Elk vs fence, what can be done?

[Pacific_Fork]

I already know the answer to this so this might just be a thread for my own venting.

There used to be an elk herd that moved freely across the road I live off of. Never was an issue with traffic as it’s a slow road less traveled. Then a big piece of property the elk live on sells to an out of state grade A asshole who immediately puts up an ugly 5-6ft chain linked fence covering about a mile of road. No idea why, other than paranoia bred Californian BS. Now elk, moose, deer, Turkey are suffering. The latest incident, I watch a cow elk not clear the fence and breaks her leg. Now she’s hobbling daily with a bad leg. The elk can still move across but have to go to the edge of property lines to get around this pointless fence as it’s not completely closed in.

My immediate reaction was to get my sawzall and start cutting away exit holes like I would have done in my younger years. Once cooled off I thought about writing a letter to the owner.

Any suggestions? Nothing can be done with Idaho Fish and Game? Local outrage/petitions? Again I’m sure nothing as private property rights rule over all, even the welfare of public wildlife sadly. For the record I don’t hunt these elk just care about their wellbeing as they have enough issues here already.

/rant

 

[4rcgoat]

Honestly...I shouldn't even respond to this after having a few beers......but.......my first wish would be to knock down every inch of said fence,regardless of his/her/ it's fn feelings. Load all that scrap steel along with their/it's belongings and send them back to the hell hole in which they slithered from.
I've got an axe to grind.......

 

[IDVortex]

Question, did the elk jump the fence from the private land side or not?

 

[go_deep]

If high fences are illegal in Idaho, ask you legislatures to mandate a max height requirement for all fences to eliminate conflicts with wildlife

 

[Pacific_Fork]

Question, did the elk jump the fence from the private land side or not?

Yes private land side of said chain link fence to county property, crossed the county road to another piece of private. They go back and forth. Almost all other private properties surrounding have no fences except one piece down the road they don’t frequent ever has normal low barbed wire fence.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

If high fences are illegal in Idaho, ask you legislatures to mandate a max height requirement for all fences to eliminate conflicts with wildlife

Good idea, I’m going to look into this.

 

[IDVortex]

Yes private land side of said chain link fence to county property, crossed the county road to another piece of private. They go back and forth. Almost all other private properties surrounding have no fences except one piece down the road they don’t frequent ever has normal low barbed wire fence.

Ah makes since it got injured. Private land elk aren't as tough as public land elk.

 

[Customweld]

Sadly, that’s probably just how it’s going to be. The animals might learn to avoid it, or work around it…. And folks wonder why transplants get a bad rap.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

Ah makes since it got injured. Private land elk aren't as tough as public land elk.

Right.

It’s a 6ft chain linked fence. Leg got caught between the top cross pole and links. She ripped off all the C clamps and pulled a small section down freeing her self.

Elk are more used to cattle fences.

 

[Maverick1]

I already know the answer to this so this might just be a thread for my own venting.

There used to be an elk herd that moved freely across the road I live off of. Never was an issue with traffic as it’s a slow road less traveled. Then a big piece of property the elk live on sells to an out of state grade A asshole who immediately puts up an ugly 5-6ft chain linked fence covering about a mile of road. No idea why, other than paranoia bred Californian BS. Now elk, moose, deer, Turkey are suffering. The latest incident, I watch a cow elk not clear the fence and breaks her leg. Now she’s hobbling daily with a bad leg. The elk can still move across but have to go to the edge of property lines to get around this pointless fence as it’s not completely closed in.

My immediate reaction was to get my sawzall and start cutting away exit holes like I would have done in my younger years. Once cooled off I thought about writing a letter to the owner.

Any suggestions? Nothing can be done with Idaho Fish and Game? Local outrage/petitions? Again I’m sure nothing as private property rights rule over all, even the welfare of public wildlife sadly. For the record I don’t hunt these elk just care about their wellbeing as they have enough issues here already.

/rant

Really?......SMH.....two sides to every story. Consider this.....

From the landowners perspective:
"I just brought a square mile of property in Idaho. It is about 640 acres and cost me several million dollars. I spent a good portion of my life's savings to buy this land and am really looking forward to enjoying it and making some improvements over the next few years. I'm originally from Idaho, got transferred to California a few years ago for my job (military), and am dead set on moving back to Idaho once I retire. So this new land should really work out. I have had a few problems along the way, though, which led me to put up a fence along the side that abuts the road. The fence is mostly to keep animals from running across the road causing car accidents - they do that a lot where I'm from. I saw a couple of road-killed animals along my property the other day and really don't like how those animals must have suffered. Before putting up my fence, I did some research online and found a report that said the state of California approved $1 billion in funding to build wildlife crossings, fencing, and some other stuff. I don't have enough money to put up a wildlife crossing, nor do I think I could get the permits to do that, so I put up a fence instead. It was pretty expensive!

But really, besides a couple of roadkill carcasses stinking up my land, the bigger problem is the local hunters wandering onto my property pretending to be "lost". They are always trespassing on the MY LAND and hunting. When I am around and run into one of these morons, they pretend they don't know where the property lines are or that it has been sold and I'm the new owner. They pull out there phones and show me something from an outdated phone app called OnX (or something like that) - this one guy even said the stupid app NEVER works for him and keeps crashing when he tries to load up offline maps. Likely excuse (I mean, come on - it IS 2025 - nobody really would pay $100 a year for inaccurate location tracking, blurry maps, or apps crashing when too many layers are on -- - would they? If so, they are MUCH dumber than I thought). But anyhow - back to the fence - after the fence was put up, some local idiot even shot a cow elk through the fence and broke it's leg. The poor animal was limping around. I can't believe these stupid morons - hunting out of season and poaching animals. And, get this - - - some local jacka$$ took a sawzall to my fence and started cutting holes in it to shoot the animals on MY LAND. I guess he figured it would be easier to shoot them through the fence and then have a spot to drag it out at night when he is jacklighting the elk, moose, deer, and turkeys. The hole is so big that some local teenagers went joyriding around at night and left ruts all over the place. I can't believe the nerve of some of these stupid hunters. If anyone of these guys ever asks to hunt my property, I am going to tell them to go pound sand. I have a pretty good idea of the person who cut the hole in the fence. Some other idiot even sent me a letter about my fence, I think that must be the knucklehead that cut the hole in the fence, too. I'll be damned if I ever take that fence down or let anyone on my property. These local a$$hats sure have it coming from me if they ever step on my property again."

 

[IDVortex]

Right.

It’s a 6ft chain linked fence. Leg got caught between the top cross pole and links. She ripped off all the C clamps and pulled a small section down freeing her self.

Elk are more used to cattle fences.

I'm just making a joke about folks who think elk are not as tough on private land vs public.

All you can do at this time is to look into fence height restrictions like said earlier.

 

[waspocrew]

Probably better to look into fence height restrictions first before vandalizing said fence…

 

[Pacific_Fork]

Really?......SMH.....two sides to every story. Consider this.....

From the landowners perspective:
"I just brought a square mile of property in Idaho. It is about 640 acres and cost me several million dollars. I spent a good portion of my life's savings to buy this land and am really looking forward to enjoying it and making some improvements over the next few years. I'm originally from Idaho, got transferred to California a few years ago for my job (military), and am dead set on moving back to Idaho once I retire. So this new land should really work out. I have had a few problems along the way, though, which led me to put up a fence along the side that abuts the road. The fence is mostly to keep animals from running across the road causing car accidents - they do that a lot where I'm from. I saw a couple of road-killed animals along my property the other day and really don't like how those animals must have suffered. Before putting up my fence, I did some research online and found a report that said the state of California approved $1 billion in funding to build wildlife crossings, fencing, and some other stuff. I don't have enough money to put up a wildlife crossing, nor do I think I could get the permits to do that, so I put up a fence instead. It was pretty expensive!

But really, besides a couple of roadkill carcasses stinking up my land, the bigger problem is the local hunters wandering onto my property pretending to be "lost". They are always trespassing on the MY LAND and hunting. When I am around and run into one of these morons, they pretend they don't know where the property lines are or that it has been sold and I'm the new owner. They pull out there phones and show me something from an outdated phone app called OnX (or something like that) - this one guy even said the stupid app NEVER works for him and keeps crashing when he tries to load up offline maps. Likely excuse (I mean, come on - it IS 2025 - nobody really would pay $100 a year for inaccurate location tracking, blurry maps, or apps crashing when too many layers are on -- - would they? If so, they are MUCH dumber than I thought). But anyhow - back to the fence - after the fence was put up, some local idiot even shot a cow elk through the fence and broke it's leg. The poor animal was limping around. I can't believe these stupid morons - hunting out of season and poaching animals. And, get this - - - some local jacka$$ took a sawzall to my fence and started cutting holes in it to shoot the animals on MY LAND. I guess he figured it would be easier to shoot them through the fence and then have a spot to drag it out at night when he is jacklighting the elk, moose, deer, and turkeys. The hole is so big that some local teenagers went joyriding around at night and left ruts all over the place. I can't believe the nerve of some of these stupid hunters. If anyone of these guys ever asks to hunt my property, I am going to tell them to go pound sand. I have a pretty good idea of the person who cut the hole in the fence. Some other idiot even sent me a letter about my fence, I think that must be the knucklehead that cut the hole in the fence, too. I'll be damned if I ever take that fence down or let anyone on my property. These local a$$hats sure have it coming from me if they ever step on my property again."

Cool story. Not one single thing in your fictitious story is relevant to this story. No poaching, no road kill, none of it. Just a CA transplant changing the landscape and wildlife for the worse for no logical reason.

 

[waspocrew]

Let’s say the fence is found to be legal - The guy bought the property and is within his right to fence his property….

What’s your plan then?

 

[Maverick1]

Cool story. Not one single thing in your fictitious story is relevant to this story. No poaching, no road kill, none of it. Just a CA transplant changing the landscape and wildlife for the worse for no logical reason.

You missed the point. That could be story the “CA transplant” has. That could be their experience in this situation. (Sure, in your eyes, none of it is true. All of it is fictitious to you and he is just intentionally wrecking everything.). But it could be his reality. Put yourself in his shoes and imagine how he is feeling and thinking for a second - even if is different than your experience.

 

[Steve300xcw]

What’s your plan then?

Sternly worded letters and crying on forums.

 

[Pony Soldier]

A side note: Many of us are colorblind. Red letters on a black background is impossible to read. Try contrast like dark on light.

Without county rules it is unlikely that a solution will be available. I use three wire barbwire fence. I find no elk hanging from the two top wires of a four or 5 wire fence and the elk calves can get through. However if you have angus you might consider hog wire.