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Yellowstone fires spark Elk Foundation work in 24 states |
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Wednesday, 03 September 2008 |
COMPILED BY CHRIS COWBROUGH
S-E Sports Editor
This year marks the 20th an¬niversary of the great Yellow¬stone fires. It was an event that turned America’s first national park into a living laboratory for measuring fire’s effects on habitat for elk and other wild¬life. It also shaped the conser¬vation vision of a young Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Just four years old in 1988, the Elk Foundation saw Yellow¬stone as the impetus for two new programs that remain top priorities today.
These efforts have now bene¬fited 24 states with improved habitat and healthier elk herds.
The Elk Foundation’s first Yellowstone-inspired program was a more aggressive habitat stewardship effort emphasizing controlled fire. Today, the Elk Foundation has facilitated more than 870 projects involving pre¬scribed burns across 18 states, over one million acres of elk habitat—nearly all on public land.
“More than 97 percent of these projects have occurred since 1988, with similar habitat benefits as those being docu¬mented in Yellowstone,” said Tom Toman of the Elk Founda¬tion. “Fire has returned treated lands to a more natural condi¬tion, opened forest canopies, re¬started plant succession and added diversity, stimulated as¬pen growth and increased nu¬tritional values of certain grasses that elk need for graz¬ing.”
Prescribed burns
A round-up of RMEF funded prescribed burns in the West: Idaho, 165,622 acres; Montana, 86,858 acres; Oregon, 148,826 acres; Washington, 172,827 acres.
Biologists also learned some less pleasant lessons from Yel¬lowstone because of the massive scale and unfortunate timing of the historic wildfires.
“In the months afterward, we saw dramatic declines in local elk populations—up to 40 per¬cent loss in some areas—be¬cause so much winter range had been decimated so late in the year.
“It showed us how not to con¬duct prescribed burns. But mostly it was a vivid example of what can happen to elk when crucial habitat is suddenly lost. And that led directly to our con¬cern for protecting habitat from wildfire as well as subdivisions and other land use changes.”
The second Elk Foundation priority to emerge from the Yel¬lowstone conflagration was a new program dedicated to per¬manent lands protection.
Today, the organization has completed over 320 land pro¬tection projects like conserva¬tion easements, acquisitions, conveyances to state and federal agencies, etc. These projects have conserved 861,211 acres.
Projects
Some of this acreage has been opened to public access; others remain privately held with legal agreements helping to ensure crucial habitat for the region’s elk herd.
A roundup of Rocky Moun¬tain Elk Foundation land pro¬tection projects in the West: Alaska, 2,185 acres; California, 14,350 acres; Idaho, 27,382 acres; Montana, 164,370 acres; Oregon, 38,573 acres; Wash¬ington, 117,719 acres.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 September 2008 )
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