{"id":74853,"date":"2020-02-14T09:20:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T16:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-help-elk-herds-limit-out-of-state-hunters-kill-more-predators-some-say\/"},"modified":"2020-02-14T16:20:29","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T16:20:29","slug":"how-to-help-elk-herds-limit-out-of-state-hunters-kill-more-predators-some-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-help-elk-herds-limit-out-of-state-hunters-kill-more-predators-some-say\/","title":{"rendered":"How to help elk herds? Limit out-of-state hunters, kill more predators, some say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Hunters
Hunters weighed in about what to do about the declining elk herds in Southwest Colorado on Thursday at a meeting hosted by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Figuring out how to help Southwest Colorado\u2019s declining elk herds recover won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

That, at least, was the take-home message from Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff at a meeting to discuss elk populations Thursday night, which drew about 100 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are not seeing elk,\u201d said Matt Thorpe, CPW district wildlife manager. \u201cAnd we\u2019re all going to have to make some sacrifices, assuming we want to grow our elk herd.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Southwest Colorado, elk populations have declined in recent years<\/a>, and it\u2019s still a bit of a guessing game as to the driving factor.<\/p>\n

The decline, so far, has been attributed to the fact that about half the elk calves born in the region die within six months, and an additional 15% die before they reach a year old.<\/p>\n

Whereas the average population included 40 calves to every 100 cows, it is now half that ratio \u2013 about 20 calves per every 100 cows.<\/p>\n

Studies have been launched across the state to figure out why calves have died at such a high rate, but in the meantime, CPW is looking for ways it can change the hunting season to alleviate pressure on herds.<\/p>\n

Specifically, CPW is updating its management plan for elk<\/a> in Southwest Colorado, which seeks to set population objectives, then adjust factors like how many hunting tags are issued each year.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s meeting to get input from the public included two recurring suggestions: reduce the number of hunting licenses for out-of-state hunters and increase hunting tags for predators like mountain lions and bears.<\/p>\n

Wildlife officials have said many hunters have reported issues with overcrowding during season peaks. And, some people believe it\u2019s disturbing the elks\u2019 breeding.<\/p>\n

CPW biologist Brad Weinmeister said the agency has reduced the number of licenses available for rifle season, and more recently limited the number of archery tags. It appears additional cutbacks are on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve pulled back everything we have basically in our control, and our populations haven\u2019t responded,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re now at some of our lowest elk populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

If hunter numbers in the field are going to be reduced, it should come from non-Colorado residents, many hunters said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to elk camp,\u201d said one hunter. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Hinds said he hunted the same area for 20 years, and every year, he sees more people from out of state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have walkie-talkies and leave with nine or more bulls every year,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cIt sounds like you\u2019re (CPW) selling out the resource to the highest bidder, which is all these people coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several hunters in the room suggested increasing the amount of hunting tags for mountain lions and bears to alleviate pressures on elk.<\/p>\n

CPW has maintained predators are likely not the culprit of declining elk herds; in northern parts of the state, for instance, there\u2019s the same predator dynamic, yet elk are thriving.<\/p>\n

Even so, CPW in the past year has increased the amount of tags to reduce bear populations in Southwest Colorado and is expected to do the same for mountain lions in the coming year.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the meeting, the conversation turned to the impacts other user groups, such as hikers and mountain bikers, have on wildlife.<\/p>\n

Ryan Bowers said hunters are usually the ones who have to sacrifice, while these others groups disturb animals, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one select group, and we\u2019re getting all the limitations,\u201d Bowers said. \u201cI bet all the noise they\u2019re making is having almost more of an impact than hunters are having.\u201d<\/p>\n

CPW\u2019s Weinmeister emphasized it\u2019s likely a range of issues \u2013 habitat loss from development, drought, recreationists \u2013 that has driven the decline in elk populations, and no one solution will fix the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things add up,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very concerning to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A draft of the management plan is expected to be released in April or May. Residents can fill out an online survey at https:\/\/bit.ly\/37NV74K<\/a>.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

out-of-state hunters, kill more predators, some say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1030,13,28,445,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environment","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74853"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}