Hanford Elk Roundup Set to Begin Monday

A pair of helicopter cowboys will round up dozens of elk at the Hanford nuclear reservation on Monday for truck transport to the Selkirk and Blue mountains on the easternmost side of the state.

The fertile, healthy herd has been trampling fragile desert vegetation and dining on nearby crops, annoying farmers and ranchers and costing the state money in damage claims.

The Hanford herd is believed to have migrated to the Rattlesnake Hills in south-central Washington from the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range in the 1970s.

It grew from 40 head in 1983 to an estimated 1,000 now and is forecast to double in size every four years without intervention.

State and federal wildlife employees hope to corral about 50 elk on Monday and 200 total by the end of the week.

Several ranchers have volunteered their own trucks and livestock trailers to haul the elk from Hanford’s no-hunting Arid Lands Ecology Reserve to the Selkirks in Pend Oreille County in northeastern Washington and the Blues in Asotin County in southeastern Washington.

“One of the anecdotes I heard is that the ranchers say the elk are easier to transport than cattle because they don’t move around”--probably due to “stark terror,” said Susan Saul, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Ore.

Two helicopters will be used to herd the elk into a figure-eight corral. The bulls will be separated out, tranquilized and returned to another part of the 120-square-mile reserve, which serves as a buffer zone on the western edge of Hanford, the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation.

Only cows and calves will be relocated, because the bulls are too difficult to handle, Saul said.

“The cows are pregnant. Moving a cow is probably moving at least two animals,” he said.

The herd has been deemed healthy after radiological and disease testing. Twenty elk were moved to the Selkirk Range last month.

So far, “they seem to be making themselves at home,” said Madonna Luers, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in Spokane. “We hope that’s what happens with these.”

Many of the animals will be marked for tracking, and some will be outfitted with radio collars, she said.

A veterinarian will be on site for the roundup.

“Any time wildlife is captured and handled or moved, there is always risk of injury or mortality,” Saul said. “All we can do is plan the operation to minimize those risks as much as possible.”

Should any deaths occur, members of the Yakama Nation will be on hand to butcher the animals on site. The tribe also will receive any antlers removed from bulls in the corral, Saul said.