May 17, 2006
Curt Woodward
Oregon Live
More than 25 years after its eruption turned the river valley around it into moonscape, elk living in the shadow of Mount St. Helens are starving to death at a rate that has alarmed many observers.
This winter's elk die-off was the largest recorded by state wildlife managers in seven years, and some critics say the survivors are so undernourished and the forage so poor that another major winter kill could be on the way.
State officials have responded by bumping up the number of hunting permits and pledging to speed their sweeping management plan for the thousands of elk in the Mount St. Helens Wildlife Area.
But the herd management plan has languished for five years, and skeptics say the government appears unconcerned with helping elk survive the coming winter.
"The elk didn't ask for us to plant 10 years of grass seed in that area in there and create false forage," said Mark Smith, a businessman and head of the Mount St. Helens Preservation Society. "They didn't ask not to be hunted for 20 years. If these were horses, these people would be in jail."
The Mount St. Helens area is home to more than 13,000 elk. They range together in various subgroups, tied mostly by shared geography in what state wildlife officials consider the state's largest herd.
Wintertime deaths from starvation are a regular phenomenon. State wildlife managers say as much as 10 percent of a herd can be expected to die in a typical winter, with mortality figures higher in harsher conditions.
This year, the state counted about 630 elk wintering in the wildlife area and 63 likely starvation deaths at the end of the season.
That's the highest recorded figure since the winter of 1999, when about 80 elk died. But it's still within the 10 percent death figure considered typical, said Brian Calkins, the state's regional wildlife manager.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11478291334150.xml&coll=7