SEQUIM — Imagine this: A public elk viewing area.
On donated or federal land, with food furnished by elk supporters.
Herds of spectators stream past, happy to pay for the privilege of admiring Sequim’s signature animal.
That’s the brainchild conceived by the Elk Habitat Committee, a group of elk advocates who don’t want to see the Sequim herd moved.
Hearing talk in recent weeks of relocation or “reduction,” as in killing at least a portion of the 80-animal herd, they are determined to find other options.
The 8-year-old habitat committee, which has sought to protect elk range in the Dungeness Valley and to educate people via informational kiosks in and around Sequim, hosted a public meeting Tuesday.
Seventeen people, in addition to five committee members, attended.
Their passion, however, was plentiful.
‘They mean so much to us’
Neither the committee nor its guests at the meeting want to see the elk moved out of Sequim, though that is the preferred alternative of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, co-manager of the herd.
“They mean so much to us,” said Irene Darrow, 65.
She moved here three years ago from Green Valley, Ariz., for love of wild land and animals.
“I want my grandchildren to be able to see the elk,” she said.
