The 2008 Joint Meeting of the Society for Range Management and the America Forage and Grassland Council. |
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
54
A Winter Range Comparison Index
Michael R. Frisina, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 1330 West Gold Street, Butte, MT 59701 and Carl L. Wambolt, Animal and Range Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717.
We describe an index for intensity of historic elk use (Cervus elaphus) to address concerns over increasing elk populations on Montana’s state-owned Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). The index compares use on 13 Montana winter ranges including the Northern Yellowstone Range (NYR), 10 state-owned WMAs, and 2 privately-owned ranches. The NYR is recognized as intensely used by elk due to the documentation of impacts on browse. Therefore, it is used as a baseline for comparison with the other areas. Seven of the 10 WMAs and the privately-owned Sun Ranch have indices indicating a higher intensity of elk use than the NYR. The NYR is unique in that it winters large numbers of bison (Bison bison) in addition to elk. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate bison into the NYR index. Elk numbers have declined as the bison population has increased. Bison may be taking advantage of a habitat void created by reduced elk numbers. Our index may be useful for prioritizing WMAs for vegetation monitoring. WMAs with more intense elk use than the NYR should be priority areas for monitoring.