SEQUIM — Twelve young elk born this summer visit Jessica Coyle daily at her home on the Graysmarsh farm northeast of town.
The calves bring Sequim’s resident elk population up over 80.
Most have to go, according to the herd’s co-managers, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
To use an overworked buzzphrase, a perfect storm pushed the animals away.
First came rough winter weather in the mid-1990s, that drove the elk down toward the farm fields.
Crop damage has escalated since. So has housing development.
Here, then, is the plan:
A helicopter would herd the elk into a big corral, aka a trap, on a farm where they forage. The ungulates would be loaded into trailers and transported to the Wynoochee Valley on the southern Olympic Peninsula.
That place is “elk heaven,” according to Fish and Wildlife region manager Jack Smith.
Location swapping
Smith is the architect of the relocation plan, which involves swapping: As the Dungeness elk go south, an equal number from the Wynoochee herd would be brought to the Snow Creek area near Discovery Bay.
And though the transfer won’t happen until February 2008 at the earliest — after the state Legislature allocates funding — the Dungeness Elk Working Team agonized over it again Thursday.
The team, made up of Fish and Wildlife officials, Jeremy Sage of the Point No Point Treaty Council and others concerned about Sequim’s resident herd, has devoted many months to the “elk problem.”
Taking the elk away from Sequim is the preferred alternative, but the team has no illusions about the public’s reaction.
So Thursday’s three-hour session focused on planning the public meeting set for Tuesday, Aug. 29, at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.
The meeting is to be a cross between venting spleens and vetting the plan, said Fish and Wildlife biologist Richard Stone.
“We’re looking for some input,” he said.
