ISSUES OF ELK PRODUCTIVITY FOR RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT
Bruce K. Johnson
Project Leader, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, La Grande, OR 97850, phone (541962-6556), fax(541-962-6504) email johnsobd@eou.edu,
John G. Cook
Project Leader, National Council for Air and Stream Improvement,
Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, OR 97850,
phone (541-962-6536), fax (541-962-6504),
email cookjg@eou.edu, and
Michael J. Wisdom
Research Wildlife Biologist, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, La
Grande, OR 97850 phone (541-962-6532), fax (541-962-6504),
email mwisdom@fs.fed.us
Elk are one of the most highly managed species in western United States because of their
important economic and social values and are highly sought by wildlife viewers and hunters. Elk
biologists and managers have monitored elk productivity for many years and in some
populations productivity declined markedly over the last 30 years leading to lower populations
and reduced recreational opportunities. At the same time other elk populations in the west
expanded or had stable recruitment. This paradox in recruitment has generated much discussion
as to the factors affecting these long-term trends and has important recreational, economic, and
ecological implications. We define productivity as recruitment of elk calves into the yearling
age class. Possible explanations for the variation among populations and trends within
populations include inherent carrying capacity of the landscape driven by density-dependent
feedback on reproduction as populations change and nutritional availability due to forest
management and vegetation succession. Predation, disease, hunting, and weather also affect
productivity. We present arguments for these possible explanations and discuss the challenges to
research biologists to design studies and to the managers to understand proximate and ultimate
causes of these changes. Policy-makers and managers must consider social values of interested
public groups, economic needs of local communities, and biological requirements of elk when
crafting management strategies to address recruitment of elk.