Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit to challenge a Jackson Elk feeding ground. The area is at Alkali Creek in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The Wyoming Game and Fish manages feeding grounds as a strategy to bait and concentrate animals for an extended period of time. The goal is to protect the vulnerable animals from harsh conditions and predators.
The U.S. Forest Service permitted this particular feeding ground for the Jackson Elk. But Sierra Club’s Lloyd Dorsey said these feeding grounds aren’t protection at all.
He said, “That prohibits the elk from migrating to their native winter ranges and sustaining themselves on natural forage as they have for centuries and millennia.”
Dorsey adds the grounds cause fatal diseases to spread which could end up hurting the population. That includes chronic wasting disease and hoof rot.