Soren Caudill pets a cow elk during the field trip.

LONG CREEK – Long Creek students in grades 3-6 learned about the studies of deer, elk and cattle during a field trip on Oct. 12 to the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range.

Patch Freeman, who teaches grades 4-6, said he’s taken his students, and third-graders in Denise Porter’s class, on the field trip every other year for the past 15 years.

At the Starkey Project, manager Brian Dick gave a tour of the elk handling facilities.

There, students saw how elk go through a chute system twice a year to check on their age, pregnancy, body condition and overall health.

Records are kept for each animal, providing data for the lifetime of individual elk.

The students also learned elk facts, such as life cycles, what they eat, average size, antler development, the aging process, as well as the effects of predators on the elk population.

They also learned about different issues involved with handling elk versus handling deer.

A favorite part of the field trip at the end of the day was petting about 30 cow elk which were bottle fed and raised from birth, Freeman said.

“This group of elk are used for studies that require close human interaction with the animals,” he said. “The kids really enjoyed getting close to the cows and being able to touch and pet them.”

Freeman said personnel at the 25,000-acre fenced management area use “technology and experimental methods” to better understand how animals react to forest, range and recreational activities.

Research at the Starkey Project is conducted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service, and it started in 1989; the research will continue for 10 years.

Animals researched at the site include deer, elk and cattle, as well as smaller animals, and the land itself.

“Brian does a great job teaching the students,” Freeman said. “Teaching our students about the positive roles that cattle, elk and deer play in our lives here in Long Creek is an important part of education.”

For more information, visit The Starkey Project online at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/starkey.