ORIGINAL: summit daWg
ORIGINAL: 700xcr
In my opinion sending a letter is not going to make any changes. I think that might work is if we all Hunters stick together and boycott hunting in this state for one year. That way when the funding for their wages drop and they may think about the question in hand.
I wish we could!
Like we could get ANY group in this country could stick together like that. I wasn't thinkingthe letter would change anything- but I want to know WHAT they were basing thier decisions on. After what,13-15 years of spike only there are still not enough numbers that they have to lower the numbers of available permits? SOMEONE(s) are not doing thier job! Is it poaching? There is a heavy farmworking presenceon the northern boundaries of this area. Is it encroaching development? What is it?
My guess is they will try to blame it on human pressure such as snowmobile and ATV use so they can kill two birds with one stone and justify closing More of the roads up there.
I just finished reading their management plan because I was wondering the same thing.
The main problems are uncontrolled tribal harvest and poaching. It's extremely difficult to manage a population when you have no idea how many bulls are being taken, and recruitment into the "mature bull" age class is very low.
I've flown several times with WDFW bio's on retrivals ofradio collard mature bulls.Ifyou knew how manybig bulls are being killed byIndiansand poachers you would be sick.
Here is a link to their report.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/elk/bluemtn_final.pdf
I'll admit it's not very well done but owning up to a management strategy like this one is not easy to do. It's out of date and is likely being updated this year if it hasn't already.
Their cow:calf ratios are on par with some of the worst areas in Idaho, yet IDFG still offers any bull, but they have capped the number of tags.
WA also has asevere problem withlow calf survival, a function of theirinability to adequately manage bear and cougar populations.
Their program has been plauged by many years of poor data collection and other types of mismanagement. They are basically in an "emergency, no-net-loss" type of management strategy that is unfortunately not socially acceptable.
However, it will be many years before they are able to move beyond this strategy, if they ever can.
I'm somewhat familar with the situations as I have been involved with elk management with both states (ID and WA).