JACKSON, Wyo. — National Wildlife Refuge week kicks off Sunday, Oct. 8, and runs through Oct. 14.
The week aims to “celebrate the network of lands and waters that conserve and protect Americans’ precious wildlife heritage,” says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the managing agency of National Wildlife Refuges.
Across the U.S. there are 38 Wetland Management Districts, 567 National Wildlife Refuges, five Marine National Monuments and 63 Refuges with Wilderness Areas.
Jackson is home to the National Elk Refuge (NER) which hosts elk, bison, wolves, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, bighorn sheep and cutthroat trout, to name a few. The refuge is over 24,700 acres and is one of Wyoming’s 22 winter feedgrounds for elk herds.
In a normal year around 6,000 to 7,000 elk make their way to the Refuge, from October through December. In the spring, elk begin migrating off the Refuge toward their summer ranges. The majority will follow the receding snow line up to higher elevations in Grand Teton National Park and in the Teton Wilderness in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Grassroots conservation efforts by Jackson Hole settlers began the supplemental feeding of the elk between 1909 and 1911, following a number of harsh winters and elk mortality in the tens of thousands. The NER was then established in 1912 as a “winter game reserve” to support the conservation of wintering elk and their habitat. About 10 years later, an Executive Order was passed that expanded the purpose of the NER to include protection for bird nesting habitat. Today, the purpose has been broadened to include the conservation of fish, wildlife, natural resources and threatened or endangered species.
