Economic Analysis of Alternative Bison and Elk Management Practices on the National Elk Refuge and Grand Teton National Park: A Comparison of Visitor and Household Reponses

Loomis, John; Caughlan, Lynne

In 1998 the Fund for Animals (FFA) sued the U.S. government for pending management actions (i.e., public hunting) for the 400 wild, free-ranging bison that inhabited Grand Teton National Park, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and the National Elk Refuge (the “Jackson Bison Herd”). The FFA claimed that the 1996 2 interagency Jackson Bison Herd Long Term Management Plan and Environmental Assessment had failed to adequately address the effects of winter-feeding of elk at the NER on the Jackson bison herd. The Washington DC district court judge agreed and enjoined fatal management actions of bison on federal lands, while ordering additional NEPA compliance on bison management activities on the DOI lands. The NPS and FWS withdrew its original finding of no significant impact of 1997 and began planning for additional NEPA compliance needs in the form of an EIS. The FWS and NPS, as joint lead agencies, published a Notice of Intent for a bison and elk management plan/EIS on July 18, 2001. Overall planning for elk management, through the Comprehensive Conservation Planning (CCP) process directed by the Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, was scheduled to begin about 2003. Since DOI bison management had been enjoined and were required to analyze the winter elk feeding program on the NER, the most significant FWS management action besides hunting, the FWS and NPS chose to address both issues, bison and elk management, together in a single, comprehensive plan for management of both species. A range of alternatives for managing the bison and elk herds in the project area will be developed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). A general map of the management planning area is shown in Figure 1. The Department of Justice filed the DOI’s schedule for that process with the Washington DC district court last August. The latest schedule calls for release of a draft EIS to the public on November 1, 2003, and a final on January 2005.