Southwest Colorado elk herds are slowly dying off, and researchers can’t figure out

[cheeser]

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/24/southwest-colorado-elk-herds-dying/amp/

 

[Cerebral Stalker]

Good article! Thanks for posting!

 

[Bigjav]

They need to open up spring bear hunting! The bears absolutely hammer the fawns and calves. In addition what the article doesn't talk about is the number of recreational hikers and other users that disrupt elk behavior not just in September in addition to all the hunters that CO parks and wildlife swindles into buying elk tags for over crowded units

 

[HONEYBADGER]

Going to have to do something about the bears and I agree with stopping cow hunts for a few years until numbers are back up.

 

[Sytes]

Not as a Coloradoan(?) though as a learned and aging increased interest involved with the conservation efforts of Rocky Mountain elk, it appears there is a significant bump between the lobbyist for agriculture and wildlife conservationists...

It discusses that to some degree at the latter half of the article. Seems in the end, everything comes down to politics. Not saying that is the only factor though it does seem to be one of the few larger factors involved.

But Petersen believes the amount of hunters in the forest in September is pressuring the elk and disrupting the rut. As a result, he’s seen breeding happen as late as November, creating hardships and risk for late-born calves the next spring.

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife stats, nearly 13,000 hunters trekked into the San Juan Mountains to hunt the Hermosa and San Juan units last year.

“There’s an extreme, excessive hunting pressure in September,” Petersen said. “There are just too many hunters at this most delicate time of year for elk.”

“CPW has always been cowed and bullied by ranchers and farmers who detest wildlife,” Petersen said. “For any real progress, we need to pull the wildlife commission out of the political arena. And that may need to be done through legislation.”

Of the 11-person commission, three people represent agriculture and two people represent industry interests. Two people sit on the board for the interests of the outfitting industry and one represents sportsmen.

Don Brown, Colorado’s commissioner of agriculture, also sits on the board, though he is not voting member.

There are no wildlife biologists, ecologists or experts on the board tasked with managing wildlife in the state.

 

[el unit]

Good article and thanks for posting. Too bad about politics and the almighty dollar in this situation.

 

[ColoradoHunter719]

Great Read. Thanks for posting it. - ColoradoHunter719

 

[Muley_Stalker]

If they don't want so many hunters hunting during the rut. They should stop giving bowhunters a whole month to hunt during the rut.

 

[GrantK]

This is a terrible article, it's the same one that was in the Durango Herald a couple weeks ago with a paragraph added on the front to preface it.

There isnt any real science cited, everything is in the form of quotes so any errors are the fault of the person quoted, not the author, who clearly didn't do any real digging, for example he claims that predation is not an issue, but there is no proof of that, the most recent study in a similar area had the exact opposite conclusion: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jwmg.21494 as well, the massive increase in bear numbers in the affected area wasn't mentioned? No correlation in calf mortality?

I think this decline started with the massive late season cow hunts mentioned in the article, those went on way after it was clear the population was on its way to below objective, those hunts were finally backed off but it seems like there are now other issues, and I dont buy that archery hunting is the driving factor here, if it's a factor at all.
I'm also curious why discussing climate change affecting the rut is a topic that can't be considered by hunters? I grew up on the western slope, climate has changed in the last 20 years, might be temporary, might not be, but for sure having the temps in the 60s at 12,000' through mid october keeps the elk quieter, much more so than archery hunters in the woods...