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Fish Creek winds through one of 16 roadless areas in Clearwater National Forest in Idaho. Photo: Chuck Pezeshki, File / AP

Idaho agencies split over forest travel plan

Last updated Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - 10:38am

BOISE, Idaho --Two Idaho state agencies have taken opposing views of the effect motorized recreation can have on elk habitat.

Elk, Federal Government, National Forests, OHVs, Outdoor Recreation, Public lands, Roads, U.S. Forest Service, Wildlife, National Read more Comments

Lavish Utah lodge, elk ranch lingers on market

Contributed The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, January 3, 2012 - 10:28am

TABIONA -- A Minnesota bank is having trouble finding a buyer for a massive eastern Utah lodge featuring 13 bedrooms and its own herd of 50 bull elk.

Business, Bankruptcy, Elk, Lodge, Ranch, Ranching, Real Estate, Hunting Read more Comments

This undated image shows a wolf in Montana. Officials in Idaho are considering deploying federal sharpshooters in helicopters across the north-central part of the state in the coming weeks to kill up to 75 wolves they say are threatening elk near the Montana border. (Photo courtesy of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks)

Killing of wolves from air in Idaho draws fire

Kim Murphy Los Angeles Times

Last updated Thursday, December 15, 2011 - 12:58am

SEATTLE -- For years, the federal agencies that helped the U.S. wolf population recover under the Endangered Species Act have also quietly killed hundreds of wolves that threaten livestock or prized game.

They've even taken to the skies -- and are considering doing so again.

Officials in Idaho said Wednesday they would consider deploying federal sharpshooters in helicopters across north-central Idaho in the coming weeks to kill up to 75 wolves threatening elk near the Montana border.

Conservation, Elk, Idaho, Livestock, Montana, Trapping, Wildlife, Wolves, Environmental concerns, Environmentalists, Hunting Read more Comments

Hardware Ranch to open gates for season

Jeff DeMoss Standard-Examiner

Last updated Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 3:10pm

HYRUM -- As winter sets in, hundreds of elk are descending from their summer ranges at higher elevations and congregating at a feeding ground that has been helping the large mammals get through cold Top of Utah winters for 65 years.

As the seasonal migration gets into full swing, the people who run Hardware Ranch are preparing to open their gates this week for the public to enjoy Utah's best opportunity to get an up-close view of hundreds of wintering Rocky Mountain elk.

Hardware Ranch, located 15 miles up Blacksmith Fork Canyon at the southern end of Cache Valley, will open for the season at noon Friday for horse-drawn wagon rides among a large herd of elk that has already showed up, drawn by the prospect of daily feedings of hay.

Outdoors, Elk, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, Utah Read more Comments

Slaughtered elk has been ground, wrapped and frozen in Garet Jones’ butchering facility in Liberty. Jones says he just sees this venture as an opportunity to hire some people from the valley and a chance to make some money. (CHARLES F. TRENTELMAN/Standard-Examiner)

Elk-processing operation in Ogden Valley upsets neighbors

Charles F. Trentelman Standard-Examiner

Last updated Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 6:17am

LIBERTY -- Garet Jones converted his grandfather's old bomb shelter into a meatpacking operation, but his neighbors, angry that dead elk are being cut up next door, want him to shut it down.

The dispute is awaiting a nonbinding opinion before the Utah Property Rights Ombudsman, which will decide whether butchering elk constitutes "agriculture."

Business, Agriculture, County Government, Elk, Employment, Jobs, Law, Meat industry, State government, Utah, Weber County Commission, Zoning, Featured, Hunting Read more Comments

Great Smokies elk herd adapts, learns to fend off predators

Morgan Simmons, Scripps Howard News Service

Last updated Saturday, June 18, 2011 - 4:26pm

When Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials began introducing elk a decade ago, biologists thought coyotes would be the herd's main predator.

But with every calving season, black bears proved to be a bigger problem.

In 2005, the park documented the first cases of black bears searching the fields of Cataloochee Valley to prey on newborn elk. The problem got so bad that from 2006 through 2008, wildlife officials trapped bears that were active in Cataloochee and released them at the west end of the Smokies -- far enough so that by the time the bears made their way back to their home range, the elk calves were old enough to fend for themselves.

Outdoors, Elk, Outdoor Recreation, Sports Read more Comments

Colorado wildlife officials woo nation's elk hunters

Ed Andrieski, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - 4:32pm

DENVER -- After years of watching sales of elk licenses slide, Colorado wildlife officials are launching a nationwide ad campaign to bring more hunters to the state.

The trick will be convincing people who pay hundreds of dollars for a nonresident hunting license in some states that the 23 million acres of public land and 300,000 elk in Colorado are the best in the West.

"We have exceptional elk hunting. It's very good in many of the western states," said Al Langston of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "It's up to the hunter to decide what system fits."

The Colorado Division of Wildlife gets about two-thirds of its $110 million budget from hunting and fishing licenses, but sales of elk licenses in Colorado dropped by more than 37,000 from 2005 to 2009, with revenue falling by roughly $8 million in that time, Director Tom Remington said.

Outdoors, Elk, Hunters, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, Hunting Read more Comments