Good thing the DWR does not issue 1,400 tags good on the whole Wasatch Unit. They issue 30 good for a small area around Alpine and 80 for a small area around Wallsburg and 20 for a small area west of Heber and 200 for Diamond Fork, etc. It isn't that 1,400 people can show up on the face above Springville to shoot every cow. The specific areas within the Wasatch get a specified number of tags.
I think many people would be surprised at how many elk there are on a unit as large as the Wasatch. Lots of guys know parts of the unit very well, but I doubt anyone of us has knowledge of every nook and cranny of public lands. Start at Lambs and go south thru the Cottonwoods, over into AF, Timp, Squaw Peak, down into Hobble Creek, up through Diamond Fork, Back thru the Number Waters, Down to Strawberry, back into the Strawberry Ridge, out thru Currant Creek to Duchesne and back to Tabby Mtn, then back thru Woodland and all that private lands to Heber, then back up into Park City and end up at Lambs. That doesn't even cover the middle grounds of Wallsburg, South Fork, Cascade, Wasatch Mtn Park, etc and I forget if it covers the Avintaquin, Horse Ridge, Indian Canyon, and Red Creek.
The DWR does not manage cow numbers on bull to cow ratios. They try to get more bulls killed every year, but the idea is shot down by the Board. So in April, the DWR must kill a certain number of elk to get down to the herd objective. The only tags they can issue are cow tags. So they figure we need 1,000 cows killed. Well the success rate is only 70% so they have to issue 1,400 tags to get those 1,000 cows killed.
I do tend to agree with the private lands herds getting a free pass, while killing a larger portion of the public lands herds. That is a tricky issue, which could be alleviated by giving public lands tags and private lands tags. That was long enough.
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