Time to shoot the Elk...

Today's Rocky Mountain News had a front page article on an all new, new and rewritten Elk and Vegetation Management Plan for Rocky Mountain National Park. The recommendation: shoot up to half the Elk in the park.

For those of you who haven't been following this discussion in the past, or who want a refresher, in 2004 RMNP released a preliminary set of recommendations on Elk and Vegetation management. Their top preference was Wolf re-introduction; after a series of public meetings and a public comment period, it appeared that the public agreed. A draft plan was due out in Spring 2005, but was delayed - first until Summer 2005, then indefinitely.

Today's RM News article seems to indicate that they flushed the results of their previous study and all the public input that went along with it. I'm not sure this forum is the proper place to opine further; suffice it to say I think it stinks in a lot of ways.

If you're interested, you can send comments via e-mail to romo_superintendent@nps.gov until the 4th of July. Other contact information available via the links above...

I watched the TV-News version. I think it just shows that when humans invade animal territory, all bets are off. Nobody can make it right again without sacrificing something. Managing trees and forest is difficult emough. Managing elk...introducing wolves ...uh-uh. I have read historical reports that lead me to believe that the National Forest Service has made way too many mistakes.

Wolves are re-introducing themselves. They have been spotted in northern CO. With no predation for roughly 38 years, something has to give. IMHO shooting some elk for the greater good is the right short-term decision. Wolves will be here in decent numbers within 5 years.

Dave Showalter

Dave, while I would love to share your opinion, experts doubt that Wolves can successfully re-introduce themselves in Northern Colorado without a bit of help - the space between the Yellowstone ecosystem and ours is apparently a lot more challenging for a Wolf than I would have personally guessed. We've had a couple of sightings, but there hasn't been a significant expansion of the population outside of the Greater Yellowstone area despite population pressures that are beginning to grow there.

I agree that some thinning is not inappropriate, but 50%? That's a bit steep. I'm also concerned that their prior study results were just thrown out the window after pretty much getting full acceptance. Something's fishy here...

The over-population of elk in RMNP goes far beyond what reintroduction of wolves could solve within any reasonable time frame. While I'm not a hunter, I have nothing against that type of wildlife mangement. I can't imagine how hard it will be to implement a hunting policy for the park, but I think it's the right decision. While I could never kill a magnificent beast such as an elk, I can see where the elk that are taken wouldn't even exist if human intervention hadn't altered the natural processes of herd size in the first place.

Once the herd is thinned, that would be a good time to bring in the wolf, to prevent, or at least lessen, the need for future human intervention.

Without touching on the politics of hunting - there are a lot of established precedents to suggest that swift knee-jerk action is not a good way to achieve balance. These things take time. Introducing wolves may not fix the problem right away but if allowed to thrive we may be in a much better place in a couple of decades than we would be if we try to "fix" the problem with the same kind of thinking that got us into it (Einstein anyone?)
It's because of our "management" that things go out of balance. In my mind this suggests the best way to restore balance is to get the environment as close to where it was before these "management" plans and let nature do its thing at its own pace.

Guy

I would love to see wolves in RMNP, and CO for that matter, largely becuase I believe they're a natural and necessary element of a healthy ecosystem; bringing them in to correct for a mismanagement of the elk herd is romantic, but flawed (imo). For it to happen in a relatively short time frame, there would have to be so many brought in that after the herd was thinned, there would then likely be another imbalance in the form of too many wolves. (Time to reintroduce the elk... ).

I do think their presence would be a good (and natural) thing for long-term ecosystem balance. As much as I'd like to see them 're-introduced', I'd really like to see them make their way down from Montana and Wyoming on their own, in sustainable numbers. Not sure if that will ever be possible, however.

Rick,

One wolf had made its way into Utah a couple of years ago (and was found dead), which prompted immediate discussions of "management" plans (i.e. allowing ranchers to shoot them on sight). The same discussions are happenning in Wyoming and Montana, along with increased pressure to remove wolves from the endangered species list altogether.

We need to get our priorities straight as a nation. A balanced ecosystem vs. welfare ranching should be considered in terms of their value for future generations, not the preservation of a lifestyles of few at the expense of everyone else.

Ok, I tried to stay out of the politics.. I really did....

Guy

Guy - you're spot-on about our priorities. Regretfully, wildlife managers are facing pressures from all sides - the public, who just wants to see lots of furry animals, and very powerful lobbies.

Our own Fish and Wildlife Service is frequently tasked with killing the animals that they are sworn to protect.

RMNP is almost a wilderness island and I agree that re-introduction is problematic. The wildlife managers that I work with say the wolves are coming.......

Dave Showalter

Well, from the ranchers perspective, what do you think the wolf would rather kill? An elk or a nice fat juicy slow moving cow.

I know that the wolves are an important component in the ecosystem, but they can breed very quickly when fed by a nice herd of cattle. There is a fine balance here between the livelihoods of people and the romantic desire of city folk to see a wolf when they visit Yellowstone or Rocky Mountain.

As far as the original post goes, the elk heards in RMNP seem very dense to me. They will probably need some human "help" to reduce the heard. I do think that wolves could be reintroduced to RMNP, but its pretty unlikely that they'll make it down from Yellowstone on their own. There is alot of ranchland in the 500 miles between here and there.

Abou 3 years ago I was talking to a ranger in RMNP and I asked why a fence was located where it was. I was told that it was part of an experiment to see what vegetation would look like without the elk and deer eating it. The difference was amazing. I am in support of whatever will allow the vegetation to grow and flourish so that the smaller nongame animals can be helped.

The elk herd is hug in RMNP and in fact it is larger than it sould be due to the lack of a balanced ecosystem. This due to many factors, including human factors, the lack or predation. The herd needs to be thinned and I have heard that the herd is 2 to 4 times bigger than the land can handle. Thinning of the herd seems to be a good idea in the short term while longer term approaches, like wolves for example need to be explored.

I feel that the posibility of wolves introducing themselves is interesting, but not likely to make a difference in the near term, but in the long term it could happen. From the things I have heard about wolves is that they actually do prefer wild over domestic. The number of actual wolf predation on domeitic stock is very low. Most the domestic animal predation is from feral dogs, coyotes and dog-coyote hybrids. Ranchers around Yellostone get paid even if the predation is a coyote.

I do like the idea that the thining would be gradual over many years and the harvested animals will be used to feed people.

Guy, maybe that was the same wolf I was thinking of that was found dead on I-70 a couple of years back. But that one was in Colorado. Here's the story.

Rick, there have been a number of wolves that have ventured South from the Yellowstone area. One made it to Northern Utah, another to I-70, and apparently one was spotted in North Park last Summer. The problem is, they're lone wolves; they have a huge territory to explore once they get to Colorado, and almost no other wolves to help them start a new pack. Natural re-population is not going to happen soon, if at all according to the folks I've heard speak on the matter.

I think my major problem with this plan is that we had a plan two years ago, and it was mysteriously dumped after winning public approval; that plan was Wolves. My other issue with thinning via sharpshooters is that it won't solve the Aspen problem; the Aspen are in trouble not just because of the number of Elk, but also because the Elk don't have any predators to keep them on the move and away from the trees. That was supposed to be one of the major factors in creating this plan in the first place...

A combination approach seems to be in order, but this plan doesn't do that; Wolves are an "if all else fails" recommendation...

Thanks, Les. I wasn't aware of the North Park or Utah ones. The lone wolf making it down this way is interesting, maybe encouraging but also sad. What I was thinking of when speaking of making their way down here naturally is that the packs in WY, MT and ID will continue to grow, and I'd suspect that unless something or someone stops them, in-tact packs will begin locating themselves further and further from the current "epicenter" in order to reduce the competition for food. I think it will be slow going, but I'd love to see them expand down this way in that manner.

I just read the RMN article... "intensively managed" wolves? Good grief...

I really believe the elk population in RMNP is out of control. I am a little skeptical, though, that the wolves up north will successfully migrate down here on their own. There's a lot'ta nuthin' between here and there!

I'm with Todd...time to harvest - then gradually reintroduce wolves to the park. Besides, elk is good eat'n

Ken

Hey...don't tell Brent, buy my jerky recipe is made with 100% roadkill. At least the stuff that I share! . No worries, though. I'm pretty picky about what I'll stop and scrape up. I go for the ones that have been hit by big trucks and tractor-trailers - they're naturally tenderized that way. You pick something up that was hit by a Toyota Previa or especially a Mini Cooper...tough, tough, tough. Seriously though, I heard that a guy in Montana got arrested for storing and selling roadkill meat .

With the price of store-bought jerky being only slightly less alarming than the price of gas, I'm thinking of going into business. My brother-n-law already put in his Christmas order. I need to get a few more trays for the dehydrator and then crank it up.... I'll have an order page up on the web site before summer!

Funny stuff Mr. Dunn.

The wolves are coming to CO!
But not in time to do anything about the elk in RMNP - as already stated.
If we introduce wolves into RMNP to take care of the elk problem, what will we introduce to take care of the wolf problem later? Hey, maybe a wolf hunting season!!! Just kidding...kinda.
C'mon, if it's a wolf killing some elk or a hunter...who cares? Neither is particularly "in sync" with the ecosystem. It needs to be done either way.
The wolves are going to get here, slowly but surely they are coming. And that's probably the best way IMO.