Central Idaho elk feeders say herd needs help

KETCHUM, Idaho - A herd of central Idaho elk, whose supply of hay from a private school was cut off when a neighborhood association filed a lawsuit, is still being fed, sometimes on the sly.

"When we started this, it was considered an emergency situation because the elk were dying," said Randy Acker, a veterinarian at the Sun Valley Animal Center.

The Community School campus at Sagewillow in the Elkhorn foothills was feeding the herd of 30 to 55 elk. But the feeding stopped in December after the Sagewillow Homeowners Association filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing that the elk were eating trees and ornamental shrubbery on their properties.

After two elk were found dead on Feb. 5, Acker and Elkhorn resident Marcee Graff began feeding the elk alfalfa-timothy grass cubes on a private driveway near the entrance to the school campus.

"What we're doing is legal because we have the homeowner's permission," Graff told the Idaho Mountain Express. "I have no idea who is kicking out the hay bales."

Sun Valley police Chief Cameron Daggett said someone twice in February spread hay on Community School property.

"It's not illegal to feed, it's just illegal to trespass," Daggett said.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game determined that the two dead elk ate a nonnative ornamental shrub that's poisonous, and didn't starve to death.

"From our observations, the condition of the elk has remained from fair to good throughout the winter," said Regan Berkley, a Magic Valley regional wildlife biologist. "I was up there a week ago and the elk I saw I would say are in good condition."

Graff said the good condition of the elk is a result of the feed being put out.

"To me that says that we might be helping them with the supplemental feedings," said Graff. "We're really just trying to keep as many alive as we can. If you just stop feeding them cold, we know there will be way more than normal winter kill."

Berkley said that the elk, if not being fed, would find natural forage in canyons. But she said they will remain in the area while food is being put out.

"That's certainly a big part of it," she said. "But also, that area is historic winter range. And the third reason is that some of the ornamental shrubs planted up there make pretty tasty elk food."