1 2 3 4 Washington State Elk Herd Plan 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NORTH RAINIER ELK HERD 12 13 14 15 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 16 Wildlife Program 17 600 Capitol Way North 18 Olympia, WA 98501-1091 19 20 21 Prepared by 22 23 Michelle Tirhi, Wildlife Biologist, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 24 25 David Vales, Wildlife Biologist, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe 26 27 Mike Smith, Wildlife Biologist, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 28 29 30 November 2019 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Director, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 38 Date 39 40 May 2019 i Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 41 TABLE OF CONTENTS 42 TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................................. II 43 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................................... III 44 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................................... IV 45 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ V 46 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... VII 47 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 48 THE PLAN ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1 49 THE HERD ..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 50 HERD AREA DESCRIPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4 51 LOCATION ..................................................................................................................................................................... 4 52 OWNERSHIP AND LAND USE ............................................................................................................................................. 4 53 TOPOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................................ 8 54 NATIVE VEGETATION ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 55 HUMAN INFLUENCES ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 56 OTHER PROMINENT WILDLIFE SPECIES .............................................................................................................................. 11 57 HERD DISTRIBUTION ............................................................................................................................................ 13 58 HISTORICAL DISTRIBUTION ............................................................................................................................................. 13 59 CURRENT DISTRIBUTION................................................................................................................................................. 13 60 POTENTIAL FUTURE DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................................................................... 15 61 MUCKLESHOOT INDIAN TRIBE ELK POPULATION STUDIES ............................................................. 16 62 STUDY AREAS............................................................................................................................................................... 16 63 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................................... 16 64 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 19 65 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................................. 24 66 HERD MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................................... 26 67 ESTIMATED POPULATION SIZE AND OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................... 26 68 POPULATION HISTORY AND STATUS BY UNIT ...................................................................................................................... 26 69 HERD COMPOSITION ..................................................................................................................................................... 36 70 HARVEST ..................................................................................................................................................................... 38 71 ILLEGAL ELK HARVEST ..................................................................................................................................................... 51 72 PREDATORS ................................................................................................................................................................. 52 73 VEHICLE-ELK COLLISIONS ............................................................................................................................................... 52 74 PARASITES, DISEASE AND ILLNESS .................................................................................................................................... 53 75 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUES ...................................................................................................................................... 55 76 ELK-RELATED AGRICULTURAL CONFLICTS ........................................................................................................................... 57 77 NUTRITION .................................................................................................................................................................. 59 78 HABITAT MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................................ 61 79 HERD MANAGEMENT GOALS ............................................................................................................................... 71 80 MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES ..................................................................................................... 71 81 SPENDING PRIORITIES .......................................................................................................................................... 76 82 PLAN REVIEW AND MAINTENANCE ...................................................................................................................... 76 May 2019 ii Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 83 LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................................................... 77 84 APPENDICES......................................................................................................................................................... 84 85 APPENDIX A: GREEN RIVER GMU 485 ELK AUGMENTATION – 2002 FINAL REPORT ................................................................ 84 86 APPENDIX B: ELK HUNTING SEASONS IN THE NORTH RAINIER ELK HERD AREA 2002-2017A ...................................................... 96 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 List of Figures 94 95 Figure 1. Ownership within the North Rainier Elk Herd Area, 2017 ........................................................................... 5 96 Figure 2. Land use within the North Rainier Elk Herd Use Area, 2017 ....................................................................... 7 97 Figure 3. Modeled potential natural vegetation zones within the North Rainier Elk Herd Use Area ........................... 9 98 Figure 4. Elk Area 4601, 2017 .................................................................................................................................... 11 99 Figure 5. Elk Areas in the North Rainier Elk Herd area, 2017 ................................................................................... 12 100 Figure 6. Muckleshoot Indian Tribe elk study area, showing important survey areas, 2018 ...................................... 17 101 Figure 7. Examples of elk migration for 3 GPS-marked elk in GMU 653 .................................................................. 23 102 Figure 8. Counts and estimates of elk numbers in the Green River unit (GMU 485) 1986-2017............................... 29 103 Figure 9. Mount Rainier National Park fall elk trend estimates from aerial surveys .................................................. 32 104 Figure 10. GMU 653 survey results...........................................................................................................................