ORIGINAL: summit daWg
I did what We (ALL as individual submissions this year as opposed to group)have been doing for 12 years now and we'll all see what 144chances does for a measly3 permits. Colokckum A....only one choice
I did get calls from 2 different gentlemen from 2 different offices (Wenatchee,and Yakima) telling me of very low Bull to cow ratios due to
hunter success and winter kill. Didn't really seem to blame poaching or tribal hunting. Actually didn't seem to want to discuss either issue much.
We discussed possible fixes which I'll get into at another time.Permit only units are not being considered-But "True Spike" has been discussed as an option. More road closures are not being considered (thank god) Nor was expansion of the existing reserve. I did hear of satellite reserves??
I told them if they want more escapement they need to leave a few more trees and stop the rampant logging in many places up there.
Sounds like a smoke screen to me. But I'm not an expert, nor do I have access to any of their updated data.
I will just say this:
While this past winter was quite harsh compared to the 10 year average, we haven't had a severe winter that would have impacted populations over a widespread area since 1996. They wouldn't know much about winter kill at this time anyway, not until they do their flight surveys in late 2008-early 2009.
When they say "hunter success", that doesn't mean a whole lot considering most units are permit only for branched antler. So, why would hunter success be a problem if they are deciding how many tags to issue? If they are allocating bull tags to an area, and banking on the fact that only 40% of them will be filled, well that's just stupidity on their part.
It's been proven time and again in many studies that hunter success and thus elk mortality increases as road density increases.
What they should have said is: "We have several areas with very high road density, and this increased access is leading to higher than average harvest and increased opportunities for poachers." They won't talk about poaching or Indian harvest because they have probably been told not to, as these are both obvious problemsand hot button issues they can do little about.
They have little control over timber harvest on National Forestlands. However, doing some things to limit hunter access, such as temproad closures wouldgo a long way toward increasing bull survival through the hunting season.
WA elk are subject to an incredible amount of hunting pressure. WA is also popular for poachers and Indian harvest because they can see long distances and most roads are fully open year round to some kind of mechanized travel, compared to neighboring states.
This is perfect for spotlighting and/or shooting from you're vehicle/the road.
It's not an accidentthat ID and MThave a large amount ofmandatory/year round road closures andhave had goodsuccess managing theirelk populations.