"HOME ON THE RANGE"
for the Preservation of the Tule Elk — and the Wonder of the Living Land

By Beula Edmiston

"Home on the Range" seems to echo the harmony of nature and reach deep into the roots of our being, but "Home on the Range" can mean much more than a nostalgic song of the open spaces. It might well be the rallying cry for inviolate refuges to save our rare and endangered wildlife—and our equally rare and endangered unspoiled spots of wonderment and natural beauty. Hard won refuges saved and restored the buffalo, the antelope, and the Rocky Mountain Elk, to name a few, and set the standard for wildlife preservation throughout the world. But in the words of Wallace Stegner, this is no time to "rust on our laurels". The bulldozer, cement mixer, poison, and gun crowd entire species to the brink of oblivion. It is imperative to act at once to strengthen and enlarge our refuge system.

There are a few men still among us who led in the Bison Society crusade. They rallied to William T. Hornaday's cry, "We are weary of witnessing the greed, selfishness, and cruelty of 'civilized' men toward the wild creatures of the earth. We are sick of tales of slaughter and pictures of carnage. It is time for a sweeping reformation, and that is precisely what we now demand." Guy Atherton, St. Paul, Minnesota is among them. He speaks from long experience, "Organize, educate, fight, and win." C. M. Goethe, Sacramento, California girds for the battle to save the Tule Elk remembering, "We organized and saved the buffalo. Ditto the antelope. We almost saved the Carolina Paroquet. We must not wait again until it is too late. Thanks for the call to help save the Tule Elk." 

The Tule Elk heads the Department of Interior's list of rare and endangered mammals. Some ask if it won't, therefore, be "automatically" protected. In a recent communication from the Secretary of Interior to the Committee for the Preservation of the Tule Elk, Mr. Udall states, "If the Tule Elk, and other endangered species are to be saved, it will come about largely through citizen action groups such as your own." When a young man recently asked Justice William O. Douglas what he could do to help save his dwindling heritage of nature, the illustrious exponent of conservation answered, "Holler, and keep on hollering!" Only when enough people care to join forces and "holler and keep on hollering" will wildlife get its due consideration. A "home on the range" has beautifully proved effective to save and restore wildlife and to meet the need of those who love the living land.

Let's take a quick look at the Tule Elk, its struggle for survival, and the proposed "home on the range" in its beautiful Owens Valley habitat.

Cervus nannodes, California Dwarf or Valley Elk, is the smallest and rarest of all elk. It is a magnificent creature, lighter in color and scaled smaller than the Roosevelt or Rocky Mountain Elk, but possessed of the dignity, stateliness, and majesty of its kind—the monarch of the wild. Elk, like the wilderness threshold which is its home, cannot be reduced to samples for appreciation or assured survival. It is a sobering thought that at least four species of American elk are now extinct. It should silence those who would "save the Tule Elk" in a fenced enclosure like feedlot cattle. It would be a sorry blow to the chance of survival of the Tule Elk and the quality of the American dream if that should ever come to pass.

Nearly a century ago, California's Dwarf, Valley Elk was driven almost to extinction. A few (legend says only two) hid in the bulrushes or tules on the great Miller and Lux Ranch, and through the aggressive protection of rancher Henry Miller, made a miracle comeback, and from its flight to the tules came its common name, Tule Elk. After its close brush with annihilation, many serious attempts were made to re-establish the species in favorable locations throughout California. It is of historic significance that the Owens Valley herd, fore-runner of the present, wild, free herd, is the only successful transfer of the Tule Elk ever accomplished. It was made in two steps; first to Yosemite Valley, then, under the direction of Horace M. Albright, Director of the National Park Service, upon the advice and consent of the Academy of Sciences, Department of Fish and Game, City of Los Angeles, and the Inyo County Board of Supervisors (where the Owens Valley is located), and all appropriate agencies, to Los Angeles City owned land in the Owens Valley by Walter Dow, Owens Valley businessman and rancher. It is of historic importance, too, that Walter Dow heads the Committee for the Preservation of the Tule Elk and that Horace M. Albright heads its Advisory Board.

Walter Dow states the problem and the solution this way: "Extinction is imminent for a wildlife species native only to California, the Tule Elk, also known as Valley Elk, California Wapiti, and Dwarf Elk. It is self-evident that Owens Valley, owned almost entirely by the City of Los Angeles, has proved an ideal locality

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