Year after year, Arbon Valley farmers complained that elk were breaking their fences and pulling at their haystacks. In the fall of 1930 those complaints sent a committee into the Pocatello game preserve to count the herd and say whether some of it should be killed. Its report, printed in full in the Pocatello Tribune on October 6, 1930, found that the herd had not grown too large. It had shrunk by half. A second committee went over the ground in November 1931 and came to much the same conclusion.
The complaints reach Pocatello
The earlier part of this story is told in The State's Elk at Crystal and the Hired Elk Puncher. It ends in August 1930, when elk and deer from the Pocatello game preserve destroyed grain on the farm of J. N. Williams of Crystal, and State Game Warden R. E. Thomas said he would ask the governor whether an open season was needed.
On the evening of September 11, 1930, the Bannock County Sportsmen's association took up the question, its president, C. D. Clay, presiding. The Tribune reported the next day that Deputy Game Warden Will S. Hayes, D. S. Austin for the sportsmen, and S. R. Justice, supervisor of the Cache forest, would survey the preserve late that month to count the elk and judge their winter feed. Their findings would decide whether the association asked for an open season. The paper put the farmers' side plainly:
Complaint has come from ranchers in the Arbon section that the elk break down fences and otherwise damage property during severe weather
The elk, it added, went after the haystacks for food. Guesses at the herd's size ran from 200 up to 1,000. The association also voted to ask the state for a patrol of the preserve from October 15 to May 15, guaranteeing a salary of $125 for one month if need be.
What the committee found
The report went to Governor H. C. Baldridge. The committee had seen about 80 elk and estimated 250 on the preserve. Three years before there had been more than 500. The committee laid the loss to poachers, who killed elk in winter when the Forest Service had no men in that country.
Feed was not the problem. The preserve covered more than 20,000 acres, most of it in the Pocatello watershed, closed to all domestic livestock, and the committee judged the range ample for the herd. About half the animals counted were old cows and bulls; the old bulls had been driven from the herd, and the old cows had no calves. Of the 80 elk seen, only 7 were calves, hardly enough to replace the yearly losses.
The committee advised that the preserve stay closed to hunting as a breeding ground, to stock the surrounding counties for hunting in years to come. The state should seek a law allowing some of the old, unproductive animals to be removed, and J. M. Wilkins, deputy game warden at Pocatello, should patrol the preserve full time through the winter and spring.
The same question in 1931
The question came back the next fall. In an Associated Press dispatch from Boise, printed in the Tribune on November 2, 1931, farmers were said to believe the herd had grown big enough to hurt both the range and their crops, and that no fence would hold animals able to clear it. The state game department was studying whether its preserve in the Cache National Forest was overstocked. If it was, about 100 elk might be thinned out by hunters who paid the department a small fee and won their places in a drawing. The department was also weighing a rule that half of each animal taken go to a charity, which would pass it on to people out of work. The idea was not new: talk of killing some of the herd two years earlier had been given up after people objected. On the same page the Tribune noted that Arbon Valley ranchers had protested every year about broken fences and raided haystacks, and that a committee named by Governor C. Ben Ross would look over the ground on Tuesday, November 3.
That committee was L. A. Lehrbas, assistant chief deputy game warden; S. R. Justice, who had served the year before; and B. A. McDevitt, secretary of the sportsmen's association. Its report went to the governor on November 4 and made the Tribune's front page that day. It found that the harm to farms had been slight, the work of a few animals rather than the herd as a whole, and that it had not come from any shortage of feed, since forage on the preserve was in fine condition. Some straying onto private land, it observed, could be expected however small the herd. It recommended against any open season on the preserve and against killing elk for any reason, and, according to the paper's headline, it wanted the governor to back efforts to guard the elk and put an end to poaching.
What is not known
The 1930 report says nothing more of the valley, and these papers name none of the farmers who complained except Williams of Crystal, nor say how many elk reached the farms. Whether Wilkins was given the patrol, and whether any law was sought, is not reported. The rest of the November 4, 1931, story ran on an inside page that was not read. Nor do these articles say whether the preserve herd had any tie to the elk calves the state had set loose near Crystal years before.
On this site: the Crystal and Arbon pages tell more about the parts of the valley these complaints came from.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, October 6, 1930, page 6. Transcribed from the page scan. Periods missing or too faint to see at the ends of some sentences have been supplied.
FIFTY PER CENT LOSS OF ELK ON POCATELLO GAME PRESERVE REPORT LOCAL COMMITTEE
Investigators Recommend Preserve Not Be Opened to Hunters But Maintained As Breeding Ground
That poachers have taken a heavy toll of elk on the Pocatello game preserve is indicated in the report of the committee appointed by Governor H. C. Baldridge to investigate conditions and make recommendations as to disposal of the reported surplus of animals. The investigation was prompted by repeated complaint of farmers in Arbon valley to the effect that the elk had made continued inroads on their property, breaking down fences and attacking hay stacks.
A decrease of half the number in the past three years is reported by the investigators who also state a very bad condition is present in that of the elk observed a majority are old bulls and cows, only a few of which are with calves.
The complete report as assembled by Game Warden William Hayes, S. E. Justice, district forest ranger, and D. S. Austin, representative of the Bannock County Sportsmen's association, and submitted to Governor Baldridge, is printed herewith in full.
Number of Elk in Preserve
The committee counted approximately eighty head of elk during the survey but estimate there are 250 within this preserve as only a part of them may be seen at any one time. The number has decreased from over 500 three years ago to the present number, on account of the large numbers killed by poachers during the winter months when the Forest Service has no men in that locality.
General Range Conditions
The committee finds the forage conditions to be good and an abundance of feed on the preserve for the present number of elk. On the area occupied by the herd at this time of the year, the forage shows considerable grazing, but the main herd is ranging on an area of but approximately 3,000 acres, however, they will move to other range during the winter which is in excellent condition. The committee also believes there is ample feed on this preserve to take care of the present number of elk during any such winter as may be expected in this locality. This Game Preserve consists of over 20,000 acres, most of which is land within the Pocatello Watershed and closed to the grazing of all domestic livestock so that all forage produced on this area is available for this herd of elk.
General Condition of Elk
All of the elk are in good condition, however, the number of animals of each class are not properly balanced. Approximately fifty per cent of the number counted are old cows and bulls. These old bulls have been driven out of the herd and the old cows have no calves with them. It was also noted, that of the 80 head counted, only 7 of them were calves, which are not more than enough to take care of the annual loss, without considering an increase to the herd. There were quite a number of yearlings and other young animals seen but there is something affecting the calf crop and steps should be taken to determine the cause.
Recommendations
We, the committee recommend that the Pocatello Game Preserve be not opened to hunting but it should be kept closed to afford a breeding ground to produce game animals to stock the surrounding counties which could be opened for hunting in the future.
We, also recommend that steps be taken to secure legislation providing for the removal of some of the old non-productive cows and bulls so as to place the elk herd in a more productive condition.
We further recommend that J M Wilkins Deputy Game Warden of Pocatello be immediately appointed patrolman to commence work on October 16 1930 and continue until May 14 1931. His entire time to be used on the Pocatello Game Preserve for the protection of the elk and deer. His duties to be further defined by the State Game Warden.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM HAYES, Assistant Chief Deputy Game Warden
S R JUSTICE, District Forest Ranger
D S AUSTIN, Representative Bannock County Sportsmen's Asociation