The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife feeds the Yakima elk herd every day, all winter long. Each elk receives about seven pounds of hay. This helps keep the herd off nearby agricultural lands.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
Shana Winegeart, the area's wildlife manager, watches the herd to see how healthy they seem. The department changes its supplemental feeding based on the herd's condition. She spies an elk cow with a hyper extended leg during the feeding.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Brandon Zahn pushes a stack of hay off the truck bed every few feet. He says the majestic sight never gets old.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
Four elk bulls make their way over the ridge. Sometimes the bulls are more skiddish and wait for the food to arrive. "The boys are finally coming in," Winegart says, as other bulls snake their way down the hillside.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — A flatbed truck makes its way into Joe Watt Canyon, just outside town. It’s loaded down with hay, and as it rounds the corner, 600 elk turn their heads. The dinner bell has rung.
A chain-link fence keeps onlookers out, and the elk inside this wildlife area. The fence protects farmers’ hay fields and orchards in the valley below. It’s also the reason the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife must feed this elk herd every day. All winter long.
Shana Winegeart is the area’s wildlife manager. She says balancing elk and human needs mixes science with a bit of art.
“It’s a big money problem if you have few hundred elk in a timothy field. Yeah, it’s a big loss for somebody. They eat things, but then, also, if you have a new seeding, they’ll trample the ground and cause the seeding to fail, or it just makes it patchy,” Winegeart says.
As the truck pulls into the canyon, Winegeart stands on the back with Brandon Zahn. Along with Craig Schnebly, Zahn feeds the herd every day. He says the majestic sight never gets old.
Zahn begins untying the hay bales. On average, they feed about seven pounds a day to each elk. It’s a sunny morning, and a few elk cows shyly inch their way closer to the truck. Zahn pushes a stack of hay off the truck bed every few feet.
“When it’s really cold out, we’re feeding really good hay. They’re really, really hungry. They’re right here as soon as stuff starts comin’ off the truck,” Zahn says.
Sometimes, when they’re really hungry, Zahn says, the braver elk will even grab hay off the truck bed.
This wildlife area is not where the herd would like to be hanging out in the winter. If they had their way, and no fence holding them back, the elk would stick together in little groups all throughout the valley. That way they’d be able to munch on native grass, picking through larger areas and moving on when they’ve eaten everything.
But with the herd bunched together over the snow-covered ground, they need the extra hay dropped off each morning.
“They’ve got winter coats on, so they’re pretty fluffy and fuzzy,” Winegeart says. “It’s hard to tell, people don’t realize that they’re actually not in very good shape. That cow, you can tell she’s an older cow — you can see her ribs a little bit. Really, under a winter coat, they’ve lost all their fat, especially later in the spring. They’re just eeking out a living at that point.”
What elk need to be protected from at that point, Winegeart says, is us: people straining to see the massive bulls –- the bulls get to be around 800 pounds — and something that’s becoming more popular each spring, shed hunting.
The sport sounds like it would make good reality TV: avid hunters stake out the herd in search of the best antlers shed by the elk. Winegeart says more aggressive shed hunters can scare the elk during the quest.
“(The hunters) want to come in as soon as those antlers come off. Well, these animals are still in poor condition. They’re still hanging out low, and a lot of times they can’t get up to the higher ground to get away,” Winegeart says.
Montana and Wyoming have had to regulate shed hunting because of the stress it causes animals. It’s a secretive and often competitive sport. Hunter Chris Manns studies the herd from behind the fence. He says he loves watching the animals and spots a large bull making his way down the hillside.
“There was one nine-point out there that I was trying to find. I just caught a glimpse of him and then he disappeared. But, he was a good-looking one,” Manns says.
Craig Schnebly has been feeding this herd for more than 20 years. He can recognize most of the bulls, and says not only do they look good, but they develop their own personalities over the years.
“Most of these that are in here grew up on the gravy train, so to speak, as calves. They could be 20 years old and be here on the lot. Yeah, you get to know them pretty well. They’re ready to come in the first day you start feeding. Those have been trained. But you go out during hunting season and try and find them, see what they act like. That’s a different story,” Schnebly says.
After feeding this part of the Yakima herd, Schnebly and Zahn begin loading up more hay to feed more elk in a different part of the wildlife area.
The warm weather this winter held off feeding until mid-January. It usually starts a month earlier. Winegeart says the department was fortunate to have a late start this year.
“Our budgets have been cut so badly here recently that it makes it really creative to try to find ways to feed. Luckily, we’ve got this hay that’s donated. So on the one hand, it’s not the highest quality. On the other hand, the price is right,” Winegeart says.
Idaho and Oregon also feed elk herds throughout the winter until the snow melts and the herds can migrate to higher elevations in the spring.
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