FROM SCI:

Rocky Mountain National Park to Allow “Qualified Volunteers†to Help Cull Elk Herds


Washington, D.C. – Safari Club International, and other organizations that promote sustainable use wildlife management, have scored a significant victory for wildlife management in the National Park system.

An elk management plan released this week for Rocky Mountain National Park has approved the use of “qualified volunteers†as agents to help park personnel cull excessive elk herds that have plagued the park’s ecosystem. Because the plan specifies that the volunteers will have to be “certified in firearms training, be specially trained in wildlife culling,†and pass a proficiency test, SCI expects that these “qualified volunteers†will come from the hunting community.

This major step in wildlife management marks the first time that the National Park Service has given its blessing to the use of qualified volunteers as “authorized agents†for culling purposes in a National Park (other than when required to do so by Congress, such as in Grand Teton National Park).

The use of unpaid volunteers should allow the Park Service to save on the new estimated cost of $6.1 million for the culling program over the next 20 years. Additionally, most of the meat from the culled elk will be donated to area food banks and other charities. SCI’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program, active in Colorado and the rest of the United States and around the world, has provided harvested meat to food banks and other charities for 18 years.

SCI has long advocated the use of hunters for NPS wildlife management, has written extensive comments in support of this approach and has lobbied on Capitol Hill in support of bills that would authorize the use of members of the hunting community to cull excessive elk herds on National Parks.

“This is a tremendous step forward,†said SCI President Dennis Anderson. “Hunters have long been at the forefront of wildlife and habitat conservation. Now, as qualified volunteers, members of the hunting community will be able to continue this proud tradition by assisting the Park Service in managing excessive elk herds in Rocky Mountain National Park. With savings of public funds and better assurance that the meat will be properly utilized, using members of the hunting community is a ‘win-win’ situation.â€

The Plan does not call for the use of contraceptives to manage the herds, although it authorizes a study of the effectiveness of a multi-year fertility control agent. Contraceptives have not been demonstrated to be effective at controlling populations of wild, free-ranging elk. Only hunting and culling have proven to be efficient and cost-effective.

Within the next 30 days, the Park Service will make a final decision on the elk management plan, likely adopting a culling program using Park Service personnel and authorized agents, including qualified volunteers from the hunting community.

We need to keep everyone updated on this and find out what "qualified" means.

Well I'm glad to hear this. I thought the NP system had their head too far up their posteriors on this subject. I couldn't beleive that they wanted to pay someone to do what hunters would gladly do at their own expense.

I'm glad to hear it too but I must admit I'm skeptical!
If Park Service personnel are automatically "qualified" because of their employment then exactly what are they looking for in their authorized agents. I'm sure that my qualifications would pale in comparison to your average "Park Ranger"!
Lets see I've only hunted big game since 1972, only killed __ or so deer, elk, antelope, etc. as well as countless coyotes and small varmints, been handling and shooting firearms since 1965 and probably shot only 200,000 rounds in my life, I'm sure that is amatuer experience compared to someone who has firearms training once and shoots their weapon maybe once a year and gets to wear a fancy uniform!
Oh yeah I'm a cynic!

if you let me pick the uniform ill buy it for you.

there will surely be some test or class like hunter ed to take and probably some queer orange outfit but still sounds like fun. and better than getting stuck out completly and having your tax dollars pay for the f--king you get.

the glass is half full
the glass is half full
the glass is half full

not working on me either but I try

The feds need to trap some of the wolves, instead of shooting them, and turn them loose down there!

You know they probably would use wolves if they could get them to hold still long enough to get Forest Service uniforms on them!

It won't be a hunt. Culling is shooting animals not hunting them. They will probably round up a herd and just shoot the number of each type needed to reduce that herd and go to the next.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
FROM SCI:

Rocky Mountain National Park to Allow “Qualified Volunteers†to Help Cull Elk Herds


Washington, D.C. – Safari Club International, and other organizations that promote sustainable use wildlife management, have scored a significant victory for wildlife management in the National Park system.

An elk management plan released this week for Rocky Mountain National Park has approved the use of “qualified volunteers†as agents to help park personnel cull excessive elk herds that have plagued the park’s ecosystem. Because the plan specifies that the volunteers will have to be “certified in firearms training, be specially trained in wildlife culling,†and pass a proficiency test, SCI expects that these “qualified volunteers†will come from the hunting community.

This major step in wildlife management marks the first time that the National Park Service has given its blessing to the use of qualified volunteers as “authorized agents†for culling purposes in a National Park (other than when required to do so by Congress, such as in Grand Teton National Park).

The use of unpaid volunteers should allow the Park Service to save on the new estimated cost of $6.1 million for the culling program over the next 20 years. Additionally, most of the meat from the culled elk will be donated to area food banks and other charities. SCI’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program, active in Colorado and the rest of the United States and around the world, has provided harvested meat to food banks and other charities for 18 years.

SCI has long advocated the use of hunters for NPS wildlife management, has written extensive comments in support of this approach and has lobbied on Capitol Hill in support of bills that would authorize the use of members of the hunting community to cull excessive elk herds on National Parks.

“This is a tremendous step forward,†said SCI President Dennis Anderson. “Hunters have long been at the forefront of wildlife and habitat conservation. Now, as qualified volunteers, members of the hunting community will be able to continue this proud tradition by assisting the Park Service in managing excessive elk herds in Rocky Mountain National Park. With savings of public funds and better assurance that the meat will be properly utilized, using members of the hunting community is a ‘win-win’ situation.â€

The Plan does not call for the use of contraceptives to manage the herds, although it authorizes a study of the effectiveness of a multi-year fertility control agent. Contraceptives have not been demonstrated to be effective at controlling populations of wild, free-ranging elk. Only hunting and culling have proven to be efficient and cost-effective.

Within the next 30 days, the Park Service will make a final decision on the elk management plan, likely adopting a culling program using Park Service personnel and authorized agents, including qualified volunteers from the hunting community.

How many will travel at $3.00+ per gallon, hunt all day to fill one tag and give it to the food bank. Noble cause, but may not be worth the trouble hunting with the park service.

Snapper,

Considering something like 1 million people live in the Denver Metro Area and that is only about 50 miles from the park, I don't think they will have any problem finding people to take part in the hunt. Even if they are 1 day hunts and the meat has to be donated. The locals will take part.

They hunt all around the park and those are some of the most sought tags in the state. I'd try for one just for the experience of being one of the first to get to hunt what is some of the most breath taking county in the USA.

Mac

I'm wondering where SCI got their information because the Colorado Division of Wildlife seems to have a different version:



DOW AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION CRITICAL OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK'S ELK MANAGMENT PLAN

The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) and the Colorado Wildlife Commission said Thursday that Rocky Mountain National Park's decision to reduce elk numbers in the park with sharpshooters should rely instead on qualified volunteers.

The park's Final Elk and Vegetation Management Plan will use sharpshooters to kill up to 200 elk a year to reduce the herd of about 3,000 elk to 1,600 to 2,100 animals.

Tom Burke, chairman of the Colorado Wildlife Commission, said qualified volunteers should cull the elk.

The park's elk management plan, including the use of sharpshooters, would cost about $6 million and last for up to 20 years.

The overpopulation of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park has caused habitat damage to certain areas of the park. Hunting isn't allowed in the park, established in 1913.

The DOW and the wildlife commission also oppose parts of the park's plan involving the use of fertility control agents and wolves to thin elk herds. The Colorado Wildlife Commission took a position against those methods last year.

However, Burke praised the management plan for leaving open the option of using qualified volunteers as well as sharpshooters.

“Repeatedly, the Colorado Wildlife Commission has said that we are proponents of using qualified citizen volunteers to assist in managing the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park,†said Burke.

“Culling 100-200 or less elk a year may not have the impact desired on the current population of 3,000 in Rocky Mountain National Park," he said. "The language in the plan falls short of our expectations.â€

He also said fertility control agents and wolves shouldn't be utilized because readily available citizen volunteers could cull the elk.

The Colorado Wildlife Commission is an eleven-member board that sets regulations and policies for hunting, fishing, watchable wildlife, non-game, threatened and endangered species.

The commission adopted a resolution in July of 2006 calling for the use of qualified public volunteers as the appropriate method to achieve the population reduction to the Rocky Mountain National Park elk herd.

“The Division of Wildlife and the Commission worked hard to develop a viable alternative to using federal tax dollars to fund government sharp shooters and wasting the carcasses,†said Burke.

“The plan isn’t reassuring when it comes to addressing our constituents’ concerns pertaining to either of those issues," he said. "We believe we owe it to our constituents to get a stronger commitment from the park staff to use qualified public volunteers to restore a natural balance in the park.â€

The resolution is available at:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/WildlifeCommission/Archives/2006/July2006.htm To reach the resolution, click "Minutes" and scroll to pages 49 and 50.



For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.

Plainview,

I put a call into one of my contacts at CDOW yesterday to clarify just that. Stay tuned. -TONY

Okay, I just had a phone conversation with a CDOW spokesman. Here's why the two releases seem contradictory.

The CDOW doesn't like some of the wording that is in the plan because it is way too vague, especially to the extent of how much the "volunteers" will take part in the culling operations and the hoops they might have to go through to do so.

Also, the CDOW is adamantly opposed to some of the alternative proposals included in the plan. They are completely against any anti-fertility projects or wolf introduction and feel such shouldn't even be mentioned in the plan, much less be part of it.

You can read the NPS's plan here. -TONY

Hmm. Either way, I'll bet you a buffalo chip it (culling) never happens. By the way, I got my '07 buck (non-management) today in the last 10 minutes of the late season. My 15 year old WAAAY outdid me.

Oh, I think the culling will occur, one way or another They MUST do something to curtail the overpopulation. The culling is pretty much a given in all five alternative plans. Now, whether the volunteers will be part of that cull is not so clear.

And congrats on the buck. -TONY

They should allow hunting, but if they're not going to allow hunting, then why sugar coat it, just send a dozen shooters in on snowmobiles or use helicopters and shoot however many they want shot and let them lay. It's a helluva lot cheaper than $6 million bucks to be politically correct. If 3000 is too many, shoot 1500 and go from there.

quote:

They should allow hunting,

That is what we want to happen, if hunting of these elk were allowed it would bring a lot of revenue to CO and RMNP. I'm sure most of us as hunters would be willing to pay an access fee to hunt there along with the price of the tag. Most of us feel that it is stupid to have the Government pay for something that private citizens are willing to do at there own expense.

One of the big problems with culling or a hunting by licensed hunters is where the Elk problem is. These are not wild back country Elk that will be hunted in pristine typical Elk hideaways, these Elk are on the golf course, in the parking lot at City Market, in the green strip of grass between luxury townhomes, bedded in peoples front yards, laying about in the city park and wandering the streets and roads of the town of Estes Park.
I would love to be a part of a covert Elk sniping program but the chances of the DOW, and Rocky Mountain National Parks system allowing your "average" hunter have a crack at them is un-imagineable in the circumstances where the Elk problem lies.
Trust me I'm all for the Elk reduction and I think that licensed hunters would be way more cost effective than hiring it out, but if I were in charge of the whole operation I can't imagine the cluster "F" that would arise from having a bunch of cow tag fillers show up for this shoot. Many hunters could be qualified but the vast majority of hunters could not be trusted to perform the operation considering the location and high visibility of such a thing.
Yeah I know let the flames begin but I see idiots every year in the field that I don't even want to be in the same Game Management Unit with these hacks, I especially don't want anyone to lump me into that same category with these dirtbags by calling us all hunters and I see lots of them every year and so do you guys. Imagine being in charge of an urban Elk reduction problem and you get thrown a bunch of these "looeys" that "wanna fill their cow tags".
I don't know the answer to the problem but I'm afraid they won't be using us "hunters" as volunteers unless that means we are "draggers", not the shooters.
Before you start tearing me apart or labeling me really think about the situation and what you would do if you were in charge of this high profile operation, doubtful you would open the doors to a bunch of people that don't represent our sport very well and I'm afraid to say that there is more of those guys than there is of us that are image conscious about hunting and shooting.

Taylorce, I didn't see your post before I posted mine, not stepping on your toes just offering another viewpoint. I'm all for collecting a hunting license fee rather than pay a contractor I just don't see how it will work with those elk in town.

My ideas are not perfect as well on the whole issue. I just don't want to see or tax dollars paying for wolves or birth control. Last time I read anything on this issue the two companies competing for the contract were from outside the United States. I also don't want to see these elk wind up in a landfill because there is no proper way to dispose of them.

This whole thing has got to be a logistical nightmare for the Parks Department. Plus when they do get the elk numbers down to a sustainable herd how are they going to maintain them? Allowing hunting back in RMNP would be the best thing to maintain the herd even if they only allowed archery and muzzle loading only.

I agree as well the elk in town will be the biggest problem to the whole hunting situation. You are right as well that we can't just open the flood gates and let just everyone in with a tag to shoot an elk at one time. I think giving several hunters a tag but only good for one or two days might help to keep the number of shooters every day to a minimum.

Like I said I don't have have answers to this problem. I just don't like the ones that have been brought to the table so far.

BTW my toes are fine.

A friend of mine is a "Paid" culler.He has credentials up the ying yang (High Power Shooting)has Springfield and Armalite as Sponsers.Had to take Rigid marksmanship tests and it really wasnt much fun at all.He shot in Milwaukee County park system and surrounding Suburbs.All culling is done at night in Jan. and Feb.with 22 mags and headshots only.
So what I am saying as a unpaid volunteer you had better be qualified to do the job under any conditions that are dictated to you.This will not be in anyway a FUN thing to do.

Recent report:

By John Cordsen

Officials are calling “credible,†a report of a wolf-like animal seen in Rocky Mountain National Park.

A large, black canid was sighted by two experienced Park volunteers in Moraine Park on Dec. 4. The animal reportedly came out of the forest surrounding Moraine Park and at one point was within 200 feet of the couple — close enough that they could distinguish the long lanky legs, pointed ears and blunt face of a wolf. They were also able to determine that the animal was a large male after it urinated on undergrowth in the area.

“This is a credible sighting,†said Park biologist Jeff Conner. “We can’t confirm that it was a wolf, or a wolf hybrid though.â€

The couple took Park scientists to the sighting area on Dec. 5 where they found tracks of a large canine that were about 4.5 inches wide and five inches long.

“They were definitely not a coyote and we could rule out a vast majority of domestic dogs,†he said. “We are confident this was not someone’s dog running loose.â€

Park officials have enlisted the aide of researchers with the Denver Zoo to track the animal.

“They are putting out remote cameras and we hope to capture the animal on film,†said Conner.

Officials are also following up on a couple of elk kills in the Moraine Park area. Conner said one was a confirmed mountain lion kill. The second though was unknown. Conner said there was evidence coyotes had been feeding on the carcass but that it was difficult to tell what killed the elk.

The sighting has Park officials eager to talk to anyone who may have seen the animal, or who may see it in the future. Sightings may be reported by calling the Park at 586-1206.

“We will be following up on any reports we receive,†said Conner.

The December sighting of the animal is the second time evidence of a large canid has been reported to Park authorities. This past summer, an experienced tracker and dog handler, reported finding large tracks in the Beaver Meadows area.

“Based on the experience of the person reporting the find, this was another credible report,†said Conner.

Officials hope to find some evidence they can break down in order to determine whether the animal is a wolf or a wolf hybrid.

“A photo, a hair sample, or scat, something that we could send in for DNA analysis would give us the evidence we need to determine what this animal is,†said Conner.

This is not the first time a dark canid has been spotted in northern Colorado. On Feb. 16, 2006, district wildlife managers with the Division of Wildlife (DOW) were able to capture brief video of a suspected wolf. The DOW was able to observe the animal because a landowner quickly reported seeing it about 10 miles south of the Colorado-Wyoming border north of the community of Walden. Biologists and wolf specialists who examined the video say the animal seen on tape looks and behaves like a wolf.

A female wolf was killed along I-70 in June 2004 after it was struck by a vehicle. The animal wore a collar and scientists say it traveled more than 600 miles from Montana to where it was killed near Idaho Springs on I-70.

Conner said there have also been reported sightings of possible wolves in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area and near the trailhead on Hwy. 36 between Estes Park and Lyons.

The return of wolves to the national park was one of the options debated prior to the release of the Park’s Elk and Vegetation Management Plan, which was announced Dec. 11. If wolves do return to the state, they will be managed under Colorado guidelines.

****

quote:

Officials are calling “credible,†a report of a wolf-like animal seen in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Over population problem solved! Now the greenies can watch from the comfort of their beemers, as wolves drag elk after elk down, partially eat it, or just kill it, watch them pull partially born calves right out of the cow, while giving birth, and they can jump for joy and scream with glee! "Bloodthirsty hunters won't kill these elk"! They will cheer!

quote:

If wolves do return to the state.

What??? How many wolves do they need to see?

1. Officials are calling “credible,†a report of a wolf-like animal seen in Rocky Mountain National Park.

“This is a credible sighting,†said Park biologist Jeff Conner. The December sighting of the animal is the second time evidence of a large canid has been reported to Park authorities.

2. This past summer, an experienced tracker and dog handler, reported finding large tracks in the Beaver Meadows area. “Based on the experience of the person reporting the find, this was another credible report,†said Conner.

3. On Feb. 16, 2006, district wildlife managers with the Division of Wildlife (DOW) were able to capture brief video of a suspected wolf. Biologists and wolf specialists who examined the video say the animal seen on tape looks and behaves like a wolf.

4. A female wolf was killed along I-70 in June 2004 after it was struck by a vehicle. The animal wore a collar and scientists say it traveled more than 600 miles from Montana to where it was killed near Idaho Springs on I-70.

5. Conner said there have also been reported sightings of possible wolves in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area and near the trailhead on Hwy. 36 between Estes Park and Lyons.

The return of wolves to the national park was one of the options debated prior to the release of the Park’s Elk and Vegetation Management Plan, which was announced Dec. 11. If wolves do return to the state, they will be managed under Colorado guidelines.

Rest assured, these experienced Park volunteers will take only the weak, sick and old elk from the park.

I live within 30 miles of the Park, so Wolves so close interest me. Tony, could you share where you found this article? Thanks,
Steve

SKB---I believe it was in both of the Denver daily papers last week. (The Denver Post & The Rocky Mountain News)

Thanks Gents.
Steve

I didn't see it first hand but my brother said that on the news in Colorado Springs last night they announced that they will begin rounding up elk in the Park to "check for chronic wasting disease" and while they are "already" doing that they will castrate the bulls and administer infertility drugs to cows.
Funny how they all of a sudden "have to" round them up to "check for Chronic wasting disease" in the middle of this heated discussion. There was also further mention of wolves to work on the elk numbers in this report.
Can you imagine the look on the tourista's faces when a pack of wolves drags down a calf elk in the City Market parking lot and shreds it in front of their eyes?
Or worse some kid gets grabbed by wolves and torn apart in front of his parents, I'm sure no one wants to admit that wolves will prey on anything and not just the intended victim (Elk).
We are in for a lot of trouble on this one, thankfully I live a long way from the park.

An Ecosystem wanting for WOLVES
WESTERN ROUNDUP - January 23, 2006 by Joshua Zaffos

Predators could bring Rocky Mountain National Park back into balance
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=16046

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2007/12/possible-w...untain-national-park

Wolf sighting in Rocky Mountain National Park?
Picture of Track
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=83292