Today, on behalf of our clients—Western Watersheds Project, Sierra Club, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, and Gallatin Wildlife Association—we filed a Petition for Review of Agency Action (“Petition”) challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s (“the Service’s”) authorization of artificial feeding of wild elk on the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. Although the artificial feeding of elk began with the well-intentioned goal of curbing winter mortality, today, the practice is intended to ensure successful outings for elk hunters and to prohibit wild elk from migrating through private land. There is nearly universal scientific consensus that the artificial feeding program threatens devastating consequences for the health of the herds found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—the largest remaining ecosystem in the lower 48 states. Congregating unnaturally dense quantities of wild elk on feedgrounds accelerates the spread of highly infectious diseases, such as brucellosis and Chronic Wasting Disease (“CWD”)—the equivalent of “Mad Cow Disease” in elk. There are no known instances in which elk infected by CWD have recovered from the disease. Notwithstanding the well-known dangers posed by these diseases and artificial feedgrounds’ role in accelerating their spread, the Service has decided to authorize the Wyoming Game and Fish Game Commission to continue feeding wild elk on National Forest System lands for an indefinite time period—all without conducting any of the environmental analysis required under federal law. The Petition filed today, therefore, challenges the Service’s failure to examine the lethal implications of its decision and encourages the Service to examine alternatives to the feeding program that ensure the continued existence of one of Wyoming’s most iconic species. A copy of the Petition can be found here .

(Photo Courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/sounds-elk.htm)