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Washington Elk Colockum Migration Routes

Metadata Updated: December 11, 2025

The Colockum elk herd inhabits a mix of public and private lands northeast of Ellensburg between Blewett Pass of the Cascade Range and west of the Columbia River (fig. 35). The population ranges between 4,000 and 5,000 animals and is partially migratory, with individuals displaying a mix of resident (63 percent of analyzed individuals) and migratory (34 percent of analyzed individuals) behaviors. During winter, many elk inhabit grassland, sagebrush, antelope bitterbrush, and ponderosa pine habitats in the Whiskey Dick, Quilomene, and Colockum Wildlife Areas and the eastern reaches of the Naneum State Forest. As spring green up of vegetation nears, migratory elk travel northwest toward summer ranges in the Wenatchee Mountains, north of Ellensburg. Resident elk inhabit the same areas as wintering migratory elk. Agricultural producers in the eastern Kittitas Valley often experience conflicts with elk consuming hay in fields. Additional concerns for the herd include semipermeable barriers along Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 97 and disturbance from human recreation on the winter range. These mapping layers show the location of the Migration routes for elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Colockum population in Washington. They were developed from 89 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 35 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 3 hours.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-6584b5e7d34eff134d42da2d
Data Last Modified 2024-04-10T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 2ccbfbcf-375c-4425-a0a8-a541426998d8
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 425906963379a8dccb9bba21325cfbb626cdd603178c09273f21475186c48df9
Source Schema Version 1.1

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