The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Thirty-five elk escaped from a private elk ranch in Sisters on Wednesday morning through fences that Oregon State Police have determined were deliberately cut.

All were recovered and returned unharmed to Patterson Ranch.

The Oregon State Police is investigating the incident. Anyone with information is urged to contact Sergeant David Pond at 388-6213.

Two fences, both of which were cut, keep the elk inside the ranch boundaries. Of the 35 elk, 27 managed to escape through both fences, while eight were only able to get through the first fence before being captured and moved back into the interior of the facility.

The animals were recovered three quarters of a mile from the ranch and herded back by ranch staff with the help of Steven George, ODFW district biologist. According to George, the elk were not likely to have interacted with any wild elk or domestic cattle while outside the ranch boundaries.

Oregon is home to several elk ranches that raise the animals for commercial purposes. There is a movement afoot from several hunters organizations and wildlife activists to shut down or severely restrict private elk ranching.

Richard Patterson said he didn't want to speculate on who committed the vandalism and why, but he said it was not a spur-of-the-moment prank.

"It wasn't kids," he said. "That high-tensile (fence) wire is very hard to cut, even with bolt cutters, and they (the vandals) did a perfect job."

Asked if he suspected that the Patterson Ranch vandalism is connected to the battle over private elk ranching, OSP's Sergeant Pond said, "It's a good possibility. That ranch is one of the best-known in the state."

Since no elk or people were injured, the act is a misdemeanor. However, OSP is taking it quite seriously.

"If anyone has any information, we'd certainly like to hear it," Sergeant Pond said.

Patterson is grateful that the crime didn't create more havoc.

"We're very thankful," he said. "From 8 to 11 p.m. (the search) wasn't going very well at all."

It wasn't that the elk were fleeing, he noted.

"They want to come back," he said. "They're hungry."

But rounding up a herd of elk is no simple matter and traffic on backroads kept interfering with the attempt to get them to wander back to the ranch.

Patterson said he contacted several friends and asked them to pray for the elk's safe return.

"The elk finally found one of (the ranch) gates and just walked back in," Patterson said. "From 11 to 12 o'clock, they were coming back. It was just like marching back to the ark."

Patterson was full of praise for his staff and the officials who helped with the roundup.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission recently organized an advisory group to review the state's administrative rules governing elk ranching. The group will meet for the first time in April.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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