For the third year in a row, a conflict over wintertime feeding of elk in the Sagewillow neighborhood of Sun Valley has sparked heated debate.
At a meeting of the Sun Valley Elkhorn Association at Sun Valley City Hall on Friday, members of the Wood River Elk Trust urged that an experimental feeding program be set up for the winter to help the herd survive and to keep the animals out of residential areas. The Wood River Elk Trust is a local nonprofit organization created specifically to feed elk in Elkhorn.
Representatives of the organization, including Christine Willich, wife of Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich, said the plan would implement a feeding program on the ridge between Fireweed and Paintbrush roads.
However, members of the association and other concerned residents said the organization had not provided enough information on their plan to grant it an allowance to put feed on the association's open land.
Sagewillow Road resident Chris Leady said he would like to see a backup plan in the event that the vehicle delivering the feed breaks down. Leady said that situation arose at the end of 2007 when the snowcat used to deliver hay to The Community School property on Sagewillow Road broke down and the hay was subsequently left for the elk much closer to neighboring houses.
Leady said that brought the elk into a residential area where they caused about $240,000 in damage to landscaping. That led to a lawsuit by the Sagewillow Homeowners Association against The Community School to cease feeding the elk at the school's Sagewillow Barn.
The feeding had been going on for about eight years, ever since longtime Sun Valley resident and philanthropist Ed Dumke gave the barn and surrounding property to The Community School. 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.
The lawsuit was eventually dropped, but The Community School discontinued the feeding, only to have the annual feeding effort revived by a number of local residents who resorted to clandestine activity under the cover of night.
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Feeding the elk is discouraged by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Magic Valley Regional Wildlife Biologist Regan Berkley told the audience at a packed council chambers that the feeding keeps the elk from returning to natural winter ranges such as those in the nearby Independence, Parker and Keystone gulches.
"Fish and Game prefers to see wild elk stay wild," Berkley said. "We feel that stopping the feeding would be best in the long term, although it will be hard for a while and we'll likely see elk moving through subdivisions for the new few years."
Berkley said residential subdivisions are an "inherently unpleasant environment" for elk and that if they are not fed, they will naturally return to a wilderness feeding area. However, she added that it would probably take about five years of no feeding for the elk to move away from the area. She said problems such as that of the elk eating landscaping could continue during that time.
Berkley's comments were countered by former Fish and Game Conservation Officer Lee Frost, who retired from his position with the agency after working in the Wood River Valley for 30 years.
"It's important to understand that Mr. Dumke did not lure elk down from ridge tops and canyons to his feed site," Frost said in a letter addressed to the association board. "Elkhorn Valley was and still is the traditional winter range for these elk. I absolutely believe that a high ridge feeding site would relieve most of the property damage that has occurred the past two winters."
At the end of the two-hour meeting, members of the different organizations, including Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich, agreed to hold a smaller meeting to try and find a solution that satisfies all parties.
No timeline was given for when a compromise might be reached, but representatives of the elk trust said that it's important to get a plan in place before winter to prevent elk from starving.
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
Elk congregate at a winter feeding site in Elkhorn. Photo by David N. Seelig
