Pacific Northwest Research Station

Western Oregon and Washington Elk Nutrition and Habitat Models

Calf elk. Photo by Rachel Cook.

Project Update

Model selection and validation are now complete for the west-side elk habitat models; a comprehensive summary of this phase of the project is available. Biologists and planners with the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and several tribal nations have applied the west-side models and reported their results back to the modeling team. The team is now completing a comprehensive monograph that will provide the scientific foundation for long-term, credible management use of these new tools.

Stark differences in vegetation and potential differences in elk nutritional resources exist between southwest Oregon and the west-side modeling region. To address these differences, scientists collected additional data in 2011 using tame elk in grazing trials throughout this corner of the state. Nutritional analyses are now complete, and the team is developing a new nutrition model for southwest Oregon that can be incorporated into the west-side habitat use model and subsequently applied in this region.

What’s Next?

Federal land management agencies in Oregon and Washington plan to formally adopt the elk nutrition and habitat use models in management in early 2013. The modeling team will continue to offer training sessions and other technology transfer activities to help managers with efficient and timely application of the models. Please contact Barb Wales (bwales@fs.fed.us) for technical assistance with the west-side models.

Workshop 2011

The elk modeling team hosted the second and final west-side elk habitat modeling workshop over two
days – Tuesday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 6 – at the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Portland.

Agenda

Presentations

On Tuesday, over 100 attendees listened to a full day’s slate of presentations (see links above) describing the project background, modeling methods, the final models and results of their validation, model application in example landscapes, and a project summary. The afternoon’s presentations included talks by project beta testers, who had worked with the modeling team to test-drive the models in their home offices and then applied the models to on-the-ground projects in their own areas. On Wednesday, a smaller group of modeling enthusiasts returned for a hands-on demonstration of the suite of “toolboxes” used to apply the elk nutrition and habitat use models on the landscape.

Videos of the presentations from this workshop are available on DVD; please contact Bridgett Naylor (bnaylor@fs.fed.us) if you would like a copy.

Workshop 2010

The first of two planned workshops, “Elk Habitat Selection in Western Oregon and Washington: Models for
a New Century,” was held on April 19-20, 2010, at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University in
Corvallis, OR.

Agenda

Presentations

Over 120 biologists and land managers from a variety of state, federal, tribal, academic, and private organizations gathered for two days to learn about new approaches to modeling elk habitat selection in western Oregon and Washington. Members of the interagency team conducting this project described the background of the work and shared draft modeling results and example management applications through a series of presentations (see links above). During a second day of breakout groups, the team received feedback about the model components and its applicability in west-side elk management. A summary of the workshop findings is available.

Modeling team member Jennifer Hafer explains details during the hands-on model demonstration at the 2011 workshop in Portland. Photo by Frank Vanni.