The Bingham County Commission of Idaho upheld a ruling by the county Planning and Zoning Board who had earlier last year ruled that Rulon Jones would have to construct double fencing around his elk ranch. Jones has the right to appeal this decision to the district court and I hope he does.
While I was in Idaho a couple of weeks ago, I talked with several ranchers about fencing. I visited one ranch that was a distributor for the special fencing that elk ranchers are required to use. The fencing is made in such a way that each individual square of the fence cannot be enlarged by force. You would have to cut it to make any of the opening larger. It is extremely strong. The fence also has small squares or rectangles at the bottom, getting progressively larger as you move up the fence. At about three to four feet about the ground, the squares all remain the same size.
Across the top of the fencing, heavy gauge wire is used to reinforce the fence posts and integrate all posts, fencing, corners and uprights into one massive, extremely resilient, integrated enclosure. The picture below will give you an idea of what the fencing looks like.
Also in talking with the ranchers, I learned that to install this fencing, depending upon terrain and materials used for postings, it can cost between $25,000 and $50,000 per running mile. I visited the Thunder Mountain Elk Ranch in Soda Springs. The owners, Billy and Lynn Rasmussen, told me they had a minimum of 8-10 miles of fencing at a cost of about $26,000 per mile. That equates to a cost of between $208,000 and $260,000.
Rulon Jones was quoted as saying that his existing fence cost him around $250,000 to enclose roughly 1,800 acres. Doubling that cost for no good reason is a back door way of running the elk business out of business.
The debate has gone on for some time and continues even today. A small but vocal group wants elk ranching and hunting on elk ranches to be outlawed in Idaho. This past legislative session, several bills were introduced in Boise that would have done that. All those bills were defeated.
Since that time, Jones has been targeted by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, one organization that wants an end to elk ranching, by sending staff to his ranch to slaughter a few wild deer, moose and elk that remained within his enclosures. Before his fencing was fully enclosed, every attempt was made to force the wild animals out but some remained.
Governor Otter ordered the senseless killing to stop in hopes of finding another way. Jones has offered to trap or force the animals out if they would give him time and to cover the cost of doing so himself.
It should be noted that Jones was required by the governor to show that his elk were all disease free and they were.
The required double fencing is the result of scare tactics and the spreading of false information by fish and game and other groups set against the elk industry. They have convinced many that elk in enclosures are diseased and they will spread it to wild animals. No elk in any enclosure anywhere in Idaho, have ever shown evidence of chronic wasting disease, tuberculosis or brucellosis.
The same people are spreading stories that these domestic elk are genetically manipulated to grow larger antlers and if they escape will somehow destroy the genetic makeup of wild elk. This is not true. All domestic elk in Idaho come from the Yellowstone elk herd and are genetically pure. Natural breeding tactics are used to grow bigger stronger stock as any livestock rancher would do. No drugs are used as has been suggested by some.
If this ruling by the Bingham County Commissioners stands, it could set a precedent for other elk ranches and cattle ranches forcing them to construct double fencing. I didn’t talk to one rancher who said that if that were to happen, it wouldn’t force them out of business. If this ruling were to stand up in the courts, this could also force cattle ranchers to construct double fencing. After all, we can’t have cattle spreading brucellosis and tuberculosis to the same wild elk and deer.
I talked with one rancher outside of Idaho Falls who told me that contrary to what some newspapers and the opposition are spreading for stories, escaped elk is not a common occurrence. No responsible elk rancher wants his elk to escape. He told me that the biggest percentage of elk escapes come when someone leaves a gate open or unlocked. He suggested that perhaps double gating would reduce those odds enough to make it worth while.
This is a ridiculous ruling that is not based on any concrete facts. The decision was based on lies and scare tactics used by those opposed to elk ranching.
Tom Remington
