Claiming elk feed grounds in Wyoming are creating a serious disease risk to elk and other wildlife, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council have recently requested a federal district court to shut them down, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The plaintiffs are arguing that 12 of the feedgrounds are on lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, so those agencies should be required to undertake an environmental review of their respective feedground operations. Also argued is that several of the feedgrounds have outdated federal permits, which need to be evaluated before being reauthorized.

In response, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers are arguing that the feedgrounds have a long history and, because the State of Wyoming has the authority to manage game species within its boundaries, the operation of the feedgrounds does not qualify as a major federal action requiring environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. They further argue that the permits, although old, are valid nonetheless. Finally, the DOJ attorneys assert that the complaining groups have waited too long to challenge the long-established operations.

The feedgrounds were established in the 1930s and 1940s to compensate for reduced elk habitats and to help keep the animals from competing with livestock for hay fed on private lands.

The State of Wyoming filed as an intervenor in the case. It, too, affirmed that it has authority to manage its wildlife and that to ask the Forest Service to manage such wildlife was unacceptable.

Brucellosis, a disease that causes premature abortions in elk and livestock, has long been a problem on the feedgrounds. To combat the disease, Wyoming, in early 2006 started a controversial five-year "test and slaughter" program on the Muddy Creek feedground. The program was designed to reduce the incidence of the disease. It was precipitated in 2003 by an outbreak of brucellosis in cattle that was linked to infected feedground elk. That outbreak caused the state to lose its "brucellosis-free" status, a costly outcome to the livestock industry. In September of 2006, partially as a result of disease control work, Wyoming regained its "brucellosis-free" status.

The plaintiffs contend that the notion that elk must be killed to control brucellosis is the wrong approach. They say that a key reason for the presence of the disease is the continued existence of the feedgrounds, which results in unnatural crowding of elk. A further contention is that the feedgrounds themselves should be abandoned. And they also point out that Chronic Wasting Disease, a new and fatal disease to elk, is inching closer to the feedgrounds. The groups maintain that, if the disease reaches the feedgrounds, the impact on the elk herd would be disastrous.

The State of Wyoming has allowed that the feedgrounds may create a favorable situation for disease transmission, but it has countered that, in the absence of the feedgrounds, the number of elk in the Yellowstone ecosystem would be significantly reduced and conflicts with livestock on private feedgrounds would be significantly increased?the same two factors that led to creation of the feedgrounds nearly 70 years ago.

Long-term critics of the feedgrounds have argued that what is needed is a fresh and thorough look at the feeding program based on an evaluation of each feedground with the intent of phasing each one out over time by implementing such things as extensive habitat improvement, potential buy-out of public land grazing leases, and use of late season depredation hunts to keep elk off of private livestock feedgrounds. They have suggested that funding for these initiatives could come from a mix of private and public funds and perhaps be guided by an organization like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.