Wyoming elk feedlots

[highfastflyer]

Another series of lawsuits to close the elk feed lots due to CWD. Does the Sierra Club really want 2,000 elk starving, dead and rotting elk corpses and being ripped apart by predators throughout the millionaire ranchettes in the Jackson valley a more appealing option? Not to mention tens of thousands of elk now displaced and roaming the Wyoming mule deer winter ranges which are already in Sad shape and competition for scant forage in an already depressed Wyoming Range Mule deer herd. Sad times. https://www.gohunt.com/read/news/su...tern-wyoming-elk-winter-feedgrounds#gs.oub8de

 

[highfastflyer]

More Bad news as the first elk on the National Elk refuge tests positive which will likely hasten the closure of the National elk feed ground. Bad news long term if all 22 elk feed lots are closed by the state as 75,000 elk are now going to compete with the already struggling and way below objective Wyoming Range deer herd. Wyoming Game and Fish has confirmed that an elk in Grand Teton National Park has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease on Dec. 16. The department’s Wildlife Health Laboratory ran samples from a cow elk harvested thru Grand Teton’s herd reduction program. https://mybighornbasin.com/1st-elk-with-cwd-found-in-grand-teton-national-park/

 

[nontypical]

Yeah let's spread CWD all around instead of just confining it to a few specific areas. There's really no stopping the spread; that's pretty obvious. Closing the feed grounds is a BAD IDEA.

 

[highfastflyer]

The decision to do nothing is a decision. It has a major cost. If we do nothing we will continue to watch this disease spread and watch herds increase in CWD prevalence, Some Wyoming herds have CWD rates in bucks as high as 40 percent. Bucks in a herd around Riverton may have a prevalence over 50 percent, Wyoming Game and Fish strategy is to significantly decrease mule deer buck numbers through culling and harvest and decisions to possibly thin herds or reduce buck numbers will be done in areas with sufficient prevalence data on an individual, case-by-case basis. https://wgfd.wyo.gov/WGFD/media/con...gement-Plan-7-2020-with-appendices.pdf#page21

 

[Bookhead]

Is that rite? Id love to know when exactly cwd first came around. There is no facts or evidence to support that it hasnt always been around. The decision to do nothing is a wise decision until they get more knowledge of the disease

 

[highfastflyer]

Is that rite? Id love to know when exactly cwd first came around. There is no facts or evidence to support that it hasnt always been around. The decision to do nothing is a wise decision until they get more knowledge of the disease

Discovery, Description, and Spread​

In 1967 a group of scientists working at the Colorado Division of Wildlife facility in Fort Collinspuzzled over why one of the mule deer they had in captivity started behaving strangely. Before long, the deer had died, and the scientists found it to be infected with a strange new disease. Several more infected mule deer were subsequently reported at Colorado facilities. Scientists knew little about CWD until 1978, when Elizabeth Williams, a researcher at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory, classified CWD as a TSE and determined that it was caused by irregularly folded prions—certain proteins—within the deer. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chronic-wasting-disease

 

[Bookhead]

That in no way proves that's where it started

 

[Togwotee]

It's awful that CWD has been detected but it shouldn't change anything. if the elk aren't fed the CWD will still spread and 90% of them will starve or be shot for the damage they cause. so when you have two options go with one that keeps hope alive.

The thing you have to remember with the anti feed crowd as well as the wolf lovers is this, they don't love the animals, they simply HATE hunters.

 

[Bookhead]

As far as im concerned it's been around for hundreds of years

 

[elks96]

They should use the feed areas for research.
New research suggest that CWD prion can be killed in the soil due to Humic acid.

The state should implement a program to actually
Control CWD prions on the winter ranges and using a feed site rotation along with a Humic acid treatment could they prove that habitat and soils treatments actually help
Mitigate the disease?

 

[highfastflyer]

As far as im concerned it's been around for hundreds of years

If so it was never documented before that and all we can do is manage for what we do know. The spread from Colorado and game farms is quite well documented. The spread will likely continue into all deer herds as it spreads outward unless management strategies can slow or stop it. Just as with Covid we may never know where it started but we can manage for and document it’s spread.

 

[Togwotee]

Look at it this way it started in Colorado , and Colorado still has deer and elk. it's terrible , but it doesn't mean you just find it and give up.

 

[DoubleDropMuley]

I agree with nontyp, stop the feed grounds is a bad idea. And as your post above said 1967 that’s over 40 yrs and Herds are still strong!! It sucks CWD exists but I don’t think it’s herd ending!! Maybe set up feed grounds to keep them 6’ away ha

 

[jm77]

This is typical distribution of elk on the winter range in many areas of Wyoming.

 

[LivingTheDream]

I agree with nontyp, stop the feed grounds is a bad idea. And as your post above said 1967 that’s over 40 yrs and Herds are still strong!! It sucks CWD exists but I don’t think it’s herd ending!! Maybe set up feed grounds to keep them 6’ away ha

There is really no way to stop the spread since it is spread through prions and not a live virus.

The original group in CO they killed and burned the herd. Completely new herd came in and caught it. It is concerning that our wildlife managers think the appropriate strategy is to kill more, especially more mature animals, in order to stop the spread.

 

[treedagain]

 

[treedagain]

Another example of elk social distancing
Could not fit all of the elk in 1 pic.

 

[highfastflyer]

Another example of elk social distancing
Could not fit all of the elk in 1 pic.

The key is they may stay a few days or even a week in the same pasture but on those winter ranges they spread out more, many travel hundreds of miles as we have the GPS collars to prove. CWD is spread by standing for days on end in the same urine and feces. Moving along and spreading out ie social distancing on a vast Winter range vs. quarantining in the same pasture will slow the spread. There may be ways they could supplemental feed and spread around the feed over dozens of miles vs. just sitting in the same pasture and wallowing in their same CWD infected urine and feces.

 

[BenHuntn]

They should use the feed areas for research.
New research suggest that CWD prion can be killed in the soil due to Humic acid.

The state should implement a program to actually
Control CWD prions on the winter ranges and using a feed site rotation along with a Humic acid treatment could they prove that habitat and soils treatments actually help
Mitigate the disease?

I have also been reading about the research being done with Humic Acid. They seem to be onto something. I'm all about treating the cause of CWD not the effects.

 

[highfastflyer]

There is really no way to stop the spread since it is spread through prions and not a live virus.

The original group in CO they killed and burned the herd. Completely new herd came in and caught it. It is concerning that our wildlife managers think the appropriate strategy is to kill more, especially more mature animals, in order to stop the spread.

Now the research shows it isn’t the animals it is the plants spreading those Prions. Also, some research shows it may be caused by a bacteria though that is a hot topic and controversial. Research Dr. Frank Bastian if you want to look at his controversial cures. The plants recycle the prions so any dead animal spreading prions into the soil via death, urine, feces, blood, saliva the prions are then transported into plants and then the cycle begins anew as an animal eats an infected plant. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449294/

 

[hossblur]

The little devil on my shoulder really wants those elk to head for Jackson, and bring the wolves with them. Let those deep pocket hippies deal with the herds smashing fences, eating the landscaped yards. Let tgem deal with the wolves snatching the golden doodles. Let them deal with the Range Rover hitting elk.

It would be fun to let those folks get the policy they want good and hard.

I dont think closing the grounds will stop CWD, hopefully it will slow it. But CWD is a huge issue, that needs a ton more attention and research $$

 

[Togwotee]

The problem is most of the people who want to stop the feeding live 1000 miles away. felling like they did something good is all they'll know about it as they head off to the golf course .

This is not a debate for me. feed the elk they might survive , don't feed them they die. it's really that simple.

 

[SS!]

sometimes when I’ve popped a couple edibles I sit there and have to wonder what a trip it is to be an elk. 3 months out of the year there’s this two legged creature trying to kill you and your family then winter hits and he feeds you....

?

 

[DoubleDropMuley]

sometimes when I’ve popped a couple edibles I sit there and have to wonder what a trip it is to be an elk. 3 months out of the year there’s this two legged creature trying to kill you and your family then winter hits and he feeds you....
WELL WELL!!
?

 

[Joe2Kool]

View attachment 20979
This is typical distribution of elk on the winter range in many areas of Wyoming.

Holy crap! That's a lot of elk!!

 

[Joe2Kool]

I agree with nontyp, stop the feed grounds is a bad idea. And as your post above said 1967 that’s over 40 yrs and Herds are still strong!! It sucks CWD exists but I don’t think it’s herd ending!! Maybe set up feed grounds to keep them 6’ away ha

Come January 21st, there will be an executive order. Elk must wear a mask, and remain 6 feet apart.