Oregon lawmakers are contemplating a proposal that would provide $600,000 in compensation to farmers and ranchers sustaining elk damage in pilot program areas on each side of the Cascade Range.

Farmers dealing with crop loss caused by Oregon’s elk population could receive compensation under a $600,000 pilot program being considered by state lawmakers.

They’d also be eligible for funds dedicated to damage prevention under House Bill 4061, under which state farm and wildlife regulators would establish pilot program areas on each side of the Cascade Range.

“Let’s pave the way for harmonious coexistence between humans and elk,” said state Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo. “It’s not just my side of the state having a problem. It’s the whole state having a problem.”

The pilot program areas would be chosen based on their elk populations, past problems with damage, crop diversity, history of mitigation and other factors.

Supporters of the bill say financial compensation can’t be the entire solution to Oregon’s problem with elk damage, but it will help those farmers and ranchers facing extreme circumstances.

Federal timber management has led to overstocked forests without sufficient forage for ungulates, who are also driven onto private farm properties by wolves and cougars, said Todd Nash, a Wallowa County commissioner and past president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

“Until we adapt fully to better management practices, we need compensation as a bridge,” Nash said.

Elk are destructive to ranchers, who lack the ability to reseed or irrigate livestock forage after it’s been consumed, reducing their carrying capacity for cattle, said Matthew McElligott, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association’s president.

“Once that crop is gone, or if it’s eaten down too soon, it won’t come back for another year,” McElligott said at a recent legislative hearing.

John Seymour, a dairy producer near Cloverdale, gave lawmakers a sense of the scale of damage that elk can rapidly inflict on a field.

The average 1,000-pound elk will consume 3% of its body weight in forage in a day, Seymour said. Multiply that by 200, since elk typically travel in herds, and it doesn’t take long for losses to become significant.

“If all 200 head of elk are on one of our farms per day, they’re consuming 6,000 pounds of grass that day,” he said. “It’s a major event for us.”

Hunting should be part of the solution to elk damage as part of a broader approach to the problem, which should include compensation, said Amy Patrick, policy director of the Oregon Hunters Association, which supports HB 4061.

“We understand hunting is not always the correct tool,” she said. “Hunting can’t be a blanket fix-all for all this.”

Last year, there was public backlash after the disclosure that an average of 150 to 200 damage tags for elk are issued each year in Clatsop County under the Oregon Landowner Damage Program.

The program grants damage tags to address problems caused by elk on private property.