Please feed the wildlife
Feeding 500 large elk can be a handful, but for the staff of Hardware Ranch they couldn’t ask for a better place to work.
“My office is one of the best around, it is 14,400 acres of office space,” Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area Manager Dan Christensen said.
Hardware Ranch is completely staffed and funded by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and is designated a Wildlife Management Area by the state.
“The main goal for us is to serve as a center for elk research and understanding of biology,” Christensen said.
The ranch runs a feeding program that was started in 1947 to keep the elk out of the Cache Valley area. The elk were coming into the valley and disturbing people’s crops and eating hay out of barns. Christensen said the program starts as soon as elk come into the valley.
“We grow our own grass hay during the summer to be able to feed the herd during the winter,” he said. “We have to grow about 300 tons to feed through the season.”
Hardware Ranch is Utah’s only elk feeding area and elk feeding program. Money from the state is used to fund the feeding program and research done at Hardware.
Every morning crews load either a tractor or the horse-drawn hay wagons to deliver meals to the herd said Christensen. There can be anywhere from 400 to 500 elk in the meadow at anytime during the December through March season.
“We have to feed the elk everyday. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes or two hours depending on your mood and how much time you want to spend among the herd,” Christensen said.
During the winter, when the elk population is at the largest, research projects take place. Many of the elk get an ear tag and get weighed. The tags are used to track populations, which dictate the elk hunt permits.
“[The] most important thing is that we are a wildlife management area; we are not a refuge or sanctuary. You can hunt here,” Assistant Manager Marni Lee said. “We are funded by sportsman dollars.”
Hunters are not allowed to hunt in the meadow portion of the ranch but can follow the guidelines of their hunting permit. Those hunting in the area have to follow the federal Big Game Proclamation and the Upland Game Proclamation limitations for the hunt.
“We still operate from about 100 percent of sportsman dollars,” Christensen said. “As long as sportsman are around we will be open.”
Currently with budget cuts from the state Legislature, Christensen is looking into ways for the ranch to become a private non-profit organization. This status would allow for the ranch to receive donations and fund all the activities that take place.
“This is something I would like to see in the works or done by this time next year,” Christensen said. “We’ve got to find our own money, do some grant writing and find donors to help us.”
Higher education and national research may be the main drive behind the ranch, but Lee said education for kids and other visitors is almost as important.
“We do programs for schools, we do them now more than we ever have in the past,” she said. “The programs are all tied to the state core curriculum for the class.”
The ranch offers these programs for schools to participate in everyday that they are open. The groups are given instruction in the visitor center. They discuss habitats for not only the elk but for humans as well, Lee said.
“It is all free for the schools. They just have to setup a time and they can come. The only thing that costs them money is a sleigh ride,” Lee said. “We only charge them $1, which is the only discounts offered here at the ranch.”
The ranch offers horse-drawn sleigh rides out through the meadow to see the elk up close. These rides run Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon until 5 p.m.
Rides on the sleigh cost $5 for those older than 9, $3 for 4-through 8-year-olds. Those younger than 3 are free.
Hardware Ranch is located 16 miles up Blacksmith Fork Canyon, east of Hyrum.
It receives on average about 600 visitors a day. Throughout the season, the ranch sees anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 elk watchers during the feeding program Christensen, said.
“On a really good day that is busy we give sleigh rides to about 800 visitors,” Lee said.
During the winter the ranch offers moonlight rides in the meadow. Visitors are served dinner in the restaurant at the visitor center and then taken out on a ride through the herd in the moonlight. This ride has become very popular with everyone said Lee.
Despite having thousands of visitors every year, Hardware Ranch is always struggling. Christensen is worried that if visitors don’t keep coming and contributing to the ranch it will be “whittled away” to nothing.
“If the people won’t support the ranch it won’t stay open,” Christensen If they are going to be in this pristine natural environment, something that is so unique there is nothing else like it, not only in Utah but nowhere else in the United States they need to come out. This land is an endangered and perishable commodity. The people are what keep it open and we are grateful for them.”
-jzsiray@cc.usu.edu
Two elk pry their antlers against each other at Hardware Ranch. (Photo by Becky Blankenship)
An elk looks up while eating hay at Hardware Ranch. About 500 elk feed there each winter. (Photo by Becky Blankenship)
Visitors take a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the herd of elk at Hardware Ranch, located in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. (Photo by Becky Blankenship)