All Of A Sudden There Are Not As Many Elk In Rocky Mountain National Park
April 3, 2007
It’s a miracle! Elk are self regulating! Think of the millions of dollars taxpayers and mostly fish and game departments can save now that elk don’t need managing anymore. This may mean the cost of a hunting license will drop drastically!
This obviously in not the case but one has to wonder what is behind the announcement by the superintendent of the Rocky Mountain National Park, Vaughn Baker, saying that the elk may not need to be culled because numbers are down and have been dropping for some time.
“For the last couple of years, we noticed winter surveys have indicated the population was less, down in the mid-2,000s or even possibly lower, and that is just an example of how the herd will fluctuate over time,” Baker said.
Granted, we all expected a certain amount of mortality from this winter’s heavy snows in some areas but to now be saying that the numbers have been dropping since 2002, leaves me wondering if this is just a ploy to not allow hunters to thin the herd.
It is obvious and has been from the beginning that park super Vaughn Baker doesn’t want anything to do with letting hunters into the park to take care of thinning the herd but he does approve night time slaughtering – makes sense. Since Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. both introduced bills that would make provisions for hunters to go into the park and the Division of Wildlife went public in support of the use of hunters, Baker is changing his tune about how serious the problem is.
Baker says the official count is still being tabulated. Who is conducting the count and why should we believe the results that they give?
Tom Remington
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[...] the same thing at no cost to the government, things began to change. First, officials in the park began to change their statements saying that there were not as many elk as they first [...]
[...] the same thing at no cost to the government, things began to change. First, officials in the park began to change their statements saying that there were not as many elk as they first [...]