A coalition of conservation groups are taking the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service to court over its proposal to postpone phasing out winter feeding at the National Elk Refuge. Recent winters have seen more than eight thousand elk crowded on Refuge feedlines for alfalfa pellets provided by the agency. Connie Wilbert with the Sierra Club’s Wyoming Chapter which is one of the groups joining the lawsuit, says the time for Fish and Wildlife to take steps to prevent the potentially catastrophic spread of disease is now. Wilbert says the current lawsuit argues, among other things, that the Fish and Wildlife Step-Down Plan ignores advice from its own former Chief of Wildlife Health who warned the plan “still leaves a substantial risk of catastrophic disease propagation.”
Supplemental feeding on the refuge began last weekend and will attempt to end the feed season earlier than average as the conditions allow.
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