SEQUIM – These 56 animals continue to grab a lot of attention and government-agency time.

The Dungeness herd of Roosevelt elk have escaped a proposal to relocate them to the southern Olympic Peninsula – only to become the focus of a fencing scheme.

In a lengthy meeting at Carrie Blake Park’s Guy Cole Convention Center on Wednesday, 22 members of the Dungeness Elk Working Team of federal, state and Sequim city officials wrestled with the same thorny questions:

How to move the elk off the farms north of U.S. Highway 101, but keep them near the public that loves them.

Sequim Public Works Director James Bay – a member of a subcommittee formed in February to find possible fence routes for a barrier from Blyn to the Dungeness River – delivered an elaborate presentation of the range of possibilities on Wednesday.