LAST EDITED ON May-09-16 AT 09:27AM (MST)[p] So??Here is MY OPINION/OBSERVATION on the tule elk deal in the Owens Valley. I am no biologist and have only lived here, with these elk, for about 70 years, so I could be wrong.
There are as many elk here today as there have ever been in the past 30 years. More mature bulls than ever. There are at least 3 herds of bulls, of a dozen or more, that don't even participate in rut activity, due to so much competition. Mature bulls outnumber MATURE cows by about 3 to 1.
The overall population of tule elk in the Owens Valley far exceeds the FEDERAL mandate, set when this herd was first relocated here.
The local biologist has a hard and fast rule that says.."if I don't see them, they do not exist"?.Problem with that is, he doesn't have/spend the time to go look at the herds. No money budgeted for that.
They do their annual count with an airplane at about 11 am, around July 8th??possibly the hottest day of the year, and don't find many animals standing around in the 108 degree heat.
Truth is, it would take a week for 3 or 4 DFW guys to see EVERY animal we have here, but there is "no money".
Go figure?..last fall, DFW had 30+ people, 24 vehicles, and a $4,000 an hour helicopter, here to capture, collar and move 12 bighorn sheep to Yosemite??.where the sheep would already have been if they WANTED to go there.
They kept the people here thru the weekend in hotels, but didn't work for 2 days. I can't even imagine what that project must have cost. Half those sheep were back here in a week and the other half were "cat food".
Sierra Nevada sheep generate NO revenue to DFW, but the funding for THIS project came from the DFW budget??..NO money for an elk count, which ultimately does generate funding?
This is "wildlife management" with ZERO emphasis on hunters and hunting?..you can clearly see where this is going. I give it 5 years, and there will be NO hunting in this State.
Another issue is that, supposedly, there are too many elk in the Grizzly Island herd, so instead of simply managing that herd on its own population, the DFW added tags to Grizzly Islands quota and subtracted the same number from the Owens Valley herd??with apparently NO STUDY of the latter.
And now, the Hunter Liggett elk hunt is off the menu, and I don't see those 12 tags being allocated elsewhere??Hmmmmm.
This is all simply my OPINION?.shared by several local ranchers, hunters and assorted "nature fakers"?..and opinions are worth exactly what you paid for them.
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