Elk rounded up for transfer

TOUTLE, Wash. – An elk roundup designed to transfer about 50 animals from an elk-rich area around Mount St. Helens to the North Cascade foothills below Mount Baker is under way.

Two years ago, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nine Point Elliott Indian tribes proposed the elk transfer and rounded up 41 animals from the Toutle River Valley.

State and tribal workers rounded up six cow elk on Friday and hoped to capture a total of about 40 animals by today in the Mount St. Helens State Wildlife Area. Another 13 were captured and moved earlier.

The Nooksack-area elk herd near Mount Baker once numbered 1,700 but had dropped to 300 before this effort began.

As many as 700 elk have crowded the Toutle wildlife area in some winters. That’s more than the area can support and state wildlife agents say 79 elk starved to death during the harsh winter of 1999.

In the 2003 roundup, wildlife agents and the tribes erected a V-shaped funnel with burlap-covered wings to corral the targeted elk.

Since last winter, several tribes have put much smaller corrals in the Toutle area and baited them with apples and alfalfa. People hidden several hundred yards away watched the corral via video camera and closed the door by remote control when elk entered. That technique trapped 13 elk, which have been transported already, but wasn’t effective enough to meet the goal of 50 animals for the year.

Rather than shoot the animals with tranquilizer darts and capture them in nets, biologists wanted to round up family groups, which are more likely to stay together in their new home, so they opted for the burlap-and-post funnel narrowing to a series of corrals. Teams of workers have spent much of the past two weeks erecting the system.

Although the elk could easily punch through the burlap, “the mentality of elk is that’s a real barrier,” said Fred Dobler, Fish and Wildlife regional wildlife manager.

On Friday, a helicopter flew slowly back and forth, pushing the elk into the funnel.

Only female elk are transferred – any bulls will be released.

This year the elk get to rest overnight in the corrals before being loaded for the six-hour trailer journey north.

As they’re herded through a cattle chute, they get a quick vet exam, plus doses of vitamins and antibiotics. A Fish and Wildlife tanker truck stands nearby to hose them down if they get overheated.