Vegetation Responses to Supplemental Winter Feeding of Elk in Western Wyoming

Abstract

ABSTRACT. To compensate for losses in overwintering habitat, elk are fed hay in winter at approximately 37 locations throughout the western United States. These winter feeding programs concentrate elk activity, and there is concern that such concentrations could degrade plant communities. Except for one study focused exclusively on aspen (Populus tremuloides), ours is the first to quantify vegetation responses to supplemental winter feeding of elk. The western Wyoming feedground we studied was established in winter 1981–1982, and supplemental feeding occurred every winter through 2006. Transects were arranged in a before-after control-impact (BACI) design, and vegetation data were gathered in the midsummers of 1981 and 2006. Over the study period, the feedground became invaded by smooth brome (Bromus inermis), a nonnative grass constituent of hay fed to the elk. The smooth brome invasion was attended by declines in native forb cover and the apparent extirpation of shrubs from the feedground. The smooth br...