Sequim elk fencing options to be aired
July 22nd, 2008 - 5:53am
(Sequim) -- You'll have an opportunity to review and comment on fencing options designed to keep the Dungeness Roosevelt Elk Herd out of Sequim.
A public meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 30th from 6 until 8 p.m. in Sequim by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, which cooperatively manage the Dungeness Elk Herd.
The meeting will take place at the Guy Cole Center at Carrie Blake Park.
State regional wildlife manager Jack Smith says the proposed options are designed to keep the 60 to 80 member elk herd primarily on public land and prevent them from occupying Sequim's urban areas and farmlands, where their presence has increasingly become a problem.
The decision to build the fence was reached after the public opposed a proposal put forward in 2006 to relocate the herd.
Since that time, the Dungeness Elk Working Team, which includes representatives from the state, the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe, city, county, other state and federal agencies, plus organizations with interest in the herd, has explored various fencing options and will now present those options to the public.
Three options have been proposed and include building a fence ranging from 3-to-10 miles long and eight feet high.
Smith says the so-called "drift" fence is open-ended and designed to cut off normal travel routes.
All three fencing options are intended to keep the elk from crossing the highway and going into the town of Sequim or farmlands north of U.S. Highway 101, while keeping them close enough for people to see them.
The options include building the barrier along the south side of the U.S. Highway 101 right-of-way, from Sequim Bay west to the Dungeness River, which would split the urban area.
Option two is building part of the fence along the south side of the highway where the elk could be viewed but kept away from the town.
The third option is building the fence south of the highway farther away from urban areas and in a more natural environment.
Costs for each option will also be discussed at the meeting.
Past estimates have placed fencing costs at more than 1-million dollars.
Tribal and state co-managers are investigating funding options and Fish and Wildlife is exploring a capital budget request of 1-million to 1-point-5 million from the state Legislature.
The co-managers and interested organizations are also discussing ways to provide additional quality forage resources in areas behind the proposed fence.
Smith says the plan is a long-term part of the solution to keep the wild, free-ranging elk herd as a part of the Sequim area landscape.
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