This year’s elk reduction program begins Saturday, Oct. 18, in Grand Teton National Park. In a press release the park said that the changes that were made last year will be continued for the 2014 season. Those changes include: a requirement that hunters participating in the program use non-lead ammunition; a limit to the number of cartridges hunters may carry each day; and the closure of a portion of the Snake River bottom to reduce the chance of grizzly encounters with hunters.

Grand Teton National Park is authorized by federal law to conduct an elk reduction program—when necessary—for conservation of the Jackson elk population. Legislation also directs Grand Teton to jointly develop this program with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and for the Governor of Wyoming and Secretary of the Interior Department to approve the annual plan. Biologists and administrators from both agencies have reviewed available biological data and concluded that the 2014 program is necessary to keep the Jackson elk herd at, or near, objective and maintain a desired distribution of elk throughout their natural range.

The park says its elk reduction program is an important management tool that differs somewhat from other elk hunting programs in the region. The use of archery, hand guns or non-center fire ammunition rifles is not permitted, nor is the use of artificial elk calls. In addition, hunters, regardless of age, are required to carry a hunter education card, and to carry and have immediately accessible bear spray as a non-lethal deterrent for use during potential bear encounters. Information packets accompanying each permit warn hunters of the risk of bear encounters and offer tips on how to minimize the probability of human-bear conflicts.

The need for this reduction program stems partly from an intensive management framework that includes annual winter feeding programs on the National Elk Refuge and in the upper Gros Ventre drainage. Feeding sustains high numbers of elk with unnaturally low mortality rates. A majority of elk that are fed during the winter on the Refuge also summer in Grand Teton National Park or use migration routes across park lands. The reduction program targets elk from three primary herd segments: Grand Teton, southern Yellowstone National Park, and the Teton Wilderness area of Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The elk reduction program utilizes Wyoming-licensed hunters that apply for and receive a limited quota permit to hunt in designated areas 75 and 79: both of which are inside the park but east of the Snake River.

A brochure on elk ecology with a map showing locations open to these special permit hunters is available online at http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/elkhunt.htm.

Each fall, park rangers intensively monitor and patrol elk reduction areas to ensure compliance with rules and regulations, interpret the elk reduction program to visitors, and provide hunters with information on local conditions associated with this wildlife management policy. To reach the information line for the 2014 elk reduction program, phone 307.739.3681.

This article appeared on the Teton Valley News website on October 15, 2014.