Cam@strawberry
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LAST EDITED ON May-09-11 AT 02:21PM (MST)[p]Getting a few PM's about the wasatch so thought I'd try and clearly state my thoughts about whats going on
This year the proposed LE tags were 600 however, the rac only approved 500 tags same as last year. Not a big deal IMHO. The antlerless proposal was 3400 tags roughly including CWMU.
With estimated population of 7700 thats not such a big deal until we dive into the distribution of the elk.
So here is the problem as near as I can nail it, IF there are really 7700 head of elk on the wasatch, the vast majority of them reside on private and CWMU land. This makes them inaccessable to the average hunter. The public land elk are taking a beating from repeated years of large antlerless proposals. While the private land elk remain largely untouched. they are like rabbits makin babies all over the shop, populating uncontrollably.
The elk that exist on CWMU and private land are creating a problem during the winter for farmers around the Unit and part of this recommendation IMHO is to appease them, however, it is a futile effort that will not fix the existing issue.
The wasatch is still a fanastic hunt and hopefully remain so, however if we cut the cows out from under us the ability to recover from a mistake is seriously hampered. This is our main worry, that we will handicap the herd with out really dealing with the real issue at hand, because the numbers say so.
This year the proposed LE tags were 600 however, the rac only approved 500 tags same as last year. Not a big deal IMHO. The antlerless proposal was 3400 tags roughly including CWMU.
With estimated population of 7700 thats not such a big deal until we dive into the distribution of the elk.
So here is the problem as near as I can nail it, IF there are really 7700 head of elk on the wasatch, the vast majority of them reside on private and CWMU land. This makes them inaccessable to the average hunter. The public land elk are taking a beating from repeated years of large antlerless proposals. While the private land elk remain largely untouched. they are like rabbits makin babies all over the shop, populating uncontrollably.
The elk that exist on CWMU and private land are creating a problem during the winter for farmers around the Unit and part of this recommendation IMHO is to appease them, however, it is a futile effort that will not fix the existing issue.
The wasatch is still a fanastic hunt and hopefully remain so, however if we cut the cows out from under us the ability to recover from a mistake is seriously hampered. This is our main worry, that we will handicap the herd with out really dealing with the real issue at hand, because the numbers say so.