Our Strategy to Phase out the Artificial Feeding of Elk on Wyoming's Public Lands:

For years now GWA has been party to a couple of litigation actions against the U.S. Forest Service (Bridger-Teton National Forest of Wyoming) to phase out the artificial feeding of elk on Wyoming's public land - primarily that owned and managed by the Forest Service. We have been also involved in the collaboration with several other NGOs who have put together a series of recommendations to phase out this bad habit of the annual feeding of elk.

The phase out recommendations are too lengthy to report here as they are 15 pages long, but a link will be provided below. These recommendations were submitted to the Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. Elk Feedground Management Steering Committee on June 1, 2022. We would like to thank and give credit to the following contributors who put most of the effort in this work. GWA is in agreement with this program and proud to be associated with their collective effort.

Wyoming Wildlife Advocates

Sierra Club

Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance

Yellowstone to Unitas Connection

Western Watershed Project

The Recommendations can be found here at this link:

Recommendations for Elk Feedground Management Plan

The Artificial Feeding of Elk on Wyoming Public Lands

“It is, quite literally, only a short matter of time before chronic wasting disease manifests as a full blown epidemic in elk herds that frequent feedgrounds,” said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. “The faster the State of Wyoming can shut down the feedgrounds, the lower the risk of ‘superspreader’ events that infect the entire Yellowstone herd. When CWD reaches critical mass on the feedgrounds, these migratory herds will spread infectious prions far and wide.”

“Neighboring states such as Colorado and Montana, as well as everywhere else in Wyoming, have successfully mitigated conflicts with livestock operations with appropriate fencing, hazing, livestock herding, and other strategies. No other state attempts to use a state-run elk feeding program to deal with wildlife conflicts, even though they face similar situations with competition between cattle and ungulates for forage on public lands, pressure from livestock owners to prioritize livestock use of public land forage over wildlife use, and loss of winter range to private ownership,” said Chelsea Carson of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

“Wildlife should be distributed across natural habitats and managed for health, not for maximum numbers. There is no apparent reason why Wyoming should not be able to emulate other intermountain western states to maintain healthy wild elk populations while mitigating impacts to private landowners and ranchers. The economy and lifestyle of Wyoming residents depend on the willingness of the WGFD to take proactive steps to protect the health of Wyoming elk herds. While it is not an easy decision to implement, expeditiously phasing out elk feedgrounds is an absolutely necessary step toward ensuring elk herds remain healthy, viable, and free ranging far into the future,” said Kristin Combs of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

“The science tells us that closure of feedgrounds and moving to natural forage is the only solution to reducing disease transmission,” said John Carter of Yellowstone to Uintas Connection. “The livestock industry also needs to step up. Plant communities have lost much of their productivity and ability to sustain wildlife because of overgrazing on public lands. The Wyoming Livestock Board, which has veto power over any plan to close the feedgrounds, must allow closures to proceed.”

For a detailed account of the recommendations: those can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ZVJsBryaf0tA8N_Yxagh3Wx5LYYnmWT/view