War on Elk in Montana?

[Franky'sFolly]

I don't want to derail the recent Elk Council post, but I have been curious for a while about the details of the supposed war on elk that is referenced nearly every day on HT. I looked and have not found a comprehensive list of grievances against the current management system. So far I have read about

6 month shoulder seasons
Inaccurate and outdated objective numbers
Poor predator management
High elk numbers combined with poor access in central Montana. (e.g. Wilks bros)

Would some members with experience in this field chime in with their opinion? Are these legitimate issues, and if so, are there more that I missed? Also how did Montana end up getting to this point? Thanks

 

[bigsky2]

Elk bill, joint resolution pit landowners vs. hunters in Montana

Landowners and sporting groups lined up on opposite sides of two elk measures introduced Tuesday in the Legislature that are meant to reduce the animals’ population on private lands.

billingsgazette.com

 

[antlerradar]

Opportunity management has turned into a war on not just elk but also deer on public land.

 

[JEL]

Opportunity management has turned into a war on not just elk but also deer on public land.

Yep, smoke em if you got em mentality. And neither FWP or landowners or if being honest the majority of hunters want to do anything to change it.

 

[JEL]

Performance criteria be damned. Let's just kill them all.

https://billingsgazette.com/outdoor...cle_45a02ee5-8d66-5277-b3b8-159ae932b06f.html

 

[Straight Arrow]

When you compare the number of elk sustained in the smaller state of Colorado to the number of elk in Montana, it follows that better management to sustain more elk in Montana would seem the better solution than merely eradicating and reducing elk herds where the tolerance level is low.

 

[Dakotakid]

How does one better manage where tolerance is low?

 

[Straight Arrow]

How does one better manage where tolerance is low?

That is the question of the era. Simply, keep elk off intolerant private lands and sustain them on public and tolerant private. How to accomplish that is beyond me, but the need to do it creates a real goal in management for Montana.

 

[Wildabeest]

The simple solution is that every landowner who complains about too many elk on their property should enroll in block management. But that’ll never happen because they want to have their cake and eat it too, and also retain the right to complain about it and be compensated for their suffering.

 

[Walkalot]

Yes i agree with your post and questions. Along with bill 505. U would think more outrage from public land hunters. The people i know with sime pull or organizations fear backlash or not having access to private lands. The public is not standing together. Look at rmef they hide when important things come up. Best example i can give. But they do alot of good so double edged sword.

 

[Walkalot]

Landowners are politicians. Give me money because all these elk cause problems but let me profit from them by selling hunts. The mule deer in mt should just go on the endangered species list. Bottom line is public lands and private should be managed differently. Goverment agencies should not dictate private and only manage the public for for healthy herds.

 

[Nameless Range]

I’m in the hills so I don’t have time to properly distill years of Hunt Talk threads into a comment. But my best attempt at a single sentence would be:

Montana’s elk management is unsatisfactory because it often allows for the overharvesting of elk, revolving around unreasonably low elk population goals and often ignoring the spatial and temporal distribution of elk on the landscape, particularly on accessible lands, and disproportionately caters to a minority of bellyaching landowners and outfitters.

Your mileage may vary

 

[Gerald Martin]

Elk shoulder seasons are a political solution that fail to meet biological problems.

We kill too many elk on accessible lands to satisfy the complaints of ranchers who don’t want elk.
The survivors take shelter on inaccessible properties. Those herds are growing, population “objectives” are not met so the solution proposed is to kill even more elk on accessible land to satisfy the complaints about too many elk.

The people in charge of the solutions are repeatedly demonstrating their lack of understanding how this dynamic is playing out. They are also demonstrating that they couldn’t care less about the side effects these policies are having on elk herds and hunters who want thriving herds on accessible public and private lands.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I’m in the hills so I don’t have time to properly distill years of Hunt Talk threads into a comment. But my best attempt at a single sentence would be:

Montana’s elk management is unsatisfactory because it often allows for the overharvesting of elk, revolving around unreasonably low elk population goals and often ignoring the spatial and temporal distribution of elk on the landscape, particularly on accessible lands, and disproportionately caters to a minority of bellyaching landowners and outfitters.

Your mileage may vary

^^^^^^^This man is a gentleman and a scholar who has succinctly summarized MT FWP’s elk management strategy and policies.

 

[SuperX]

I hear they're starting a new award, the "Montana Slam", awarded to hunters who shoot a general cow elk and doe deer along with 5 more doe B tag deer and 3 more B tag cow elk.

You get a pin, a patch and another cow tag of your choice

 

[BRI]

Add in an FWP leadership that could care less what public land hunters think. We're the constant in the equation. No matter how bad it is or gets, we'll line up to buy tags.

 

[ricknmontana]

Add in an FWP leadership that could care less what public land hunters think. We're the constant in the equation. No matter how bad it is or gets, we'll line up to buy tags.