SEQUIM — Prime forage land for the Sequim elk herd has been created, compliments of the National Forest Service and other wildlife preservation groups that have worked hard to create a plush green mountain meadow on historic elk habitat near Caraco and Canyon creeks in the Upper Dungeness River watershed.
Since 2005, about $88,000 has gone into the project to improve habitat in the large land mammal’s historic calving grounds in Olympic National Forest.
There’s only one drawback.
No elk can be found there now that the restoration project has matured.
“The elk decided to camp out in Sequim more than come here,” said Kurt Aluzas, the National Forest Service wildlife biologist who successfully secured federal funding and in-kind volunteer labor from elk preservation groups and others for the project.
Aluzas expressed disappointment last week to a group on a tour of Olympic National Forest restoration projects in the Upper Dungeness River watershed south of Sequim and Carlsborg.
He said the improvements, however, have greatly improved forage grounds for deer and other small mammals and birds.
The Sequim elk, the big chocolate-brown critters that inspired Sequim’s statues at entrances to town, love the relatively remote, undisturbed Dungeness Valley lowlands.
Rich green farm fields run roughly from the south end of Schmuck Road near Washington Harbor at West Sequim Bay northward to Graysmarsh Farm near SunLand and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Those fields produce fertile crops of pasture grass, grains and other enticing foods that drive the 700- to 1,000-pound symbol of Sequim, well, quite wild.
“I call it elk heroin,” joked Sgt. Phil Henry, a longtime state Department of Fish & Wildlife agent whose territory includes East Jefferson and East Clallam counties.
Alfalfa, miles of feed grain, even field corn is the elk forage of choice.
“Trying to get elk off that is like, well, good luck with that,” Henry added.
He said the primary band of elk has remained at a population of between 40 and 70 but totals about 90 to 100 around the Dungeness Valley, often breaking off in smaller groups of cows, calves and bulls.
The Forest Service elk restoration project covers about 200 acres and is in addition to more than 120 acres of understory tree thinning and 15 acres of meadow grass enhancement, invasive weed treatment and brush piling, which translates into about 364 acres of habitat creation for animals, Forest Service officials said.
Besides federal funding, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation contributed to the project.
Partnerships for the projects in the Caraco area include the Dungeness Elk Working Team, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation, Ruffed Grouse Society, Clallam Americorps, Jefferson County 4-H, state Department of Fish & Wildlife and Washington Conservation Corps.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe has played a strong role in elk resource planning and management.
In the late 1990s, some members of the Sequim elk herd were tranquilized and airlifted to Brinnon.
Talk about building an elk fence from the Dungeness River to Blyn began after the five-mile U.S. Highway 101 bypass was built in south Sequim from 1997-1999.
The debate over elk fences returned in 2007 with a committee envisioning an 8-foot-high, 9-mile-long barrier, paid for by state, local and tribal governments, but nothing materialized.
While elk vs. motor vehicle fatalities, especially those involving timber industry semi-trucks, dramatically subsided after the highway bypass was opened, some of the elk have been known to occasionally hop barbed-wire fences and cross the highway, causing temporary traffic jams.
Perhaps it is because the grass is greener on the other side.
Revered by some who live in Sequim and detested by farmers because their heavy hooves are known to damage rain-soggy pastures in the winter, the elk go where they want to go, said the National Forest Service’s Susan Piper.
“We would never be able to pull all of the elk off the private land,” said Piper, who is coordinating the Dungeness Watershed Action Plan’s workings.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.