For the past three winters, Mark Smith has fed hay to hungry elk near Mount St. Helens.
Smith, an owner of the Eco Park Resort near Mount St. Helens, said he knows that feeding is not the solution to the overpopulation of elk there.
"But I'm not in favor of using starvation as a management tool," Smith said Wednesday afternoon. He said he feeds 600 to 800 pounds of hay to as many as 100 elk each day.
Smith's winter feeding program for elk will end if a bill before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources becomes law.
House Bill 1885 would forbid private citizens from feeding elk, deer, bears, raccoons, opossums, cougars, wolves, coyotes, wild turkeys and skunks.
It still would be legal to feed birds at backyard bird feeders.
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