idahoelkinstructor

[blockquote]LAST EDITED ON Apr-25-06 AT 03:29PM (MST)
In the Rocky Mountain News today there is an article about Rocky Mountain National Park's plans to reduce the elk herd by 50% (1800 head) over the next 4 or 5 years. Their options are "sharpshooters", no management, fertility control and wolves. It doesn't sound like introducing wolves is going to be the chosen path but you never know. The deadline for public comment is July 4th. For all of us that are not happy with wolves here is a chance to voice your opinion.

email: [email protected]
fax: 970-586-1397
mail: Rocky Mountain National Park Headquarters
1000 Highway 36
Estes Park, CO 80517
Rockymountainnews.com

Please take some time and let your voice be heard, trust me and others from states that have to deal with these out of control protected dogs. YOU DO NOT WANT WOLVES INTRODUCED INTO COLORADO! They are already finding their way there from wyoming a few at a time, but if you intoduce in numbersthem I promise you that you can kiss your excellent elk hunting good by. We here in Idaho have already had to do just that in some areas. Good luck your going to need it.

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laufer303

Maybe they'll intorduce them for hunting only?
Last year alone female wolf from one of the Yellowstone packswas killed by a car on I-70 west from Denver. That is in the middle of Colorado, not by the Wy border. Alone wolf was spotted in Park county (more south from I-70)and several alone wolfs were spotted throughout northern parts of Colorado bordering WY.
They are moving in, like it or not.
Can we live together, ranchers, hunters, elk, wolf? On a posters andbrochures for tourists probably yes. In reality, Colorado battle forand against wolfs already started with public meetings and wolfs spottings. Second stage is this talk about intorduction, 'return' or however you want to call it. Third stagewill bebattle with ranchers and hunters and intorduction itself. Experimental introduction, which we all know ends up being the real thing.
I would not mind hunting extra elk in order to minimize intentional intorduction of wolfs, and I bet most of os hunters would not either. If they move in on their own, that is another issue, but intentional introduction to RMNP will not work, I can assure you and guarantee that ranchers and hunters od Colorado will preven that.

MTdrahthaar

Oh it will work alright, CO is one giant elk smorgasbord for wolves. Isn't RMNP something like 1/5 the size Yellowstone? Brilliant. They'll have that cleaned out in no time and move one to the rest of CO.

glob3006

Ahhh Yes????? I read this too[:-][:-]Introduce wolves..............BRILLIANT!#@$^&* Next
should be the Grizzly and maybe we could get some DNA samples of a Saber cat and try that[:@]I also like the " Sharpshooter " scenario[:-][:-]Winners!!!

I wonder what would happen if they introduced...... Law abiding, Land and Nature Lovers who only take what the carrying capacity will allow???? Oh that's logical ...........Intelligent hunters like you and me...........NOPE......No Way........not even being mentioned as a long term managment tool [:@][:-]

kevin1

They got themselves to this point by overpricing their hunting of them because of trophy madness , would it be asking too much for the state of Colorado to offer incresed hunting opportunities for elk at a cost below the ridiculous , especially for non-residents ? If they did that they wouldn't need wolves . I've always dreamed of going on an elk hunt , as it stands the only way I'll ever come close is when Kentuky's elk herd starts swimming across the Ohio River to here where they aren't legally game animals .

idahoelkinstructor

Let hunters take care of the problem you say, tell me another bed time storie, that solution just will not work, and its all to simple.No insead lets intrduce a killing machine that will take care off the entire elk heard in colorado then we don't need huters at all.

Being serious wolves are the anti hunters best friend in the west. We are trying in Idaho to put wolves on the ballotin november, we want to make it legal to hunt and control them like coyotes. Don't know if it will happen but its better than sitting around and doing nothing and letting the wolves kill off all our game.

laufer303

So your suggestion would be yes on intorduction if we can hunt them?

Hunters can take care of overpopulation. If overpopulation is their main argument, decision have been madesomewhere to introduce wolf already. [:@]

fillae

There's an overpopulation of elk in RMNP, not the rest of CO. Since hunting is not legal in National Parks, the notion that they are overpopulated because people cannot afford licenses is wrong.

I could see them issuing limited archery tags, but I don't think we'll see a rifle season. I could be wrong though. I'd definitely put in for a draw there.

Howler

Kevin, the over population of elk in the Rocky Mtn. National Park didn't get this way because of over priced hunting tags, since there is NO hunting within the park boundarys!! I'm not going to say anything about the prices for elk tags, BUT there's no shortage of hunters buying them, so apparently the price isn't TOO high for enough hunters to buy them up.
It's true wolfs have been seen, and road killed in the state, BUT so far there doesn't seem to be much, if any, mating going on so the numbers of wolfs won't be climbing at any alarming rate. BUT if they get to the point of doing a "re-introduction" of them with in the park, which I highly doubt will happen any time soon, you can then bet that there will be breeding pairs and at that point, the fire(wolf population) will spread without boundarys!
Isn't it funny how it seems to be more politcally correct for the elk to be shot by "sharp shooters" than it is for elk to be shot by hunters!! Let's see, pay sharp shooters who knows how much or have hunters paying the state to hunt them!![][:@]Makes no cents (sense)!!

idahoelkinstructor

Howler, well said, I couldn't agree more.