Conservation groups filed suit Tuesday challenging the feeding program on the National Elk Refuge, saying it encourages disease, harms habitat, violates federal law and should be replaced.

Five conservation groups filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the refuge Elk and Bison Management Plan that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service released last summer. The suit names the Wildlife Service, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other officials.

With the new plan, Fish and Wildlife has “largely elected to maintain the status quo that perpetuates brucellosis and exposes elk wintering on the Refuge to the severe threat of an epidemic of lethal chronic wasting disease,” according to court documents. The groups say the plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, especially with regard to disease control.

“As the Service has itself admitted, the resulting elk and bison concentrations lead to high rates of brucellosis prevalence and leave the populations vulnerable to a devastating outbreak of chronic wasting disease, among other illnesses,” the complaint states. “The same elk and bison concentrations caused by winter feeding also threaten to contaminate the Refuge’s soil with chronic wasting disease prions, compromising the ‘biological integrity’ and ‘environmental health’ of the Refuge and rendering it unfit for the elk it was set aside to sustain.”

Under the recent plan, wildlife managers aim to reduce the number of elk wintering on the refuge from approximately 7,500 animals to 5,000 and the number of bison from 1,200 to 500 through hunting. The plan will attempt to reduce the need for supplemental feed on the 25,000-acre reserve by improving habitat, but it does not end supplemental feeding altogether or reduce it to a point that would satisfy the groups.

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit for Defenders of Wildlife, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

The lawsuit states that the agency ignored its own scientists when it decided to continue feeding on the refuge.

“The agencies acknowledged that ‘the risk of a non-endemic infectious disease quickly spreading through the elk population after being introduced into the herd would be lowest under those alternatives providing for the elimination of supplemental feeding and corresponding reductions in population densities,” the complaint stated. “Instead, the agencies elected to continue feeding operations on the Refuge – and give the Wyoming Game and Fish Department an effective veto with respect to any future decision to eliminate winter feeding on the refuge.”

The suit seeks to have a new environmental impact statement written to address the alleged deficiencies in the recently completed study. The plan based on that study includes a thorough analysis of how crowded conditions on feedgrounds encourage the spread of disease but does nothing to stop it, said Louise Lasley, public lands director for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

“Even the EIS mentioned the disastrous consequences that could occur with the continuation of brucellosis or the introduction of chronic wasting disease on the elk refuge, yet the final decision did not put in place management procedures that would alleviate those concerns,” she said. Crowded conditions also exacerbate other diseases, such as hoof rot, Lasley said.

Brucellosis, a bacterial infection that causes elk and bison to abort their fetuses, infects about 17 percent of the elk herd and roughly 80 percent of the bison herd on the refuge. Chronic wasting disease is a brain condition similar to “mad cow” disease that affects up to 5 percent of infected elk populations, though it has not yet reached feedgrounds in the northwest corner of the state.

Though most scientists agree that chronic wasting disease infection rates would likely increase under crowded feedground conditions, nobody is sure by how much. Court documents filed by the Earthjustice attorneys say the infection rate could climb as high as 50 percent, although Game and Fish scientists say the infection rate would likely be much lower.

Wyoming Game and Fish researchers have found chronic wasting disease in deer as close as Thermopolis, roughly 80 miles away from the nearest feedground in northwest Wyoming, and say it’s only a matter of time before the disease infects elk on a feedground. Once a population of animals is infected, the infectious protein, called a prion, can persist in the environment for years and retains the ability to infect other animals.

“CWD is 100 percent fatal,” said Lasley. “Animals can be infected for years before exhibiting symptoms, so they could spread the disease. The rate of infection it is considerably higher in greater concentrations of elk such as on feedground or on the elk refuge. The [population] probably would go below objective, but nobody knows for sure.”

Lasley said Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance members don’t want supplemental feeding to end immediately, a scenario that could lead to the starvation of thousands of animals. Instead, they seek a gradual phaseout of feeding over five to 10 years accompanied by efforts to improve habitat. The group is also in favor of emergency feeding should a tough winter put large numbers of animals in jeopardy, she said.

“We know there would be a decrease in elk numbers,” Lasley continued. “But the herd is over objective. To be able to have the elk herds forage in native winter range would be preferable to having diseased animals.”

Lloyd Dorsey, Wyoming representative for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act is meant to ensure that the “biological integrity, diversity and environmental health” of the refuge system are maintained. “The decision that was arrived at on the elk refuge will not manage for the long-term health of wildlife and habitat of the refuge, which is the guiding principal of the Wildlife Refuge System,” he said. “Instead, it encourages disease and also harms and degrades the overall habitat.”

Dorsey said aspens, willows and other native vegetation communities have suffered because of pressure from large populations of bison and elk, not to mention the smaller mammals, amphibians and birds that depend on that plant life.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service’s own scientists have shown that the ecosystem is healthier when all the species are present in their natural abundance,” he said. “And it better serves the ecosystem and individual species such as bison and elk when there is diversity of both plants and wildlife.”

Dorsey said not all the management actions in the document are clear, when they should be under the National Environmental Policy Act.

“The decision went so far as to allow for the mitigation measures to be defined and developed at a later date, which is surprising given the amount of effort that the agencies and the community went through to arrive at a plan for the management of bison and elk,” he said. “The practice of densely concentrating big game was well-intended. But, it’s archaic. We now know with modern science that healthy wildlife is free-ranging wildlife.”

Former National Elk Refuge biologist Bruce Smith agreed that the plan falls short.

“I’m not surprised that those concerned about the future health and welfare of bison and elk in Jackson Hole are litigating the Elk and Bison Management Plan,” he said.

Smith said he supported an alternative that would have phased out supplemental feeding while using hunting to limit animal populations. That alternative also “makes a real effort to try and restore some of the seriously degraded habitats on the refuge.”

Not restoring those habitats is a violation of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, he said, as is contributing to conditions that exacerbate disease.

“When you maintain excessively high densities of animals, especially through feeding, it creates conditions where diseases are readily transmitted and maintained,” he said.

Clark Allan, Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner from Jackson, said stopping supplemental feed would be a disaster.

“If we stop supplemental feeding, 70 percent of the elk would starve to death,” he said. Elk would then resort to raiding cattle feed lines and searching for food in downtown Jackson, he said.

The region’s elk will never find enough feed on their own because human development has occupied most of the winter range in the area, according to Allan.

“People have come into the valley and taken away the habitat that the elk survived upon,” he said. Feeding elk has “worked really well.”

Having elk in the region supports wolf and grizzly populations, Allan said. “If you want to kill 70 percent of [the elk] you better figure out what you’re going to do with the wolves and the grizzlies,” he said.

Allan also said concerns about chronic wasting disease are overblown. “There’s really no reason to believe that [CWD] is going to go nuts when it gets here,” he said. “Elk are not very susceptible to it.”

Allan blasted conservation groups for filing the action in Washington, D.C., instead of going to court in Wyoming.

“It is interesting to me that they won’t file the suit in Wyoming where the issues are,” he said. “They don’t want a judge that understands the issues. This is an issue that should be decided in Wyoming.”

The conservation groups] “are attacking one problem and creating a dozen others,” Allan continued. “It’s very apparent to me that they don’t have the interest of the elk in mind.”

Bob Wharff, Wyoming executive director of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, also called conservation groups to task.

“I think it’s a joke,” he said. “I think its a waste of everybody’s time and money. It seems like there are some people who are hell bent on destroying the Jackson Elk Herd.”

Wharff called supplemental feeding a “moral issue.”

“Sitting back waiting from them to starve to death, I don’t think we can accept that as sportsmen,” he said. “That’s an area where we’ve fed elk for almost 100 years. There’s just no other options for these animals.”

National Elk Refuge Manager Steve Kallin said he couldn’t comment on pending litigation.

“We’ve been told that a suit has been filed,” he said. “We haven’t seen it. Our legal council hasn’t had a chance to review it.”