At 05:12 PM 4/25/99 EDT, MBlanchrd at aol.com wrote:

>Stepping gingerly into this fray.....I've been to Jackson Hole SPECIFICALLY
>to see the elk, and yes, they do just fine in a plains environment.
>And to add fuel to the fire....George Catlin, in the 1830s, wrote about
>seeing thousands of elk amidst the bison herds in the middle of the Plains.
>Ah......if only I had a time machine, to be able to go back and see
>that..before human intervention...

It would've been wonderful. However, I suspect one could've
found elk in forested habitat, as well. It's the claim that
elk didn't occupy forested habitat until the plains were
destroyed (as wildlife habitat) that I'm challenging, not
the well-known fact that large numbers of elk lived on the
plains.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net