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Ike
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I thought you guys might like to read an email I received today from a friend?
Gardiner late elk hunt to be cut
By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
HELENA -- The winter elk hunt in Gardiner will be cut from 1,180 hunters
to 148 hunters, mirroring the steady downward spiral of the Northern
Yellowstone elk herd, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission
decided here Thursday.
The hunt is likely to be discontinued altogether in the future, said Kurt
Alt, FWP regional wildlife manager.
"It's probably going to go away," he said.
He cited the heavy density of wolves in and near the park, coupled with
other predation, as a reason for cutting the hunt by more than 90 percent
by January, 2006.
The northern Yellowstone herd hit a peak of about 19,000 animals in 1994.
The next year, wolves were reintroduced and elk have been on a steady
decline ever since.
"It's just one more mouth to feed," Alt said of the wolves.
As recently as 2000, FWP offered more than 2,800 tags for the late hunt,
which aimed to harvest mostly female elk that migrated out of Yellowstone
National Park.
"We expect to observe less than 8,000 elk during this December's count,"
Alt said. "Wolf lovers will have a hard time accepting that wolves are
having such an impact."
He noted that in 1968, when the National Park Service stopped culling elk
inside the park, there were about 4,000 elk there. By 1975, the year the
late hunt commenced, the number had climbed to 12,000. In those years,
there were no wolves, about half as many grizzly bears as there are
today, and a lot fewer lions, Alt noted.
He said that, with the abundance of predators in and near the park, he
fears that "one bad winter" could drop the elk herd to the 1968 level and
the smaller herd would then face all those predators.
Critics of wolf reintroduction have pointed to reduced elk numbers for
years and blamed wolves for them.
Now it turns out they're right, at least partly.
Recent studies in Yellowstone have shown that 70 percent of elk calves
die from predators by the end of September of their first year.
Bears, both black and grizzly, account for about 60 percent of the calves
that die in the first few weeks of their lives in the jaws of predators.
After the calves become more mobile, wolves begin killing more of them
and bears kill fewer, the studies show.
Springtime counts over the last three years have shown that between 12
and 14 calves per hundred cows have remained alive through the first year
of their life.
A calf/cow ratio of about 20 is needed for a herd to sustain itself, Alt
told the commission.
FWP commission chairman Dan Walker asked him if he expected to see that
level reached within the next 10 years. Alt said "no."
The commission also approved Montana's statewide elk plan, which focuses
on ways for people to harvest more elk, if necessary. Unlike the area
just north of the park, most elk hunting districts in the state contain
more elk than guidelines call for, leading to landowner complaints.
It's possible that some districts could be limited to antlerless elk
only, in efforts to reduce populations.
Alt said he is not concerned about wolves causing similar big drops in
elk numbers in other parts of the state.
It hasn't happened in northwest Montana, he said, or along the Rocky
Mountain Front, where wolves have lived for years.
Wolves will continue to spread out from the park, but a significant
number will get get in trouble with livestock and likely will be killed,
Alt said.
"Whether they are listed (by the Endangered Species Act) or not, wolves
will be managed on landscapes where people live and work," he said.
FWP is taking over many wolf management duties from the federal
government.
Once delisted -- a step that could be years away -- Montana hopes to
install limited hunting and trapping seasons for wolves, he said.
Gardiner late elk hunt to be cut
By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
HELENA -- The winter elk hunt in Gardiner will be cut from 1,180 hunters
to 148 hunters, mirroring the steady downward spiral of the Northern
Yellowstone elk herd, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission
decided here Thursday.
The hunt is likely to be discontinued altogether in the future, said Kurt
Alt, FWP regional wildlife manager.
"It's probably going to go away," he said.
He cited the heavy density of wolves in and near the park, coupled with
other predation, as a reason for cutting the hunt by more than 90 percent
by January, 2006.
The northern Yellowstone herd hit a peak of about 19,000 animals in 1994.
The next year, wolves were reintroduced and elk have been on a steady
decline ever since.
"It's just one more mouth to feed," Alt said of the wolves.
As recently as 2000, FWP offered more than 2,800 tags for the late hunt,
which aimed to harvest mostly female elk that migrated out of Yellowstone
National Park.
"We expect to observe less than 8,000 elk during this December's count,"
Alt said. "Wolf lovers will have a hard time accepting that wolves are
having such an impact."
He noted that in 1968, when the National Park Service stopped culling elk
inside the park, there were about 4,000 elk there. By 1975, the year the
late hunt commenced, the number had climbed to 12,000. In those years,
there were no wolves, about half as many grizzly bears as there are
today, and a lot fewer lions, Alt noted.
He said that, with the abundance of predators in and near the park, he
fears that "one bad winter" could drop the elk herd to the 1968 level and
the smaller herd would then face all those predators.
Critics of wolf reintroduction have pointed to reduced elk numbers for
years and blamed wolves for them.
Now it turns out they're right, at least partly.
Recent studies in Yellowstone have shown that 70 percent of elk calves
die from predators by the end of September of their first year.
Bears, both black and grizzly, account for about 60 percent of the calves
that die in the first few weeks of their lives in the jaws of predators.
After the calves become more mobile, wolves begin killing more of them
and bears kill fewer, the studies show.
Springtime counts over the last three years have shown that between 12
and 14 calves per hundred cows have remained alive through the first year
of their life.
A calf/cow ratio of about 20 is needed for a herd to sustain itself, Alt
told the commission.
FWP commission chairman Dan Walker asked him if he expected to see that
level reached within the next 10 years. Alt said "no."
The commission also approved Montana's statewide elk plan, which focuses
on ways for people to harvest more elk, if necessary. Unlike the area
just north of the park, most elk hunting districts in the state contain
more elk than guidelines call for, leading to landowner complaints.
It's possible that some districts could be limited to antlerless elk
only, in efforts to reduce populations.
Alt said he is not concerned about wolves causing similar big drops in
elk numbers in other parts of the state.
It hasn't happened in northwest Montana, he said, or along the Rocky
Mountain Front, where wolves have lived for years.
Wolves will continue to spread out from the park, but a significant
number will get get in trouble with livestock and likely will be killed,
Alt said.
"Whether they are listed (by the Endangered Species Act) or not, wolves
will be managed on landscapes where people live and work," he said.
FWP is taking over many wolf management duties from the federal
government.
Once delisted -- a step that could be years away -- Montana hopes to
install limited hunting and trapping seasons for wolves, he said.
