complained that hungry elk have eaten thousands of dollars worth of residential landscaping.
"I've donated probably $10,000 worth of landscaping to probably 40 elk," said Warm Springs resident Sharon Costa de Beauregard. "These poor elk are wondering, 'Why did man stop feeding us?'"
The debate surfaced during a meeting intended to focus on a proposal by Sun Valley Ventures, the owners of Warm Springs Ranch since 2003, to annex the 77-acre golf-course property into the Ketchum city limits.
During recent discussions before the P&Z about the Sun Valley Ventures annexation and redevelopment plan, some citizens have decried the group's decision to demand that feeding operations on the site be discontinued.
Eventually, the P&Z asked Fish and Game—the agency that maintains sole authority over the Warm Springs herd—to tell the public how it plans to manage the animals.
"The Warm Springs elk issue has been around a long time," Smith told the crowd.
The "issue," he said, has been the provision of food supplements to the elk, a practice that has gone on in the area intermittently since the 1930s. The elk have become habituated to the artificial food source—mainly hay—and have taught new generations to linger in Warm Springs during the cold winter months.
In recent years, the Warm Springs herd has been fed regularly in winter, until this year, when Sun Valley Ventures acted on the advice of Fish and Game to deny supplemental hay to the animals.
"Feeding elk is generally ill advised," Smith said.
Feeding not only draws elk into suburban areas—where they can cause dangerous car accidents and consume expensive landscaping—it can make the animals more vulnerable to aborted pregnancies, disease and predators, largely because it fosters grouping.
Now, Smith said, Fish and Game plans to monitor the herd until next winter, when it likely will decide whether some of the animals should be trapped and relocated. The leaders of the herd, the cows, would be relocated "far away," he said.
The trapping operation, which would be funded in part by Sun Valley Ventures, would not cause a substantial dent in the number of elk in the Wood River Valley, Smith said. The agency's long-term goal is to manage 600 to 800 animals in the valley, he noted, a number that is lower than that of the existing elk population.
Warm Springs Ranch, Smith added, "is not the best winter range" for elk.
The elk frequenting Warm Springs this year—which have been fed occasionally by low-profile sympathizers—are "in great condition," Smith said, with warm weather now prompting some to return to more natural habitat.
Still, some citizens said they believe the Warm Springs Ranch elk should be provided for.
Deborah Fox, a longtime Warm Springs Ranch employee, said problems have surfaced this year because feeding was discontinued. The elk wander the neighborhoods and streets looking for food, she said, and one calf in the area died and was preyed upon.
Fox said the elk should be provided a preserve where they can live safely, mainly because their natural winter ranges have been developed.
Kaz Thea, a biologist consulting Sun Valley Ventures, said a proposed 37-acre nature preserve on the ranch would benefit elk, accommodating a smaller number of animals under more natural conditions.
"We're not planning on getting rid of all the elk," Thea said.
In the end, P&Z commissioners simply asked Smith to pursue the best solution, not the easiest.
"The elk should be the winner in this debate," Commissioner Ron Parsons said.
Public meeting
Idaho Fish and Game officials will host a public meeting Friday, Feb. 25, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Community Campus in Hailey, to discuss instances of elk feeding in the Wood River Valley. Anyone with questions or concerns about winter feeding of wild animals is encouraged to attend.
A bull elk is surrounded by a group of cows and calves at Warm Springs Ranch, northwest of downtown Ketchum. Elk have been gathering at the site during the winter months for decades. Photo by Willy Cook
