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Museum talk Thursday on impacts of area's growing elk population

The Rocky Mountain elk, a native to the Jemez Mountains, was thought to have disappeared early in the 20th century. All that changed around 1948, when the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish released several cows, calves and bulls back into the Jemez.

Laboratory technical staff member Susan Rupp will speak about environmental changes and resulting concerns arising from an increasing elk population in a talk Thursday at the Laboratory’s Bradbury Science Museum downtown. The talk begins at 7 p.m., and is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Pajarito Environmental Education Center.

“While the elk have caused adverse impacts to cultural and natural resources, programmatic operations, socioeconomic relations and human safety, the real challenge now revolves around the differing management objectives of the state of New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bandelier National Monument, the U.S. Forest Service, tribal communities and the newly created Valles Caldera National Preserve,” said Rupp of Ecology (RRES-ECO).

Modern technology, including the use of global positioning systems, has provided innovative methods by which these problems can be addressed. Data collected through the use of global positioning systems radio collars are being used to assess habitat use and to mitigate potential adverse impacts caused by changes in elk movement and distribution in response to the Cerro Grande Fire, she said, adding that other research conducted by the Laboratory in collaboration with various agencies also will be discussed.

Rupp has been studying and characterizing elk movement pathways across the Jemez Mountains and on land operated by the Laboratory. She also has been working to determine the effects of the Cerro Grande Fire on elk movement. Rupp is a certified associate wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Society and a member of the Society for Conservation Biology.

The talk is part of a number of events the Laboratory, Los Alamos County and the Pajarito Environmental Education Center are cosponsoring in April in observance of Earth Day, which is celebrated nationally on Thursday.

The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos. Museum hours apart from special events are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday through Monday.

The Bradbury Science Museum is part of the Public Affairs Office (PAO).

For more information, contact Pat Berger at 5-0896.

-- Steve Sandoval

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