Welcome! You’ve found Sportsmen for the Elk, the official web site for a sportsmen-led effort to establish the Elk River Salmon Emphasis Area.

Under this proposal, the ERSEA would permanently protect nearly 28,000 acres within southern Oregon’s Elk River watershed, ensuring that one of the Northwest’s healthiest salmon and steelhead habitats remains pristine and intact. That, in turn, will ensure that the fish return to the river year after year.

In 2009, sportsmen were successful in creating the Copper-Salmon Wilderness, which protects about 14,000 acres of salmon and steelhead spawning and rearing habitat in the upper Elk drainage. This effort would build upon that success. The ERSEA, combined with established wilderness, would provide lasting protection for 60,000 acres of this salmon and steelhead stronghold.

Learn more about this unique, wild watershed and the issues it faces on these pages, and then contact us to learn how you can help. With the support of sportsmen and women like you, this effort will give anglers the chance to catch trophy sea-run fish for generations to come.

Update! Members of the media tour ERSEA area. Click here for photos!