The elk that trample and eat crops and forage in eastern Skagit County, Wash., are more troublesome than ever, according to unhappy landowners, who hope to rally renewed attention to their problem.

Farmers and ranchers told — or reminded — Fish and Wildlife commissioners Friday about their struggles. Skagit County Farm Bureau President Bill Schmidt warned longer-serving commissioners they had heard it before.

“I’m going to be beating the same drum, but I want you to know we’ve been fighting this battle for about 10 years,” he said.

On Tuesday during an interview, Schmidt said he also hoped state lawmakers will take up the issue.

“Hopefully, we’ll get some new brainstorming and enthusiasm,” he said. “What’s happening is the population is growing on the agricultural floor, and we’re getting more damage.”

Farm groups supported a bill introduced in March to create a statewide plan to deter elk from staying on farmland. The bill received a courtesy hearing, but was introduced too late for consideration this year.

The Fish and Wildlife commission also has no new elk-control plan under consideration, though some commissioners said they were interested in field trips to look at the problem first-hand.

Two decades ago, the Department of Fish and Wildlife moved 98 elk from Mount St. Helens to enlarge the North Cascades herd. Rather than staying in the hills, large numbers of elk have settled on farmland.

The herd roams over a large area of northwest Washington and has an estimated population of 1,500. The department is working on counting the number of elk who stay in the lowlands.

Farmer Val Mullen told commissioners that elk eat the grass grown for cattle. Noise, lights, rocks, shouts and all-terrain vehicles fail to move the elk, said Mullen, who’s lived in the area since 1976.

“I can remember when the elk lived in the hills, not on farms,” she said. “The elk are accustomed to living on farms and are on their way to becoming domesticated.”

Fish and Wildlife and nine tribes manage the herd. Wildlife managers have tried fences, hazing and planting grass for elk to graze on elsewhere. They’ve allowed some elk to be killed by hunters and landowners.

“We’re all ears if there are ideas we haven’t thought about,” Fish and Wildlife regional wildlife manager Fenner Yarborough said.

“I don’t think we can ever get all the elk out of the valley,” he said. “I do think we can continue to try to get the numbers a little lower.”

Schmidt said the department should issue more kill permits to landowners with fewer strings attached. Fish and Wildlife issued 60 permits last year, but only 37 elk were harvested.

Fish and Wildlife also issued permits to hunters to harvest 21 bulls and 29 cows. “I don’t have a good answer to how many we could shoot, even if we wanted to,” Yarborough said.

“It’s a fact there are landowners who don’t allow hunting access,” he said. “We can’t go on somebody’s property and tell them they can’t have elk there.”

The Skagit Land Trust buys land for wildlife. Stewardship director Regina Wandler told the commission that interactions with wildlife will be a “never-ending part of living and working in the Skagit.”

”We also support notifying new landowners they will be living in an area of active wildlife habitat,” she said.