Officials from the state’s Parks and Wildlife department have begun capturing and collaring female elk in the herd that has been roaming onto, and causing damage to, the golf courses at The Club at Rolling Hills and Fossil Trace GC.
Officials with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) department are hoping a new collaring program will help with management of a herd of elk that has gradually drifted into suburban areas in the foothills west of Denver, station Denver7 ABC reported.
Officers began capturing and collaring the Clear Creek herd in December at two golf courses in Golden, Colo.—The Club at Rolling Hills and Fossil Trace Golf Club, where elk have reportedly caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage— and then further north in the Rocky Flats area, CPW officials announced on February 20th.
The CPW hopes to put more than 40 of the GPS collars on female elk in the herd by next March and study data from the collars over the next five years, tracking the herd’s movements and population trends, Denver7 reported.
The collaring program came as a result of recent concerns from Golden residents about safety and from the damage to the golf courses, according to the CPW. Pictures and video from the CPW showed dozens of elk roaming the golf courses. Officers sedated elk long enough to attach a collar and tag and then set them free, Denver7 reported.
“Determining when and where elk occur and how many there are is the first step in mitigating some of the issues CPW and land managers and owners are currently experiencing,” said CPW biologist Ben Kraft, who heads the project.
Similar collaring studies in the Estes Park and Rabbit Mountain regions have showed elk movements in real time and how herds adapt to landscapes, despite development and other human activity, according to the CPW.
How CPW plans to manage the herds in the Golden area remains unclear, until the agency gets more information about their movements, Denver7 reported. Public hunt programs have been used in managing the Rabbit Mountain herd.
“So I think in these areas, and specifically on Jefferson County Open Space, I think we can implement some of those management strategies,” Kraft said. “And the main push for that would be to redistribute elk back to the west, so they are not forming resident herds in the foothills along urban interface areas.”
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