KC
New member
I hunted in North Park, Colorado this year. That's one of the places where the Division of Wildlife has extended the season on un-filled cow elk tags because they think that the poor forage created by the drought will reult in lots of winter kill and range damage. The extended cow tags are good only on private land, which means they also want to reduce crop damage and the claims against the D.O.W. that will result.
All this makes sense to me until you factor in one more piece of information.
There is a wildlife refuge in the middle of North Park and camped out in plain sight from highway 125, right in the middle of the refuge, are several hundred elk, that can't be touched. The grazing is still OK on the refuge but in a month or so it will be gone and all those elk will attack the hay stacks put up by the local ranchers. Those hay stacks are already small because of the drought.
I guess that the situation will insure a sustained yield of elk because the elk currently on the refuge will certainly survive hunting season. But they will face poor forage and maybe starve as soon as the grass runs out. Some will certainly survive the winter anyway. But protecting the elk on the refuge seems to contradict the strategy of extending the season to reduce populations.
I wonder if they intend to feed the elk on the refuge. That would lure them away from private property and help them survive the winter too. We shall see.
KC

All this makes sense to me until you factor in one more piece of information.
There is a wildlife refuge in the middle of North Park and camped out in plain sight from highway 125, right in the middle of the refuge, are several hundred elk, that can't be touched. The grazing is still OK on the refuge but in a month or so it will be gone and all those elk will attack the hay stacks put up by the local ranchers. Those hay stacks are already small because of the drought.
I guess that the situation will insure a sustained yield of elk because the elk currently on the refuge will certainly survive hunting season. But they will face poor forage and maybe starve as soon as the grass runs out. Some will certainly survive the winter anyway. But protecting the elk on the refuge seems to contradict the strategy of extending the season to reduce populations.
I wonder if they intend to feed the elk on the refuge. That would lure them away from private property and help them survive the winter too. We shall see.
KC