Elk eating certified weed free hay from McNeil Ranch - Photo courtesy of Ken Wiley

Does human compassion fit into the natural order?

The winter of 2007-2008 was so snowy and cold in the mountains that large portions of the elk herds were starving to death. The first to go are always the young calves and the mature bulls.

Some concerned residents of the nearby mountain town of Creede, CO began feeding hay to the elk, only to learn that they were not allowed to feed hay on National Forest land unless it was certified weed-free.

Because we raise and bale certified weed-free hay on McNeil Ranch, a mutual friend suggested to the Creede residents that they could buy the necessary certified weed-free hay from us. When we discovered that they were purchasing the hay for the starving elk, we happily donated 3 tons to do our part to give the elk a fighting chance.

At that time the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW), which is charged with managing wildlife and the elk herds, had made the decision to let nature take its course and let the elk starve. This decision was untenable to the Creede residents who watched the bulls and calves get thinner and thinner, and continue to drop dead day by day, so they took it upon themselves to try to save them. It was then that they approached us about buying the certified weed-free hay, and we decided to donate it.

Shortly thereafter the CDOW reversed their decision and made the choice to begin feeding the elk, at which time they called us to inquire about purchasing our weed -free hay. We sold the CDOW most of the extra hay we had at a discounted price.

Photo courtesy of Ken Wiley

Do we choose humane treatment or accept the natural order?

It's a very difficult philosophical decision to make, whether or not to let a herd of wild animals fend for themselves in the natural environment, or to provide the necessary human intervention to keep them alive.

As compassionate and caring human beings it is heart breaking to sit idly by and watch animals suffer so horribly. We wouldn't let it happen to our livestock or pets, and it's almost impossible to not transfer that compassion and sense of humane treatment to the wild herds.

Photo Courtesy of Ken Wiley

However, from the viewpoint of a staunch naturalist, one has to look at the larger, natural picture with the realization that wildlife populations live in a harsh reality and sometimes the environment is not conducive to maintaining a large number of the species, with individual animals dying miserable deaths.

We've seen that principle in action with the waterfowl populations on our neighbor, the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, and on our own ranch, during the past few years of extreme drought. It's sad to watch, but numerous times we've seen birds nest and lay eggs, and then not have sufficient water to sustain the hatchlings. When that happens most of the baby birds die, (often a very harsh and miserable death) and there is no water available with which to intervene or help them out of their predicament.

Photo courtesy of Ken Wiley

In artificially sustaining a population we end up promoting a decreased level of herd health and vitality. Natural selection would have culled the weakest of the herd, leaving only the strongest and the healthiest to breed.

That said, we applaud the CDOW in their decision to feed the elk, and we were proud to be a part of that effort. The truth is; the herd no longer exists in a purely natural setting and hasn't for a very long time. Humans and elk herds have co-existed symbiotically for eons. In actuality, elk were previously plains animals until the settlement of the plains drove them into the mountains.

Humans have destroyed much elk habitat through settlement and development, and have created other habitat through refuges, public lands, and preserves. Livestock grazing practices have helped to destroy, and/or create elk habitat as well, (mostly create).

We have removed or drastically reduced most of the natural predators that originally co-existed with the elk and served to keep the herds strong and healthy by culling the weak and the sick.

Photo courtesy of Ken Wiley

Now the only real predation comes from humans with guns, for a 6 to 8 week period in the fall. Most of the humans, however, select the healthiest, largest, and the strongest of the herd leaving the small, sick, and weak to breed, resulting in a less than robust herd.

To say that the elk exist in a purely natural setting is inaccurate. They have been managed for decades. Because humans have been meddling with wildlife for such a long time, we feel that providing assistance to the herd this winter was the humane and the right thing to do.