Document text
39 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, March 6, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 11, 2004 Roosevelt elk roam the area around Foothill and East Vilas roads near Medford. Wildlife biologists hope to thin the herd to cut down on damage to landowners� crops and fences. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell New home for ‘urban elk’ Wildlife officials want to move half of two local herds to reduce crop, fence damage By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune State wildlife biologists want to capture and relocate half of the Rogue Valley’s two urban Roosevelt elk herds to curb crop and fence damage that has increased as the herds continue to grow. The elk would be either trapped, netted or tranquilized and then trucked to release sites on remote Forest Service lands in and around the Biscuit fire area of western Josephine and eastern Curry County. The project could begin next year and take as many as three years and targets elk in the so-called Foothill and Valley View herds. The Foothill herd, which sports at least 62 elk, roams pear orchards and pastures in the Foothill Road-Coker Butte area in Medford. The Valley View herd inhabits pastures along Valley View Road in Ashland and is estimated at 120 animals. These "urban elk" have become mascots of sorts in the valley, where residents often marvel at seeing Oregon’s largest big-game animal stroll across the road or lounge in a field a stone’s throw away. But they feast on expensive pears, damage trees, tromp fences and otherwise can be horrendous nuisances to the landowners who house them. Advertisement "Elk are absolute pests," said Scott Cully, one of two orchard directors for Bear Creek Corp. "Two years ago, it was estimated that we lost 100 tons of pears. Just us. "Think about the value of 100 tons of Royal Riviera pears," Cully said. "It’s significant." In most damage cases, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife issues permits to hunt problem elk, said ODFW wildlife biologist Mark Vargas, the architect of the relocation project. But many landowners in these areas do not allow hunting on their property and many believe firing high-powered rifles is unsafe in their rural neighborhoods, Vargas said. "Ideally, when you have surplus elk populations, you’d like to increase hunting opportunities, but it’s a very different issue here," Vargas said. Once the herds are culled, Vargas said he would like to encourage landowners to allow limited, controlled hunting on the herds to keep their numbers in check. In areas where rifle hunting may not be appropriate, archers could be used, he said. "We don’t want to get ourselves into a position where we’re trapping and transplanting animals every year," Vargas said. "We want to get it to a manageable level and rely on hunters to keep the herd at that size." The plan gets begrudging support from wildlife artist Bruce Killen, a resident of Dry Creek Road who has been something of a godfather for these elk since they first moved into the area more than 20 years ago. Killen regularly monitors the Foothill elk, following their whereabouts and discussing their presence as if they were visiting grandchildren. "God, I’d hate to see anything happen to them," Killen said. "What an incredible natural resource we have here. "I guess I’d rather see them taken somewhere where they can propagate, than have them randomly killed off," Killen said. The project could cost between $500 and $1,000 per elk, Vargas said. He plans to apply for grants from groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Oregon Hunters Association to cover the cost. The project could start as quickly as this fall, when Vargas could tranquilize two elk from each herd and fasten radio-transmitting collars on them so the herds can be tracked with radiotelemetry, he said. From there, the plan would be to bait the elk into a specially constructed corral for capture beginning next spring. It can’t come fast enough for David Dow, a Coker Butte Road resident who for more than a decade has urged the ODFW to trap and transplant the Foothill elk. "This year alone, it would have cost maybe $1,000 to fix my fences that they broke," Dow said. "We’ve lived with this for 15 years. I’d rather see them trapped and moved than slaughtered." Though done around the world, elk capturing is difficult and tough to make cost-effective, Vargas said. "A lot of things can go wrong when you do something of this magnitude," he said. "If it was easy, we’d go down there next week and be done with it." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Relocating elk involves risks By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Catch-and-release Roosevelt elk hunting is no easy practice. Wildlife biologists say it will take two or three years, and perhaps a variety of methods, to capture and relocate half of the Rogue Valley’s two urban elk herds that cause damage to pastures and orchards around northeast Medford and northeast Ashland. "It will be very, very tough," said Mark Vargas, Rogue Watershed wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "This is not like Marlon Perkins. Remember the clips they showed on ‘Wild Kingdom’? Well, they probably have a hundred clips when it didn’t work for every one that worked." First, Vargas would tranquilize two elk from each herd by firing tranquilizer darts from a helicopter or while on the ground. Those elk would be fitted with radio-transmitting collars so the herds could be tracked using radiotelemetry. He then would find a cooperative landowner and lay out piles of alfalfa, pears or other food as bait to lure the elk. Once the elk became comfortable feeding on the bait, biologists would then construct a metal corral around the bait, leaving the corral door open. The corrals are roughly 30-by-30 feet in size, and eventually the elk should be comfortable feeding inside it, Vargas said. "It could take months getting the elk to come in, or they could get some right away," Vargas said. After about 10 elk come inside the corral door, the door would be closed electronically. The elk would be pushed toward a chute and loaded into a truck like cattle, Vargas said. "They see an opening, and usually they go right to it," Vargas said. The animals then would be trucked to remote Forest Service land in and around the Biscuit fire area of eastern Josephine and western Curry counties for release. "It’s going to take two or three years to work out the bugs and get these things," Vargas said. Similar methods were used successfully to relocate elk in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area in the early 1990s. If the corral method fails to capture enough animals, the ODFW could contract with specialty crews that swoop onto herds in helicopters and fire special guns that shoot nets onto running animals. Crews on the ground would then subdue the elk. Firing tranquilizer darts from the ground or the air also could be used to capture one elk at a time, Vargas said. The first 10 captured elk would be shipped to a special holding facility at Dean Creek near Reedsport, where they would be held four to six days while their blood is tested for chronic wasting disease and tuberculosis, Vargas said. The agency would test 10 percent of subsequent captured elk to ensure the diseases are not present, he said. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s