So when a buck rubs up a pine tree we should run them all off too? I had only 4 pine tree's on my village lot, bucks destroyed all of them. Replanted them and the neighborhood kids ruined them. What good is a forest of trees with out critters? Wipe out the elk to save the tree's. That's a good one. Pine trees are cheap, plant some more and charge admission for photographers, tourists and hunters to see the elk tear up those tree's. Property damage is a valid concern though. In Clam Lake it's been a non issue. In BRF the impact study was in favor of the elk. Forther south you get, the bigger the issue. The more farms, fences and roads. Ideally I'd like to see elk state wide but that's probably not realistic. We are no where near that stage yet but it's an issue that will eventually come up. We deal with deer damage and bear damage, and would have to deal with elk damage in simular fassion. If the elk get too out of hand history has shown that we've wiped them out once easy enough. The challenge is getting them back and learning to live with them. You're going to have to learn to live with wolves, might as well learn how to live with elk too. So an elk messed up your xmas tree, have the elk for xmas dinner and call it even. If you want to save a tree worth saving, eat a beaver. They kill more hardwood than any elk.lol sorry bad joke.