The new elk proposal: A fence from the Dungeness River to 7 Cedars Casino
Published 2:06 am Wednesday, January 17, 2007
BLYN – Herding, hazing, fencing, taxes. Those are a few elk-management alternatives, resurrected during a Tuesday meeting of the co-managers of the Dungeness herd of Roosevelt elk.
They’re possibilities brought back onto the table after a plan to relocate the iconic ungulates brought a large public outcry.
Last August, a public meeting in Sequim turned into an hourslong haranguing of the herd’s managers, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Don’t kick us out . . . just fence us out; save our elk,” read a sign held high by Carol Wickersham, one of the Sequim residents at the meeting.
Then came scores of letters and e-mails from the public to Fish and Wildlife region manager Jack Smith.
“The people didn’t like the idea of separating the elk from the city of Sequim. . . . They said, ‘We’d like to retain the elk as part of the community,'” Smith said.
Some letter writers complained that “fencing hadn’t been explored enough as an option.”
