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Show 6 U T A H •••-• S T A T E S M A MONDAY, JAN. 24,2005 N Take Note: Contact: This week is Hate-Free Week. Hate issues will be addressed at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the TSC Auditorium. 797-1769 features@statesman.usu.edu " * ' • ' • ' f •• m '•••ill1 'in Becky Blakenship/The Uta/i Statesman DAN CHRISTENSEN, HARDWARE RANCH MANAGER, feeds the elk Saturday morning. Hardware Ranch, located east of Hyrum feeds elk during the winter months when the snow is high. Please feed the wildlife Hardware Ranch offers elk refuge and food for the winter BY JOHN ZSIRAY Photo Editor Feeding 500 large elk can be a handful, but for the staff of Hardware Ranch they couldn't ask for a better place to work. "My office is one of the best around, it is 14,400 acres of office space," Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area Manager Dan Christensen said. Hardware Ranch is completely staffed and funded by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and is designated a Wildlife Management Area by the state. "The main goal for us is to serve as a center for elk research and understanding of biology," Christensen said. The ranch runs a feeding program that was started in 194-7 to keep the elk out of the Cache Valley area- The elk were coming into the valley and disturbing people's crops and eating hay out of barns. Christensen said the program starts as Becky Blakenship/T"he Utah Statesman AN ELK LOOKS UP while eating hay at Hardware Ranch. About 500 elk feed there each winter. soon as elk come into the valley. "We grow our own grass hay during the summer to be able to feed the herd during the winter," he said. "We have to grow about 300 tons to feed through the season." Hardware Ranch is Utah's only elk feeding area and elk feeding program. Money from the state is used to fund the feeding program and research done at Hardware. Every morning crews load either a tractor or the horse-drawn hay wagons to deliver meals to the herd said Christensen. There can be anywhere from 400 to 500 elk in the meadow at anytime during the December through March season. "We have to feed the elk everyday. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes or two hours depending on your mood and how much time you want to spend among the herd," Christensen said. During the winter, when the elk population is at the largest, research projects take place. Many of the elk get an ear tag and get weighed. The tags are used to track populations, which dictate the elk hunt permits. "[The] most important thing is that we are a wildlife management area; we are not a refuge or sanctuary. You can hunt here" Assistant Manager Marni Lee said. "We are funded by sportsman dollars." Hunters are not allowed to hunt in the meadow portion of the ranch but can follow the guidelines of their hunting permit. Those hunting in the area have to follow the federal Big Game Proclamation and the Upland Game Proclamation limitations for the hunt. -"We still operate from about 100 percent of sportsman dollars" Christensen said. "As long as sportsman are around we will be open." Currently with budget cuts from the state Legislature, Christensen is looking into ways for the ranch to become a private non-profit organization. This status FFFDINC. THE ELK See Page 7 Art professors show their stuff BY SARAH Y O U N G Staff Writer An art store, a hardware store and a lumber yard are just like toy stores for one of the professors featured in the art faculty exhibition. "Finding these things is run for me," Eileen Doktorski said. Doktorski is one of the faculty members with work on display at the art faculty exhibition. She said what is so inviting about a lumber yard and a hardware store is that they offer more than just traditional opportunities. Michael Sharp/micaeisharp@cc.usu.edu Doktorski has been with Utah State Univeristys art department for three EILEEN DOKTORSK1 DISCUSSES one of her sculptures "Solitude" during the years and this was her first large faculFaculty Art Show at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art. "We are first and foremost artist. It is a good opportunity to see us in a different light." John Neely, art department head ty art show. The USU Department of Art Faculty Exhibition 2005 is being held in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art. It began Jan. 10 and will go until Feb. 19. There was a reception for the exhibition held Thursday Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. The lectures that are available with this exhibit began Jan. 12 and will be continuing until Feb. 16. each Wednesday at 5 p.m. Featured in the exhibition are faculty from the art department including: Jane Catlin, Robert De Groff, Eileen Doktorski, Dennise Gackstetter, Alan Hashimoto, Marion Hyde, JinMan Jo, Laura Johnson, Marilyn Krannich, Craig Law, J. Daniel Murphy, Sheila Nadimi-Roger, Ted Neal, John Neely, Sara Northerner, Chris Terry, Robert Winward and Koichi Yamamoto. These faculty members are not only FACIJITV ART See Page 9 |