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be used. Forage palatability, digestibility, nutrient content, and availability influence diet
selection. Seasonal variation in these factors influences the importance of various forage plants
and specific areas used by feeding elk. When forage quality falls below what elk need to
maintain nutritional requirements, body fat reserves are utilized and ultimately physical
condition deteriorates. If this occurs over an extended period, such as a long, hard winter, fat
reserves are depleted and loss of muscle occurs. During such conditions animals are more
susceptible to accidents, disease, predation, and winterkill. Among pregnant cows, calf
production and survival are reduced when cows experience a weight loss of more than 15 percent
of their body weight. Death is likely for an elk if over-winter weight loss exceeds 30 percent of
body weight.
Current forage conditions on most elk ranges are the result of forest and range management, and
livestock grazing, which are under the control of public land management agencies (i.e., USFS
and BLM) and private landowners. ODFW has direct management authority over very little
habitat. On some public lands, developments such as roads, trails, and campgrounds, and
disturbance from recreational and management activities increasingly influence available forage.
On some ranges, disturbance has been severe enough to displace elk onto adjacent private lands.
Forage use on private lands also is an issue. The challenge is generally one of addressing damage
complaints due to elk using forage intended for livestock and damage to fences.
Management Practices Affecting Elk Habitat
Forest Management:
Logging, thinning, prescribed burning, road management, and other forest
management practices can maintain, enhance, or degrade elk habitat. The effects of these
activities depend on whether elk habitat was a consideration during project design and how the
project objectives relate to the habitat requirements of elk in the area. Valuable cover or forage
can be lost through removal or rendered unusable by continued or increased human disturbance
as a result of the project. However, if the project was designed with elk as an objective,
management can improve the distribution of cover and forage, enhance forage quality and
quantity, and maintain cover structure to meet thermal and security requirements.
Forest management on public lands in Oregon has changed emphasis in the past decade.
Emphasis is now on ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ that seeks to obtain balanced and functioning plant
and animal communities. New Forest Plan standards and guidelines have been introduced into
the local Forest Service operational plans. In Western Oregon, the “President’s Forest Plan” has
placed an emphasis on maintaining and promoting late succession forest conditions. In Eastern
Oregon, the “Regional Forester’s Plan Amendment” has a similar effect in protecting and
promoting ‘Late and Old Structure’. These plans have resulted in a virtual elimination of clear-
cut logging practices and a significant reduction in the harvest of large trees even in selective
logging projects. This also is coupled with long-term fire protection to result in densely stocked
to overstocked tree stands in some areas. The result is federal forestlands in Western Oregon are
increasingly lacking in adequate forage conditions. In Eastern Oregon, a large emphasis has been
placed on thinning forest stands to reduce the threat of fire and disease, resulting in reduced
hiding cover. Inadequate hiding cover in conjunction with a high level of motorized travel can
preclude elk from optimum utilization of habitat and can contribute to the redistribution of elk to
private lands. The ‘Desired Future Condition’ of forestlands from a federal land manager’s point