Washington Elk Pend Oreille Winter Range

The Pend Oreille elk sub-herd is part of the larger Selkirk elk herd located in northeast Washington on nine Game Management Units (GMU; GMUs 101, 105, 108, 111, 113, 117, 121, 124, and 204). Elk used in this analysis were collared in GMUs 117 and 121 on winter ranges located east and west of the Huckleberry Mountain Range, along the Colville River Valley that splits the two GMUs, and west of the Pend Oreille River. In this area, private landowners manage 77 percent of the land (primarily for timber), the U.S. Forest Service manages 16 percent, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Natural Resources, and Bureau of Land Management manage the remaining 7 percent. Montane conifer forests dominate the mid-to-higher elevations of the region, while agriculture predominates the valley. The Pend Oreille elk sub-herd is partially migratory, with three main migratory routes. A segment of the population traverses the northern portions of the Huckleberry Mountains along Summit Valley, others migrate north of Chewelah Mountain following the South Fork Chewelah and Winchester Creeks, and another group migrates around Bald Mountain following the Buck Creek drainage. Elk move freely between GMUs 117 and 121, which is bisected by U.S. Highway 395 where some of the highest incidences of wildlife-vehicle collisions are reported (G. Kalisz, Washington Department of Transportation, written commun.). Based on collared elk data, harvest and vehicle collisions are the primary and secondary causes of mortality, respectively, for adult females in this population. A large portion of the adult female harvest occurs on private property and in response to agricultural damage complaints. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for Elk (cervus canadensis) in the Pend Oreille population in Washington. They were developed from 149 winter sequences collected from a sample size of 56 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 4 hours.