Elk in Packwood could soon be hunted

They amble and lollygag about town, visiting, snacking and snoozing.

The elk of Packwood, a town of about 1,500 in the Cascade foothills, are as much a signature here as logging used to be before this community turned to tourism and recreation for most of its dollars.

So it's no surprise there's an uproar over a state proposal — after 15 citizen complaints of elk damage — to allow hunting of the town's celebrity residents in a new area: a mile-deep corridor along both sides of Highway 12 from Morton through Packwood. There were seven complaints in 2007.

The proposal is among a range of ideas — from harvesting and harassing some of the animals to doing nothing — in response to damage complaints. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is still in the information- and public-opinion-gathering phase, which will include a town meeting in Packwood on Friday.

"It's going to be a war," predicted Temple Riddle, an outspoken opponent of any hunt on the town's elk.

For the department, the situation is all too familiar. All over Western Washington, from Sequim to North Bend to the Skagit River Valley, as people move their homes and recreational cabins into traditional elk winter range in the river bottoms, they are first delighted at the big animals cruising past their windows — then annoyed when elk eat their tasty gardens.

As the elk multiply on the new, easy pickings and become acclimated to people, the problems, from trampled fences to munched crops and car-elk collisions, grow.

Feeding elk — legal under state law — exacerbates the problem. Tame elk gambol across property lines to accept everything from apples bowled across the lawn by enthralled homeowners to snacks of carrots, offered by hand, and even steady feedings of alfalfa all winter long.

"I spent $500 on alfalfa last year," said Bill Serrahn, who last year began dividing his time between his new Packwood home and his Lake Union condo. A photo of an elk, taken from only a carrot's length away, adorns one wall. Picture windows look out to the backyard, where Serrahn likes to watch 25 or more elk peacefully chew their cud after he feeds them.

If anything, he'd like to see a larger no-shooting zone in town, not more hunting areas, "and I definitely don't think it's sporting for them to hunt around town," Serrahn said. "I could walk up to an elk right there and hit it in the head; they know me."

Others see too much of a good thing.

"I think they are tasty, that's what I think," said Paul Hartzell, a customer at the local auto-repair shop. "If I see them, I'll shoot them. They should do it."

Jim Beslow, the store's owner, said he's not looking for any more car wrecks in town with elk sauntering across Highway 12 at all hours. "I don't want to see people get hurt; they get hurt enough. We've been having a lot of cars smashed up.

"And there is no apple trees. No flowers. They are after everything in your yard."

But even he wonders about an in-town hunt. "The elk, they are a good deal and a bad deal. The good deal is they have put Packwood on the map. People love the idea of the elk. I think they are here to stay."

That would suit Barb Moeller, a biologist with the Puyallup Tribe, which opposes creating the new hunting area. The tribe has monitored elk populations in the area and estimates there are about 815 animals today, down from 938 in 2006. "This is so insane," Moeller said. "They are proposing to create an elk area on either side of a highway with dense traffic. It's ridiculous, it's not practical, it's not based on any scientific data."

David Ware, manager of the wildlife division of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the focus isn't on population numbers but on responding to complaints. "We are not looking at reducing the size of the herd; we are looking at relieving damage, and once the complaints die down, that is enough."

Depending on how the state's proposal is shaped, no-shooting areas established by county ordinance might not apply, under an exemption for wildlife-management measures. Private-property owners would still be able to exclude hunters from their own land.

Antlerless yearlings and cows might be targeted, and a range of weapons, from bows to firearms, is under consideration. The department also is evaluating a hunt on cow elk in the Davis Lake Valley, east of Morton.

The department will make its recommendation to the Fish and Wildlife Commission, which will make a decision after more public comments next year.

Some avid hunters cringe at the prospect of a PR nightmare if an in-town hunt is approved. Jack Bowers carves his own English longbows from native vine maple, and he enjoys the simplicity and skill of taking an animal with nothing more than a stick and a string.

"I don't want to see animals killed as a public display. The publicity will be ugly, and the animals deserve more dignity," Bowers said.

"The modern hunter takes a black eye as it is; there is no reason to make it worse. Like when you are standing on a curb shooting across a parking lot."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com