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Introduction: 



The range of the Sun River elk herd lies with- 

 in the drainage of the upper Sun River and im- 

 mediately adjacent drainages. An area of ap- 

 proximately 600,000 acres is included within this 

 unit. Geographically, the area is bounded on the 

 west by the Continental Divide, on the north by 

 and including the drainage of the Teton river, on 

 the south by the drainage of the Dearborn river, 

 and on the east the prairies. 



The Sun River Game Preserve, comprising 

 199,661 acres, was created in 1913. This appar- 

 ently marked an important step in the develop- 

 ment of the present elk hred. By 1920 the elk in 

 this area had increased so markedly that they 

 were classed with the more important herds in 

 the United States. The Sun River elk developed 

 entirely from native stock. A plant has never 

 been made in the area. 



During the period prior to the creation of the 

 National Forests and for some time thereafter, 

 range livestock, both cattle and sheep, grazed in 

 large numbers over the more accessible portions 

 of the Sun River ranges. There has been, how- 

 ever, a marked reduction in the use of this area 

 by domestic livestock. This has been particularly 

 true on units found to be important as winter 

 elk range. 



The drift of elk into areas outside the Forest 

 boundary has presented an important manage- 

 ment problem for a number of years. Prior to 1925 

 the elk from the Sun River herd wintered well 

 back within the boundaries of the National For- 

 est. Early severe fall storms that year caused elk 

 to drift down onto lower ranges, reaching in some 

 cases areas outside the Forest. The first heavy 

 kill in the history of the herd took place that fall 

 (637 head). During subsequent winters the pat- 

 tern of elk migration definitely expanded to in- 

 clude the lower and foothill ranges. The use of 

 these lower ranges by elk reached its peak during 

 the extremely severe winter of 1929-30. 



