Where the elk are causing conflict

A herd of elk ascending a hill in Union County, Oregon. Across the Blue Mountains, a complicated mix of forces are pushing elk that had mostly kept to national wildlife areas onto private land, fuelling political conflict, economic strain and concern among biologists about declining calf survival. — Loren Elliott/The New York Times

TRAVELLING through the Blue Mountains, where Washington, Idaho and Oregon meet, elk are everywhere – on road signs, restaurant menus, home decor and, increasingly, the 1,740ha where Shaun Robertson raises cattle.

On a recent winter afternoon, he drove his pickup slowly down Grant County Road 88, the gravel dividing line between his property, where thinned stands of trees sloped down into a wide valley, and the Malheur National Forest, thick with trees and overgrown.