Elk killed on highway near Black Butte Ranch

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Rocky Mountain Elk Management Plan is an overwhelming success. Each winter more and more elk can be seen wandering around the foothills of the Cascades and crisscrossing our busy highways.

However, that puts them squarely in conflict with motor vehicles using the highways. Last week, proof of that came suddenly and unexpectedly to Tobin Hall, of Tualatin, and a herd of elk on Highway 20 near Black Butte Ranch (BBR). Hall collided with an elk.

"There was no time to make a sudden move to avoid the elk," Sgt. Dave Hall of the BBR Police Department said of the event. "Road conditions were so bad that if Mr. Hall had made any attempt to avert the elk his vehicle would have either jeopardized another vehicle, or he would have left the highway. It happened, wham! just like that..."

The occupants of the vehicle were not injured when the elk and vehicle collided, but to be sure, BBR officer Mitch Elliot, who was called to the accident scene, requested that the BBR Fire Department dispatch an ambulance to the scene. He then turned the incident over to Sgt. Mike Biondi of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department.

As it turned out, the only fatality was one Rocky Mountain elk that was killed on impact. However, the motor vehicle may have a lingering death as the insurance company looks at the situation.

Shortly after Christmas, Tracy Hendrickson, of Sisters, while on her way for a ski day at Hoodoo, reported seeing a herd of about 30 elk crossing Highway 20 in the BBR vicinity. Last week, on Thursday, Sgt. Hall reported a large heard of elk were seen at night, rampaging around the golf course and Glaze Meadow at BBR.

"I'll probably hear about them and their antics all winter," he added.

For motorists, having elk competing for space on an icy highway is an added threat to the welfare of Homo sapiens as well as our native wapiti, one of the largest species of deer in the world, and one of the largest native mammals in North America.

Elk at one time occupied the Great Plains as well as our forests. Hunting pressure and loss of habitat - as the flat country went under the plow - forced elk into the high country. Now, however, through the efforts of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other conservation organizations, both state and federal, elk populations have increased west of the Rockies.

As it is so often with confusion over common names, early European immigrants to North America were familiar with the smaller red deer of Europe (which they called a "moose"), and believed the much larger North American animal looked like their "moose."

They used the common European name "elk" to describe what they saw, which is connected with the Latin, "alces," which in Old Norse is "elger," or Scandinavian, "elg," and in German, "elch" - but that was for moose.

So, to keep things straight, if you want to use a pure North American word for elk, one that can't be confused with moose, use "Wapiti" - it's from the Shawnee people's language and means, "white rump," a field identification mark for Rocky Mountain elk.

However, no matter what you call those magnificent, large mammals that are running around tearing up the BBR golf course as they dig through the snow for that delicious green grass, it pays to be aware they are becoming more abundant and may suddenly appear (day or night) competing for space on your side of the yellow line.