SALT LAKE CITY — An elk herd that’s roughly 30-strong moved down Parley’s Canyon and into the Millcreek area according to Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources.
Their movement towards lower elevations is causing traffic concerns for some while creating unique encounters for others.
John Woeste moved to the foothills of Salt Lake City decades ago and the native North Dakotan never left.
“I just love it,” said Woeste. “Within 10 minutes, I can be out skiing, hiking or biking.”
Even with the wilderness so near, he had never seen an elk on his street until Thursday, when he returned home for lunch, one practically knocked on his back door.
“I’m sitting there, minding my own business, and I look out the window and the elk is right here,” Woeste said, standing in a patch of snow roughly 25 feet from his back window.
DWR says this sort of movement is recurrent.
“Historically speaking, this isn’t a new pattern for them,” said Michael Packer, conservation outreach manager for DWR’s central office in Springville. “They’re accustomed to coming down into these foothill areas to escape those winter pressures”
Woeste wonders why now, given the lighter snowpack in the mountains.
“It’s a little weird that they’re down here now,” said Woeste.
“This neighborhood was built in 1950, but so many neighborhoods are getting built out into lands that were always their native grazing grounds,” he added. “It makes me kind of sad, actually, to see so many of the animals coming down and into harm’s way.”
This elk, he says, was a smaller bull on its own.
“Maybe it got kicked out by some of the gnarlier bulls and it was wandering around after a battle that it lost,” Woeste speculated.
Woeste says to make it down to their Texas Street neighborhood, this elk had the pick of two rather treacherous paths.
First would be the herd's path, coming down Parley’s Canyon and then moving north from the Salt Lake Country Club area. Otherwise, it would have had to move directly out of the mountains and across about a mile’s worth of fences and streets through the foothills.
“Seeing a rather large elk is going to be very jarring, very startling,” Packer said.
Fortunately for Woeste, this close encounter passed without incident. Even if another elk never does nestle in his backyard, his dog Louie found a memento Friday; an antler that broke off from the bull in a neighboring yard.
Packer says if you happen upon an elk yourself, stay calm and don’t approach the elk or try to herd them. They will naturally regroup and migrate through the area if left alone.
He also urged people not to feed the elk and to leash any pets they have out for a walk. If you spot an elk crossing major roadways like I-80, contact the DWR Springville office at 801-491-5678.
