ASTORIA, Ore. — A group tasked with finding solutions to problematic elk and human interactions near Gearhart and Warrenton has developed a list of recommendations that include both public education and the possibility of hunts.
The dozens of draft recommendations intended to address elk and human behavior, as well as related land use issues, are broad.
Data gaps, such as where elk roam in the Clatsop Plains area between Warrenton and Gearhart, what kind of habitat and forage they are looking for and why they tend to cross U.S. Highway 101 in certain places, remain, said members of the Clatsop Plains Elk Collaborative at a meeting Tuesday.
However, a unified approach in rolling out the recommendations will be key.
“If we’re not going to pursue one, we need to consider how that impacts all the other tools,” said Vanessa Blackstone, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
There also needs to be flexibility, added Gail Henrikson, the community development director for Clatsop County. The county and the cities have their own individual characters and needs, she said.
The group, which includes city officials and state employees as well as private landowners and local law enforcement, gained the support of the governor’s office last year to address a growing urban elk population.
They plan to have a document, called a declaration of cooperation, ready in May or June that details specific actions they believe should be taken across jurisdictions to reduce elk and human conflicts. At that point, legislators like state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, will have a better idea of what sort of budgetary or policy changes might be necessary.
“Some of these are going to take some money, there’s just no two ways about it,” Johnson said.
Among the recommendations, group members have suggested simpler items such as the development of fencing alternatives to give landowners options to keep elk out of yards, the creation of educational materials so new residents or visitors are aware of how to live safely near elk, additional tracking of elk to better understand their movements, changes to habitats or landscaping to attract elk to or deter them from an area and consistent no-feeding ordinances across jurisdictions.
Lethal take
Some of the suggestions will prove controversial.
Many Gearhart residents who have attended public meetings about the elk have opposed any sort of lethal take. When Warrenton Mayor Henry Balensifer, who has helped lead the meetings with Seaside Mayor Jay Barber, asked for a quick poll to see if anyone was adamantly opposed to any culling of elk, Gearhart City Manager Chad Sweet raised his hand.
“Our community wouldn’t go for it,” he said.
However, he agreed it was an important item to keep as part of the discussion, along with the possibility of controlled hunts and the removal of problem elk.
One piece of the issue, Sweet said later when going through recommendations for addressing human behavior around elk, is that “humans have made Clatsop Plains more attractive to elk. We have done that over the years, especially in recent years. Humans are also compounding some of these issues by stopping in the middle of the road taking selfies, et cetera.”
Meanwhile, other recommendations will likely be too expensive. Proximity sensors to alert drivers when elk are near Highway 101 could be useful, but a report from group members found “the technology is very expensive and does not always work well.”
They also looked at the possibility of a wildlife crossing, including a highway overpass.
“Highway 101 presents a barrier for elk moving from the urban areas to less populated areas,” a draft report from a subcommittee looking at elk management noted. “A wildlife crossing will reduce vehicle collisions and may also enable elk herds to move west to east, rather than become a sedentary urban fixture.”
The patchwork of varying terrain and land ownership, along with the sheer cost of this kind of infrastructure, make it unlikely. However, Henrikson said there could be ways to encourage other types of corridors within developing areas to give elk clear pathways, eliminating the chance that herds become stuck in an urban area.
Highway concern
Elk movement back and forth across Highway 101 remains a top concern.
Collision data presented on Tuesday confirms what numerous anecdotes have suggested: the elk population is growing and herd interactions with human populations are going up.
The data, presented by Jae Pudewell of the Oregon Department of Transportation, showed an increase in elk collisions over the past 10 years along Highway 101 in the Clatsop Plains area. Collisions with other wildlife have increased in a way transportation officials would expect with more traffic and development along the highway, Pudewell said.
