OR excess elk

[ScottP]

I’ve never understood the grief the LOP tags cause. According to ODFW only about 1/2 the available acreage is enrolled, the larger the property the fewer tags you get per acre; 5,000 acres gets five tags; 10,000 acres gets 6 tags; and it takes 40,000 acres to get 10 tags.
If you get an LOP Tag you can’t hunt any other property, public or private.
The over riding reason ranchers don’t let people hunt anymore is the grief they take from Portland hunters over the lop program. If I can’t hunt it why should I let you?

LOP isn't a big issue in the context of the linked article. On those lands in that area, they're hunting cow elk on damage tags from Aug 1 - March 31. Many of the outfitters sell "access" as long as you have an unvalidated archery or general spike tag you can get a damage permit. If there was an elk standing on your property, you could get a damage tag, they just limited to five going at one time. Obviously, there is a mixture of landowners in this vicinity, but there hasn't been enough cohesion to allow the state to implement management actions that are truly effective.

I should also add, that the USFS lands adjacent to this particular region is really the best summer and early fall habitat available to the elk, but it is laden with roads, full of livestock, and is inundated with hunters on a general season beginning in archery. The elk definitely bail off the public early. I know a guy in town where I live that hunted the property mentioned in the article (for a fee!!) and it was absolutely loaded with elk by mid-archery. They put zero pressure on those animals and hunted so they didn't leave and head back to public. Haha.

 

[rtraverdavis]

The over riding reason ranchers don’t let people hunt anymore is the grief they take from Portland hunters over the lop program. If I can’t hunt it why should I let you?

Can you elaborate on this?

 

[Irrelevant]

You’re allowed to spray all the grasshoppers you want. You’re not allowed to shoot elk at will. Not a very good comparison.

I do wonder if their property would be equally hammered if they opened it up to everyone with a tag.

Spray or fence
It's a cost you bare as a landowner.

 

[ImBillT]

Spray or fence
It's a cost you bare as a landowner.

Spraying kills.

Elk break fences.

LO’s are not allowed to kill elk indiscriminately.

Regardless of what the best solution is, it was not a good comparison....and permethrin is cheap.