Feds Give Green Light to 3 More Years of Elk Feeding in CWD Hotspot Despite Growing Concerns

The feds just signed off on three more winters of elk feeding in Wyoming’s Hoback Basin — including at one site where chronic wasting disease (CWD) is spreading fast and raising major alarm bells among wildlife experts.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest will continue issuing permits for the Dell Creek and Forest Park feedgrounds, despite growing calls to shut them down. That means hay will keep hitting the ground through the winter of 2027-28, giving Wyoming Game and Fish more time to sort out long-term plans.

Forest Supervisor Chad Hudson made the call, admitting it wasn’t easy.

“This was a tough one,” Hudson wrote in his July 30 decision. “There’s no perfect solution here — every option comes with tradeoffs for wildlife, the landscape, and people.”

The Dell Creek feedground, near Bondurant, is where CWD was recently confirmed in six elk — the first confirmed cases on a feedground. Experts say the situation is likely to get worse.

CWD is a fatal, contagious brain disease caused by misfolded proteins (prions). And when animals are packed tightly together, like on a feedground, it spreads more easily.

“Most of the time [prevalence] just goes straight up,” Wyoming State Wildlife Veterinarian Sam Allen said earlier this year. “And at places like Dell Creek, we expect it to rise faster.”

On average, around 570 elk crowd onto the 35-acre Dell Creek site each winter. That close contact is exactly what worries scientists. And it’s not just about the elk — the decline of healthy herds would impact hunting, tourism, and the ecosystem.

Game and Fish had pushed for a 20-year permit. Instead, Hudson gave them three more years while kicking a bigger decision down the road.

This short-term extension buys time, but not everyone’s thrilled.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Dagny Signorelli of the Western Watersheds Project, one of the groups that’s been pushing to shut these feedgrounds down. “It shows the Forest Service is starting to take the CWD crisis seriously.”

Feeding elk in northwest Wyoming has been going on for over 100 years, starting with the National Elk Refuge near Jackson. The Dell Creek and Forest Park feedgrounds have been around since the 1970s. Supporters say feeding helps elk survive brutal winters, prevents starvation, and keeps them out of cattle herds.

But opponents say it’s outdated, risky, and only accelerates disease and disrupts migration.

The long-expired permits for both Dell Creek and Forest Park had been renewed year-to-year. This new three-year window doesn’t lock anything in for the long haul — but it also delays any real overhaul.

One nearby site, the Alkali Creek feedground, has already been phased out. Whether Dell Creek or Forest Park follow suit likely depends on what kind of pressure continues building over the next few years.

Until then, the hay will keep dropping, and the questions around Wyoming’s controversial elk feeding practices — especially in the face of a spreading epidemic — won’t be going anywhere.

The original story by Mike Koshmrl for WyoFile.