Salt baiting is when a hunter uses salt to lure in elk, so they can quickly ambush the animal. Salt baiting has been going on for thirty plus years in Yellowstone, even though salt bating is illegal in Wyoming. The main reason why the practice hasn’t been stopped, is the Wyoming Game and Fish department believes that the practice helps control the elk population.
As you have requested, I have reviewed the article: Hoskins, Robert. “'Hunting' for Elk in the Salt Pits of the Upper Yellowstone.” High Country News (Online), 14 Feb. 2000. For the past thirty plus years, people have been baiting in Yellowstone National Park. Salt baiting is when a supposed hunter uses salt to lure in elk, so they can quickly ambush the animal and kill it with ease.
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By the next day, the elk would no longer be where it was left because the wolves and ravens within Yellowstone would have devoured the rest of the meat on the corpse (which can be more than fifty pounds of meat). Due to that fact, people don’t get caught violating the edible meat law. Abandoning meat that can be eaten is illegal in the state of Wyoming, but law enforcement has neglected the problems with the practice. It is not technically illegal to hunt on a pit, so it is a lot harder for law enforcement to catch who is laying the salt down and who is just hunting. Yellowstone Park Rangers have found at least seventeen pits within the Park. Some salt pits are 50 feet across and 4 feet deep. Yellowstone Park Rangers want to put an end to the practice, but they don’t have the support to stop it on their own. The only time when the Park Rangers have a say in the matter is when the baiting happens within park boundaries. There are three main reasons why Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Forest Service have not attempted to try and stop the practice. The first reason why the practice continues, is that it supposedly helps boosts the local economy. Tourists go to