The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has released its final draft of the Wyoming Elk Feedgrounds Management Plan to the public and will present it before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission at its meeting in Pinedale March 12-13 for its approval. The draft plan, which can be found on the Elk Feedgrounds: A Challenge We Can Take On web page, is designed to guide the department’s overall and long-term approach to elk management as it addresses 21 Game and Fish-operated elk feedgrounds in the west Wyoming. A one-page summary highlighting key points of the Plan is also available online.
The draft plan is the culmination of one of the department’s most involved public collaborative efforts, which began in December 2020. The process, led by an independent facilitator, involved more than 60 volunteer stakeholders representing a variety of interest groups, and included several shared learning sessions by experts within and outside of Game and Fish. With extensive guidance from stakeholders, the draft plan was released in June of 2023 for public review and comment. Many helpful comments were received, resulting in major changes to the final plan.
The goal of the draft plan is to feed the elk in a way that limits disease transmission while also trying to reduce the elk’s reliance on supplemental feed. That said, the department also established the following sideboards:
- Follow the department’s standard process for reviewing elk herd unit population goals with a public process and approval by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission for any proposed changes.
- Prioritize hunting opportunities as the primary tool to manage elk populations toward Commission-approved herd unit goals.
- Reduce elk damage to private property, transmission of disease to livestock and negative economic impact on livestock producers.
- Minimize competition with other wintering wildlife species.
The plan also addresses the history of feedgrounds in Wyoming, how management has evolved, social and economic considerations, feedground-related disease management, elk populations and harvest strategies and the direction of future management of elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming.
Upon approval by the Commission, the plan calls for the development of more specific Feedground Management Action Plans. FMAPs will involve smaller working groups of potentially affected landowners and stakeholders who will look more closely at potential changes involving individual elk feedgrounds or a group of closely related feedground. The department’s Elk Feedgrounds Steering Team is confident that this plan will successfully guide the future management of elk and Game and Fish feedgrounds in western Wyoming.
The elk feedgrounds public collaborative effort was also conducted in consultation with representatives from the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park, Bridger-Teton National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department would like to thank the volunteer stakeholders, partner agency representatives and many others who generously gave of their time to develop the draft Plan. The department’s Elk Feedgrounds Steering Team is confident that this plan will successfully guide the future management of elk and Game and Fish feedgrounds in western Wyoming.
The March Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting will be available for online streaming on Zoom, and a recording will be available for viewing on YouTube at a later date. An agenda for the upcoming Pinedale Commission meeting is available on the Commission’s webpage.
