MISSOULA, Mont. — The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its partners awarded $2,583,519 of grant funding in Oregon to benefit scientific wildlife research and enhance habitat for elk and other species. RMEF directly granted $270,000 and leveraged an additional $2,313,519 in partner funding.
“This funding allows so much good to take place across the Oregon landscape,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer. “That includes improving winter range, strengthening aspen stands, upgrading riparian areas, restoring meadows, replacing unfriendly wildlife fencing, permanently protecting habitat, furthering elk-related scientific research and much more.”
Fourteen projects benefit 7,723 acres of wildlife habitat in Crook, Grant, Harney, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Morrow, Union and Wheeler Counties.
There are 24 chapters and more than RMEF 16,000 members in Oregon.
“We salute our volunteers for their time and devotion in hosting banquets and other fundraising events,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO. “Thanks to them, we can put this funding back on the ground to carry out meaningful conservation work that began more than three decades ago.”
Since 1986, RMEF and its partners completed 963 conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in Oregon with a combined value of more than $63.4 million. These projects protected or enhanced 832,903 acres of habitat and opened or improved public access to 134,368 acres.
Below are a few examples of RMEF projects for 2020 and upcoming years.
Crook County
- Prescribe burn 1,000 acres in the Lookout Mountain Ranger District on the Ochoco National Forest to increase forage on winter range for elk and deer and redistribute big game from adjacent private lands. This project will reinvigorate native vegetation and also reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire in the McKay Creek watershed.
- Provide funding for a conservation easement on private land that permanently protects the wildlife values of 3,748 acres of elk and mule deer winter range as well as habitat for pronghorn antelope and other wildlife.
Grant County
- Determine elk movement patterns, seasonal use areas and annual survival in two large study areas in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The findings will better inform wildlife managers about population estimates, modeling, harvest strategies and damage management efforts (also benefits Crook, Harney and Wheeler Counties).
Union County
- Thin and reduce slash across 1,296 acres in the Syrup Creek area as part of the collaborative Starkey Experimental Forest and Range research program. The project is a follow-up to research completed in the 1990s and will lead to a better understanding of how reducing the density of young mixed conifer stands affects habitat use and forage quantity and quality for elk.
Go here to see a full project list.
Partners for the Oregon projects include Deschutes, Fremont-Winema, Ochoco, Siuslaw, Wallowa-Whitman, and Willamette National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, private landowners and various other groups and organizations.
About the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation:
Founded more than 35 years ago, fueled by hunters and a membership of nearly 235,000 strong, RMEF has conserved more than 7.9 million acres for elk and other wildlife. RMEF also works to open and improve public access, fund and advocate for science-based resource management, and ensure the future of America’s hunting heritage. Discover why “Hunting Is Conservation™” at rmef.org or 800-CALL ELK.
