Colorado cutting tag numbers

[RyGuy]

yes, that.

to my knowledge nowhere else in the state is seeing essentially 100% of winter range habitat crusted over under multiple feet of snow since like mid december. whole herds of pronghorn trying to survive on the highway shoulders are getting killed, one semi at a time. northwest colorado and south central wyoming are experiencing the same horrific winter as far as wildlife goes.

Damn. That’s sad to hear! pictures of the snowy wasteland tell the tale I guess.

 

[more_cowbell]

Honest question.
What motivates anti-hunting? If it's the death of wildlife what does it matter if wildlife die by bullet, snow, or wolf? Dead deer are still dead regardless of cause of death. So celebrating winter kill because it hurts hunting confuses me, deer are dead either way.

A lot of them don't like "Fudds", or "trophy collectors" (latter as evidenced in a recent video exchange in Canada between J Shockey and a openly disdainful anti-hunting Canadian politician), and would rather see wolves return to the landscape un-checked, which will help nature revert to a time before people destroyed everything.

 

[okie archer]

Without a viable population of big game, hunting participation will circle the drain until species get ESA protection and hunting is outlawed in sections of the West. That seems to be why migratory wolves were released that can clean out a drainage then rather than see predator populations decline until prey populations rebound...the wolves just head to the next drainage as if were following a caribou migration. Wolves are in all the states bordering the Pacific now after a few pairs being released in Wyoming years ago. Likely those released wolves exterminated a reclusive native wolf population within Yellowstone.

 

[okie archer]

A lot of them don't like "Fudds", or "trophy collectors" (latter as evidenced in a recent video exchange in Canada between J Shockey and a openly disdainful anti-hunting Canadian politician), and would rather see wolves return to the landscape un-checked, which will help nature revert to a time before people destroyed everything.

So basically they don't really care about the wildlife, they see it as a way to exercise gun control? That's what I'm seeing.

 

[more_cowbell]

So basically they don't really care about the wildlife, they see it as a way to exercise gun control? That's what I'm seeing.

I probably over generalized, but I think there's good overlap between people who don't like hunters, and those who are also anti-firearm. The Canadian politician I referred to, who'd had an interaction with Jim Shockey, I think was talking about firearm restrictions but also made a disdainful comment about or reference to hunters. One way to reduce hunters over time is to intro more predators, not let them be managed, and let nature take its course. Or, the reduction of hunters is just a by product of not managing four legged predators, I don't know

 

[BrokenArrow]

I can tell you that I’ve been in SW Colorado since ‘99.
‘05, ‘08, ‘13, ‘18 all big years. This one is belligerent.
We are 179% of avg for water equivalence as of today. That beats even ‘05.
I’m seeing elk/deer stuffed into places that have been developed and used to be winter range. Everyone is trying to just get through green up.
Saying all that, this is the snotel snow water equivalent table. 2nd column is % of average. 4th column is water precipitation up to this date per year. This is todays table.

 

[Orion’s Breath]

Looks like with the winter kill biologists are recommending cutting tags in NW Colorado. Hopefully this actually happens with the severe winter kill.

Winter in the Northwest: Surviving today and after the snow melts - Colorado Outdoors Online

Using the data collected over the past several months, and anticipated additional losses throughout the spring, biologists are taking conservative approaches with this year's license recommendations.

coloradooutdoorsmag.com

View attachment 270093




Attention Hunters: Biologists are recommending significant reductions in the number of licenses for elk and deer in the Bears Ears and White River DAUs, and pronghorn in the Great Divide DAU for the 2023 big game season. The impacted DAUs included the Game Management Units (GMU) highlighted in yellow on the map above.

Spoke to the CPW office up in Meeker and it sounds as though GMU 10 will be included in the 40% tag cuts.

Was a bit surprised by this as it’s managed as a separate DAU (21) than the Bears Ears & White River, and will try to get the biologist on the phone to confirm.

Has anyone else heard anything similar about the other NW GMUs outside the Bears Ears & White River?

 

[Holski]

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is a nationally recognized leader in conservation, outdoor recreation and wildlife management. The agency manages 42 state parks, all of Colorado's wildlife, more than 300 state wildlife areas and a host of recreational programs. CPW issues hunting and fishing...

cpw.state.co.us

An update put out a few days ago.