Event
The Elk of Mount Rainier: Then and Now | Peak Perspectives:125th Anniversary Speaker Series
Fee:
Free.Location: LAT/LONG: 47.000000, -122.000000
Paradise Inn Great Room
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Description
Elk are key ecological and cultural components of the Mount Rainier Ecosystem. Although the historical record is incomplete, it indicates that elk were rare or even absent in the current area of Mount Rainier National Park when it was established 1899. Elk populations were reestablished or bolstered, however, through several translocations of elk from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks to lands adjacent to the park in 1912–1915 and 1932–1933. Elk numbers increased by the 1960s as elk established a migratory tradition of using subalpine meadows within the park as summer range and migrating annually to winter ranges north and south of the park. Today, portions of two primary elk herds, the North Rainier and South Rainier herds use the park’s renowned subalpine meadows seasonally as summer range. Viewing elk in Mount Rainier National Park is now a touchstone for multitudes of park visitors each year while hunting elk outside of the park’s boundary remains a key cultural connection of Native American Tribes and sport hunters.
For decades Federal, Tribal, and State biologists have collaborated in monitoring trends in use of Mount Rainier National Park by these migratory elk herds. The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, since 1996 has become a leader in studying the movements, nutrition, and ecology of elk using Mount Rainier’s northern slopes during summer. For the 125th Anniversary of Mount Rainier National Park, join Science Emeriti Drs. Kurt Jenkins (USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center) and David Vales (Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Wildlife Program) in this presentation reviewing the history and key findings of population trends and movement patterns of elk in Mount Rainier with a focus on the population component that summers on the mountain’s northern flank.
Reservation or Registration: No
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