E
eractbt
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-09 AT 02:37PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-09 AT 02:31?PM (MST)
Now is the time for all good men & women to come to the aid of the elk herd in Wyoming! Long story short: I've bow hunted area 40 for elk the last 2 years and have always seen many elk! Success has been fairly easy. However, this year it all has changed! Granted, it was unseasonably hot & dry in September this year, but in 18 long, hard days of hunting, my partner and I were only able to lay eyes on 6 cows and 2 bulls. Wallows that should have been ravaged due to all the heat went untouched. Reports from Game Wardens and other hunters were much the same.......No Elk! Excuses were many and varied, but they all had the same ending....No Elk! Rifle season in Area 40 opened last Thursday, October 15. Yesterday I met with 4 rifle hunters who not only hunt area 40, but concentrate in exactly the same drainage area (Grouse Creek) that we do, and did they ever have bad news. On Saturday the witnessed 4 wolves chasing a mule deer doe across the drainage where they met up with one other wolf. No wonder we hadn't seen any! What happened in the Yellowstone/Teton area a few years back was being exactly replicated here in the Bighorns. And yet, the G&F's official stance is that there occasionally is a wolf that will travel through the Bighorns, but that there is not a resident pack. Horse----!!! Just last year a local game warden out of Buffalo placed a game camera on an elk carcass he had investigated and he had pictures of a wolf that very night!
Another game warden took casts of tracks in the northern portion of the Bighorns and officially verified that they were indeed wolf tracks. How much longer will the G&F deny their presence? How much longer will be denied the ability to legally shoot the wolves? This morning I called the G&F office in Cody which oversees area 40, and it was all I could do to get them to remain on the phone. They obviously didn't seem to care, and remained somewhat skeptical. It was like they wanted to tell me, "Oh Well". Oh well, my a--!! Those elk are my elk, your elk, and everybody's elk. And unless we make our voices heard (LOUDLY), the G&F won't be doing anything to shrink their numbers. At the very least, the G&F should be worried about the reduction in the elk population reducing the number of hunters, both resident & non-resident, therefore reducing the number of tags sold. I ask that you please contact your state legilators and make your opinions heard, even if you don't agree with me. Report to the G&F every wolf sighting you make. The more they hear from us, the more likely they'll be to take action. Twenty to thirty miles from here they can shoot wolves and not be criminals. We as Wyomingites have been forced to resort to the SS&S method of predator control while our G&F denies their very presence. Take action and be a part of the solution!!!!!!
Now is the time for all good men & women to come to the aid of the elk herd in Wyoming! Long story short: I've bow hunted area 40 for elk the last 2 years and have always seen many elk! Success has been fairly easy. However, this year it all has changed! Granted, it was unseasonably hot & dry in September this year, but in 18 long, hard days of hunting, my partner and I were only able to lay eyes on 6 cows and 2 bulls. Wallows that should have been ravaged due to all the heat went untouched. Reports from Game Wardens and other hunters were much the same.......No Elk! Excuses were many and varied, but they all had the same ending....No Elk! Rifle season in Area 40 opened last Thursday, October 15. Yesterday I met with 4 rifle hunters who not only hunt area 40, but concentrate in exactly the same drainage area (Grouse Creek) that we do, and did they ever have bad news. On Saturday the witnessed 4 wolves chasing a mule deer doe across the drainage where they met up with one other wolf. No wonder we hadn't seen any! What happened in the Yellowstone/Teton area a few years back was being exactly replicated here in the Bighorns. And yet, the G&F's official stance is that there occasionally is a wolf that will travel through the Bighorns, but that there is not a resident pack. Horse----!!! Just last year a local game warden out of Buffalo placed a game camera on an elk carcass he had investigated and he had pictures of a wolf that very night!
Another game warden took casts of tracks in the northern portion of the Bighorns and officially verified that they were indeed wolf tracks. How much longer will the G&F deny their presence? How much longer will be denied the ability to legally shoot the wolves? This morning I called the G&F office in Cody which oversees area 40, and it was all I could do to get them to remain on the phone. They obviously didn't seem to care, and remained somewhat skeptical. It was like they wanted to tell me, "Oh Well". Oh well, my a--!! Those elk are my elk, your elk, and everybody's elk. And unless we make our voices heard (LOUDLY), the G&F won't be doing anything to shrink their numbers. At the very least, the G&F should be worried about the reduction in the elk population reducing the number of hunters, both resident & non-resident, therefore reducing the number of tags sold. I ask that you please contact your state legilators and make your opinions heard, even if you don't agree with me. Report to the G&F every wolf sighting you make. The more they hear from us, the more likely they'll be to take action. Twenty to thirty miles from here they can shoot wolves and not be criminals. We as Wyomingites have been forced to resort to the SS&S method of predator control while our G&F denies their very presence. Take action and be a part of the solution!!!!!!
