CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has released its final draft of the Wyoming Elk Feedgrounds Management Plan with the public and will present it before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission at its meeting in Pinedale March 12-13 for its approval. The draft plan, which can be found on the Elk Feedgrounds: A Challenge We Can Take On web page, is designed to guide the department’s overall and long-term approach to elk management as it pertains to the 21 Game and Fish-operated elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming. A one-page summary highlighting the main points of the Plan is also available online.

The draft plan is the culmination of one of the department’s most involved public collaborative efforts, which began in December 2020. The process, led by an independent facilitator, involved more than 60 volunteer stakeholders representing various interest groups, and included several shared learning sessions by experts within and outside Game and Fish. With extensive guidance from the stakeholders, the draft plan was released in June of 2023 for public review and comment. Many helpful comments were received, which resulted in substantive changes in the final plan.

The goal of the draft plan is to feed elk in a way that limits disease transmission while also working to reduce elk’s reliance on supplemental feed. That said, the department also established the following sideboards:

• Adhere to the standard department process for elk herd unit population objective review with public process and Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approval for any proposed changes.
• Prioritize hunting opportunities as the primary tool to manage elk populations toward the Commission-approved herd unit objectives.
• Minimize elk damage to private property, disease transmission to livestock and negative economic impacts to livestock producers.
• Minimize competition with other wintering wildlife species.

The plan also addresses the history of feedgrounds in Wyoming, how management has evolved, social and economic considerations, feedground-related disease management, elk populations and harvest strategies and the future management direction of elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming.

Upon Commission approval, the plan calls for developing more specific Feedground Management Action Plans. The FMAPs will involve smaller working groups of potentially affected landowners and stakeholders who will look more closely at potential modifications involving individual elk feedgrounds or a group of closely related feedgrounds. The department’s Elk Feedgrounds Steering Team is confident this plan will successfully guide the future management of elk and Game and Fish feedgrounds in western Wyoming.

The elk feedgrounds public collaborative effort also has been conducted in consultation with representatives from the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park, Bridger-Teton National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department would like to thank the volunteer stakeholders, partner agency representatives and many others who have generously given their time to develop the draft Plan. The department’s Elk Feedgrounds Steering Team is confident this plan will successfully guide the future management of elk and Game and Fish feedgrounds in western Wyoming.

The March Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting will be available for online streaming on Zoom, and there will be a recording for viewing on YouTube at a later date. An agenda for the upcoming Commission meeting in Pinedale is available on the Commission webpage.