Lawnboy
Well-known member
I still go back to rmyoung's comment on the Gardiner area. I've lived here 24 years now and remember those booming numbers in that area and also having to slow down for elk at night in the upper Gallatin that were scattered on the roads at.
Very little has changed in the Gardiner area as far as development and loss of habitat in the last 20 years. Pretty much a stalled economy in that little town. The weather is really the same as it has been forever. It's always dry up there.
While I have no doubt the bear and lion numbers have increased you just can't deny the impact the wolves "must" be having on those herd numbers. They are really staggering when you think of the decline. Almost 20,000 in 1994 to 4,600 in 2011. Ben is right the hunters did take a good wack at them some of those years as well. One year reported several thousand elk killed. The crazy thing is that from what I read the objective for the northern herd is around 4-5,000? So really they are close to objective. I'm assuming we just became used too and emotionally attached to seeing such massive numbers that now we are whining and shocked
As far as not liking us complain I guess just quit reading the post. I guess we should congratulate Minn on the high wolf numbers. How are your elk and moose doing?
Seems similar to weather around here. We get a "good" winter storm that rolls through Montana and the Dakotas and suddenly when it hits the states east of us it becomes a "crushing" winter storm We are all whiners at some point and time.
Back to the original question. If I wasn't a sucky shot with my bow I would be done right now but my wife hasn't seen a year go by in 16 years of marriage without elk meat, so I guess I'm surviving the "wolf crisis".
Very little has changed in the Gardiner area as far as development and loss of habitat in the last 20 years. Pretty much a stalled economy in that little town. The weather is really the same as it has been forever. It's always dry up there.
While I have no doubt the bear and lion numbers have increased you just can't deny the impact the wolves "must" be having on those herd numbers. They are really staggering when you think of the decline. Almost 20,000 in 1994 to 4,600 in 2011. Ben is right the hunters did take a good wack at them some of those years as well. One year reported several thousand elk killed. The crazy thing is that from what I read the objective for the northern herd is around 4-5,000? So really they are close to objective. I'm assuming we just became used too and emotionally attached to seeing such massive numbers that now we are whining and shocked
As far as not liking us complain I guess just quit reading the post. I guess we should congratulate Minn on the high wolf numbers. How are your elk and moose doing?
Seems similar to weather around here. We get a "good" winter storm that rolls through Montana and the Dakotas and suddenly when it hits the states east of us it becomes a "crushing" winter storm We are all whiners at some point and time.
Back to the original question. If I wasn't a sucky shot with my bow I would be done right now but my wife hasn't seen a year go by in 16 years of marriage without elk meat, so I guess I'm surviving the "wolf crisis".