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Bull elk in a Western Oregon forest.
“Just because you see them in an
understory of salal doesn’t mean
that’s where they’re getting their
nutrition,” points out researcher
Mike Wisdom. (CARL LLEWALLEN)
Researchers Identify
‘High Elk-use Areas’
Four factors determine what spots wapiti like best in Western Oregon and Washington.
By Andy Walgamott
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.—Whenever the subject of hunting arose, Jack Walgamott would
go on and on about the elk he shot in 1965.
“Best venison I ever had,” Grandpa
would say, crediting the salal in the clearcut
where he shot the animal.
He’s gone now, so I can’t confirm
whether or not he found a juicy wad of the
ubiquitous native plant in the elk’s cheeks,
but as it turns out, wapiti actually turn their
nose up at it.
They also curl their lips at Oregon grape
and sword fern, which together with salal
can sometimes comprise 90 percent – even
95 percent – of Western Washington and
Oregon forests’ understory, according to
John Cook, a longtime ungulate researcher.
“All three provide extremely low levels of
nutrients, and tend to produce toxic compounds,” he says.
Not good if you’re a nursing cow or bull
20 Northwest Sportsman DECEMBER 2010
trying to add a thick layer of fat for winter.
Maybe Grandpa’s elk was chowing
down on something else in that Mt. St. Helens-area cut, but biologists are learning
other interesting new things about Cervus
canadensis as well.
Earlier this fall, the U.S. Forest Service’s
Pacific Northwest Research Station announced it had put together a model that
“identifies characteristics of high elk-use
areas” in the western portions of both states
during summer, now believed to be the key
time of year for the prized game animals.
In a nutshell, it’s where the best grub is
in forage patches – but close to trees. Even
in June, July and August, when there aren’t
really any hunts going on, wapiti don’t like
to be far from that edge between shelter
and supermarket.
Researcher Mary Rowland points out
that the value of the model to Northwest
sportsmen is a potentially more productive elk herd.
“Findings from our modeling go a long
way in explaining where in Western Oregon
and Washington elk populations are most
likely to thrive,” says the biologist based at
the station’s La Grande, Ore., lab.
Rowland says that current management
is “based on decades-old research.”
“We knew these management approaches were deficient in a number of
ways – they were built on small data sets
and expert opinions,” she says.
Biologists thought winter forage was
key and assumed that summer feed was
all good. But with “hundreds of thousands of locations” from GPS-collared animals, a better understanding of elk has
begun to emerge.
OVER THREE SUMMERS in the early 2000s,
had you wandered around Northwest
Washington’s upper Nooksack River watershed, the Willapa Hills above the Lower Columbia or Cascade foothills east of
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Springfield, Ore., you might have
come across an unusual sight. A herd
of 15 to 20 elk grazed inside enclosures while being watched over by
people scrutinizing what the cowcalf pairs were gobbling up.
The elk were on loan from the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife to Cook and his wife and fellow researcher Rachel Cook, both
with the National Council for Air and
Stream Improvement and also
based in La Grande. John says that
previous studies show tame elk eat
what wild elk would.
What they discovered was that
the elk really tore into deciduous
shrubs like big leaf maple, hazelnut
and cascara as well as forbs like false
Solomon’s seal. They tolerated most
types of grass as well as alder and
salmonberry, but avoided not only
salal, Oregon grape and sword fern,
but also deer fern and most conifers.
The work helped develop a nutrition
model that predicts “dietary digestible energy,” or DDE. It varies by ecosystem that elk
are grazing in, but is a measure of the quality of forage in summer, a key time for bulls,
cows and calves to put on the weight that
makes them more reproductively fit and
better able to shiver through winter.
Researchers then used DDE predictions with 50-plus additional factors to
check out actual elk habitat use in the
Evergreen and Beaver States. That included information from radio- and GPScollared animals in the White, Green and
Cedar River basins of Washington’s Central
Cascades, and the lower Elwha River on
the northern Olympic Peninsula.
Four variables that “consistently provided the most support for observed habitat selection patterns of elk” bubbled up.
Any guesses?
The best grocery stores, for starters, as
well as proximity to the nearest open public
roads and slope steepness.
“Gentler slopes are preferred,” notes
Rowland, adding that distance to the nearest cover is a “very strong” consideration.
GOVERNMENT AND TRIBAL biologists are
testing the habitat model this fall to see
22 Northwest Sportsman DECEMBER 2010
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cades (13 percent and 95 percent in
the Nooksack herd), but those drop
sharply as you head towards the
coast. Animals around Forks, Wash.,
and in the Willapa Hills average just 6
percent body fat while pregnancy
rates in the Siuslaw and Wynoochee
Basins were only 50 and 53 percent.
It’s unclear why that is. An easy
(JOHN AND RACHEL COOK)
answer would be herbicide spraying,
but much of the elk-grazing data
came from private timberlands that
had been dosed to give Doug firs a
head start against deciduous shrubs
and showed that there was still
plenty of good stuff to eat. A better
understanding of how chemical applications affect elk and deer browse
is needed.
Asked their works’ importance to
hunters, John Cook responds, “Do
you want higher pregnancy rates?
Do you want bigger, healthier
calves? Do you want yearlings to grow raphow easy it is to apply with their own data.
idly? That all happens on the summer
Rowland’s fellow PNW researcher and projrange.”
ect initiator Mike Wisdom says there were
Several Western Washington tribes pro“close matches seen between predicted elk
vided elk location data. Oregon State Uniuse from the model and locations of elk in
versity is collaborating too.
the study areas.” In other words, they say,
“The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
the model is performing well across much
has been a huge supporter of this work,”
of the region.
adds Rowland.
“It’s not perfect everywhere, but it
Other sportsman groups as well as the
works,” Rowland adds.
Oregon and Washington Departments of
Potentially, the model could be used by
Fish and Wildlife have also assisted.
federal and state forest managers. There are
3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and state Department of Forestry land
ROWLAND NEXT HOPES to round up
in Western Oregon and 1.45 million acres of
enough money to send the Cooks and
Department of Natural Resources land in
ODFW’s herd to Southwest Oregon for anWestern Washington. There’s another 10
other nutrition study. Pointing to differences
million acres of national forest in both
in the region’s vegetation, she says, “We
states, but logging has dropped off sharply
don’t think our model is appropriate there.”
on that land.
She also wants to publish the work in
Biologists will be able to make maps that
peer-reviewed journals next spring, and the
show which areas of the woods offer the
modeling team has already begun a similar
most forage and what logging or thinning
study in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and
does for that feed.
Washington.
“This information can help set goals for
As for the all-important question of
changing elk use in certain areas and guidwhere the critters go when we’re chasing
ing management prescriptions for elk habiafter them ...
tat,” says Wisdom.
“If we had more time and money, it
The Cooks have found that Westside elk
would be interesting to continue this with
tend to have higher body fat and pregnancy
hunting season data,” Rowland says, “but
rates the further north you go in the Casthat’s not in the cards right now.” NS
This map shows the
distribution of DDE,
dietary digestible
energy – basically, the
availability of good
(blue) and poor (red)
grits for elk – outside of
farming areas in
Western Oregon and
Western Washingon.