The Elk Collaborative: the collaboration that failed — why?
BY JOSHUA ZAFFOS
Elk and wolves cannot resolve their differences; nature won't allow it. Are advocates for each species similarly doomed in their attempts to reach a consensus? Hunters, loggers, environmentalists, and government representatives in the Clearwater Basin in north central Idaho tried to prove otherwise when they gathered for the Elk Collaborative in 2003.
After a year's worth of meetings, members of the Elk Collaborative agreed to 58 consensus recommendations, generally recognizing that habitat was the main restricting factor for Clearwater elk.
The Collaborative's recommendations may help elk, but some stakeholders say the group missed the opportunity to build relationships and to discuss elk-wolf interactions in the forests. When the Idaho Department of Fish and Game released a plan to kill 75 percent of the wolves in the basin—in the name of increasing the elk populations—some members felt the spirit and the content of the exercise was lost.
Most participants didn't expect the Collaborative to reach consensus on wolf management. But the yearlong exercise may have also failed to breach any meaningful gap between traditional adversaries, despite what both pro- and anti-wolf advocates say was a good-faith effort.
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