BLYN — There doesn’t appear to be an “elk problem” anymore around Sequim, a panel of biologists and other ungulate watchers agreed this week.
“But we’re kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Jack Smith, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Olympic region manager.
The 60 Roosevelt elk — mostly cows — in the Dungeness herd are healthy, Smith added.
They spend a lot of time on farmland north of U.S. Highway 101, where “we’ve created a de facto elk refuge,” said Bruce Moorhead, a retired Olympic National Park biologist.
Down on the farm, the animals live on “good groceries,” of corn, hay and other crops, he added.
But that can’t go on forever.
Conflicts with farmers and with the growing city of Sequim are inevitable, Moorhead and Smith say.
So they and 10 other members of the Dungeness Elk Working Team met Tuesday at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center.
Together they revisited a plan to build a fence to keep the 400- to 1,000-pound animals south of U.S. Highway 101.
Fish and Wildlife and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, co-managers of the Dungeness herd, plan a public meeting on fence-route possibilities July 30 at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim.
Smith said it will be an evening forum, but no start time has been set.
