Welcoming elk back to the Applegate
Written by:
Suzie Savoie
Elk are making a big comeback in the Applegate, and many people are welcoming their return, enjoying seeing them in the backcountry, in their fields, or on their land.
It is estimated that nearly 10 million elk lived in North America prior to 1500. This number fell to less than 100,000 by 1907. This massive reduction, down to one percent of the historic numbers, included all elk subspecies in the United States at the time. Two elk subspecies were fully extirpated.
Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti), named for President Theodore Roosevelt, is the local subspecies we have here in the Applegate. Its current range includes the Pacific Northwest, primarily in Washington, Oregon, northern California, and British Columbia.
By the end of the 19th century, most of the Roosevelt elk in Oregon were eliminated by overhunting. The elk around Fort Clatsop, believed to be some of the last herds remaining, were used to reestablish populations in other areas of western Oregon, primarily along the coast and in the Cascades.
Roosevelt elk are thought to have been extirpated from southwest Oregon and the Applegate Valley by the late 1880s to the 1890s, due to unrestricted commercial hunting and excessive settler harvest.
Elk are a keystone species that serve an important ecological role in local ecosystems, and they are culturally significant to local Tribes.
Beginning in 1985, six Roosevelt elk from Redwood National Park were reintroduced into Elk Creek, a Elk in a high mountain meadow in the Applegate Watershed of the Klamath River, by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Klamath National Forest with the support of Karuk tribal community members. Several were also reintroduced a few miles north of Somes Bar. Reintroductions continued in the Klamath River area, and it is estimated that by 1996, 232 Roosevelt elk had been reintroduced into Klamath National Forest and the Marble Mountain Wilderness. These initial elk reintroductions on the Klamath have allowed elk populations to grow and expand beyond the Klamath River area and into southern Oregon and the Applegate Valley. Hunting permits have been very restricted through a lottery system in order to allow the elk to reinhabit their former range.
This all sounds like a happy success story up to this point, 13 with a lot to applaud thanks to the reintroduction efforts of wildlife managers. The big hurdle for Applegate elk to fully reinhabit their former range, however, is that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has designated the Applegate Wildlife Management Unit (Unit 28), as an “Elk De emphasis Area.” Oregon wildlife managers have state mandates to purposefully limit the number of elk in Unit 28, which includes the entire Applegate River Watershed on the Oregon side of the border, as well as part of the upper Illinois River Watershed.
The Applegate is designated as an elk de-emphasis area because ODFW wants to keep elk numbers low to prevent property and agricultural damage on private lands and because big-game management on Columbia blacktail deer. De emphasis areas do not have standard fixed population management objectives for growing the local herd size. Out of the 68 Wildlife Management Units (WMU) in Oregon, only five are elk de-emphasis areas. In these areas, there are more liberal hunting rules to control the number of elk and reduce agricultural conflicts rather than grow a trophy herd for hunters, and the ecological importance of elk is not really considered at all.
ODFW adopted formal elk management objectives and zone classifications following the initial statewide Elk Management Plan finalized in 1992. At the time, there was pressure from agricultural interests, including orchards and vineyards, that were worried about elk conflicts as the elk reinhabited their former winter range in the valleys of southwest Oregon.
Thirty-four years on, with elk now being spotted throughout various locations in the Applegate and with more knowledge about living harmoniously with large wildlife like elk, it is time to change the Applegate Wildlife Management Unit from a de emphasis area to a management area so that elk can fully reinhabit their former range, from which they were extirpated nearly 150 years ago. If folks who live on the coast and in the Cascades can co-exist with elk, then so can the Applegate.
Suzie Savoie
