SEQUIM — Zero elk north of U.S. Highway 101.
That’s the goal agreed upon by members of the Dungeness Elk Working Team, which held its monthly wrestling session Thursday at Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park.
The path toward the goal is what the team wrestles with.
The elk — 69 adults and 15 to 20 calves — cannot stay in Sequim, even if they are the icons adorning the city’s entrances.
Urban growth and elk don’t mix, said Sequim Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham.
As much as Sequim residents may enjoy seeing the animals, “the city is not a zoo. We have to allow our property owners to develop,” in accordance with zoning laws, Needham said.
The state Growth Management Act, he said, calls for “a minimum of four units per acre.”
Much of the open space within Sequim is “fields today,” he said, but “tomorrow it will be homes.”
As subdivisions proliferated, the animals moved to Gary Smith’s farm, where they have caused considerable crop damage.
State Fish and Wildlife Department Sgt. Phil Henry recently processed Smith’s claims for compensation and recommended just under $35,000 be paid out to Smith this spring.
Jerry Angiuli, a hunter who helps the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe control herd numbers, was on the Working Team subcommittee that drew up short-term elk management goals.
Among the goals he presented at Thursday’s meeting was issuing special hunting permits to reduce the herd to 50 to 60 elk.
“The hunting part of that is planned to go along those lines, to allow the taking of that many,” said Jack Smith, state Fish and Wildlife regional manager.
Fish and Wildlife and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe are co-managers of the Dungeness herd.