Endemic tule elk to range freely at Point Reyes National Seashore--National Park Service--WASO-INFO





						by Thomas Kucera
						The tule elk, a subspecies of elk endemic to California, was the dominant grazer of central and coastal California for thousands of years. Market hunting and habitat loss following the gold rush nearly drove the tule elk to extinction. The several thousand in existence today all descend from a few survivors protected in the 1870s. After an absence of nearly 130 years, 10 tule elk were reintroduced to Point Reyes National Seashore in 1978, where they were contained in a 2,600-acre, fenced reserve at Tomales Point. The population now exceeds 500. This rapid population growth on a limited reserve alerted the public, state agencies, and park staff to potential resource damage, including impacts on rare plants and an endangered butterfly, and elk die-offs due to overpopulation. Several scientific review panels and the Tule Elk Management Plan, finalized in May 1998, recommended that a free-ranging herd of tule elk be established at Point Reyes. In early December 1998, park staff, cooperators, and contractors captured 45 tule elk at Tomales Point, attached radio collars, and moved the animals to a temporary holding facility for acclimation and disease testing. They will be released after three months to become a free-ranging herd in an 18,000-acre wilderness area at Point Reyes National Seashore. To reduce the possibility of elk leaving the park and causing agricultural and other damage, Point Reyes National Seashore staff selected a new range that would be as attractive as possible to the elk. This range is a recently burned wilderness that has been free of livestock for more than 20 years and is isolated by a steep, densely forested ridge that rises over 1,000 feet. All animals carry radio collars, and close monitoring by field personnel for the next several years will allow early detection of trouble. Soon visitors will be able to see tule elk grazing on native range behind no fences, somewhat as Sir Francis Drake described 500 years ago: “infinite was the company of very large and fat Deere, which there we saw by thousands as we supposed in a herd.” The restoration of free-ranging tule elk to the coastal ecosystem will leave only one large mammalian component missing: the grizzly bear. That restoration, however, is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

			The free-ranging elk will wear radio collars, allowing staff to closely monitor their movements. thomas_kucera@nps.gov Wildlife Biologist, Point Reyes National Seashore, California CANON CONTINUES SUPPORT For the fourth year in a row, Canon U.S.A., Inc., donated $1 million in cash and equipment to parks through the National Park Foundation to support biological research and resource management. During the year, this program, called “Expedition Into the Parks,” funded 17 projects in 16 parks. In Denali National Park and Preserve, staff conducted an intensive, data-rich survey of grizzly and black bear habitats using Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning Systems. This information will help direct recreational planning in the area of the park south of the Alaska Range. Back to Chapter 5: Resource Restoration Great expectations for the black-footed ferret at Badlands by Glenn E. Plumb, Ph.D., and Bruce Bessken Piping plover on the increase at Sleeping Bear Dunes by Max W. Holden Hatches Harbor: Progress on restoring a salt marsh by Norm Farris Partners restore wetland in the Santa Monica Mountains NRA by John Tiszler, Jim Benedict, Lisa Edgington, and Alan Hsu Relief funds expedite watershed restoration program by Darci Short Home

/YearInReview/yir/yir98/chapter05/chapter05pg1.html
Last Updated: 07/22/99
Direct comments on this website to jeff_selleck@nps.gov
This article is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1998, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in June 1999 (publication D-1346)