Trap shooters help build wildlife fencing in North Powder

Local trap shooters spent a Sunday in North Powder helping build wildlife fence around an aspen stand in the Elkhorn Wildlife Area, a small project with outsized stakes for winter habitat in the Elkhorns. The work brought together shooters from Union High School, La Grande High School, Eastern Oregon University and the Union/Wallowa County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife relies on the Elkhorn Wildlife Area as one of eastern Oregon’s most important winter ranges for Rocky Mountain elk and mule deer. ODFW says it operates 10 feeding sites there to feed about 1,400 elk and 800 deer during the winter months, and the area is closed to all public access from Dec. 1 through April 10 each year to protect those animals when they are most concentrated and vulnerable.

The fencing work is part of a larger habitat project, not just a one-day volunteer outing. Oregon procurement records describe about 3,500 linear feet of buck-and-rail fence for the Elkhorn Wildlife Area, intended to enhance existing aspen stands and tied to wider efforts to address drought and limited water resources affecting aspen across Oregon. State wildlife planners say aspen woodlands provide fawning and calving habitat, security cover, forage and nesting habitat, which helps explain why ODFW invests in fencing young stands that need a chance to recover.

That makes the volunteer labor especially important. In a rural wildlife area where habitat maintenance stretches across a large landscape, local help can move a project that otherwise depends entirely on agency crews and budgets. The group in North Powder also showed how trap shooting programs extend beyond competition. The Oregon State High School Clay Target League says more than 50 high school teams and more than 650 student athletes are expected at the Oregon Trap Shooting State Tournament in June 2026, underscoring how broad the sport’s youth base has become in eastern Oregon.

The Union/Wallowa County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association says its mission is protecting Oregon’s wildlife, habitat and hunting heritage, and the North Powder fence work fit that mission on the ground. For ODFW, the result is practical: a better chance for aspen to hold on in a winter range that serves elk and deer every year.