With an interest in the long-term sustainability of elk populations on the north Olympic Peninsula, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has started a three-year research project aimed at gathering baseline data of the elk herds that reside between the Elwha River and Clallam Bay.
The tribe has two key goals: To gather basic ecological information on the Roosevelt elk that live in the Elwha River region prior to deconstruction of the Elwha dams in 2012; And to develop methods for longer-term monitoring of these herds. This will allow the tribe to determine if the elk population is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable over time. This study will provide the tribe with information about seasonal elk movement patterns, habitat requirements, and population size and structure.
Lower Elwha staff Kim Sager-Fradkin (left), Brandon Nickerson (center) and Phillip Blackcrow monitor an elk’s temperature and collect hair and blood samples during a radio-collar capture. Photo: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
The tribe is focusing on the Pysht Game Management Unit (GMU), which runs north of Highway 101, from the Elwha River west to Clallam Bay. Very little is known about the herds in this area, which includes the Elwha and Indian valleys and in the Joyce-Piedmont area.
Frequent inhabitants of floodplains, elk rely on the Elwha River floodplain for food, overwintering, and calving. Deconstructing the 108-foot Elwha Dam and the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam will help restore more than 500 acres, including floodplain habitat, which have been inundated by water for nearly 90 years.
“The tribe has little information about these herds, such as whether the populations are increasing or decreasing,” said Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe wildlife biologist Kim Sager-Fradkin. “The tribe is interested in how elk use floodplain habitats along the Elwha before the dams are removed. We are also interested in developing methods for long-term population monitoring throughout the entire Pysht GMU.”
For the next three years, the tribe will be gathering information about the herds by collecting fecal pellets for DNA analysis, conducting helicopter aerial surveys, and capturing and equipping several elk with Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-tracking collars. Since January, the tribe has been seeking elk to fit with radio collars, which will help the tribe track movement patterns.
The tribe has always used elk for subsistence, cultural and spiritual purposes, and strives to preserve its treaty-reserved right to hunt. This elk management program is aimed at collecting data that will allow the tribe and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to set more biologically-based harvest regulations, thus ensuring the long-term sustainability of these herds, Sager-Fradkin said.
Funding for the study comes from the Department of Health and Human Services- Administration for Native Americans and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Support for the project comes from WDFW, Point No Point Treaty Council, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Green Crow Properties, Inc, Merrill and Ring Timber and Land Management, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and numerous private property owners.
