I just watched the Southern RAC meeting held yesterday and Mike Wardle shared additional info on the Beaver unit elk flight from this year. Here are the details as food for thought:
Beaver Unit Herd objective =
1,050
Actual Herd Estimate =
860
Elk observed on flight =
644
# of Cows/Calves =
350
# of Bulls =
294 (sightability issues for some bulls would put this # closer to 350)
Mature Bulls =
70%
So assuming there are 350 total bulls on the Beaver unit given the sightability issues, 245 of those are mature bulls (5 point or bigger). If you give 51 tags total which is what is being recommended for 2022, lets assume a 75% success rate across all hunts (probably high).
That means ONLY 38 bulls are being harvested. I won't share my opinion since it offends some here, but the conclusion is pretty clear.
The other issue at play here on these units where there is not a lot of harvest is that the elk population is aging overall and with that age comes reductions in productivity. These units are headed for a nose dive. Units like the Wasatch and Manti where there is much higher harvest #'s, have a younger overall population and seem to be doing well producing elk to keep up with higher harvest.
This is ACTUAL data-do with it what you will