Quote Originally Posted by dapesche View Post
Some Info that may be of interest:

Q:
Hearing some people talk about region 4s populations being way lower than anticipated.
Is the population really down to approx 6000.
How did that happen? Some mentioned that the estimate was 15-20k.
Hoping for some clarity.
Thank you.

A:
Hi, the elk survey we completed this winter is for the East Kootenay Trench (MUs 4-02 to 4-04, 4-20 to 4-22, 4-24 to 4-26) and the estimate is going to be about 6800 elk. The previous estimate in 2008 was 14,000 elk but this was more than the habitat could support so populations were reduced from 2009-2013. Cow harvest is minimal now and we had pretty high calf ratios on the survey so I suspect the population is going to rebound.


Q:So we can expect the cow elk leh to be downsized/removed.


A:Yes, I think people underestimate the impact of cats on our ungulate population and it seems like there’s no shortage of them.
I have been encouraging hunters to increase the female cougar harvest. Same thing for bears, especially when it comes to impacts on neonate calves and fawns.
I have no idea who this is from, but it is my suspicion that they are "very correct" with everything above that was stated.
I know some will "disagree about the cat thing", but I have experienced that they are around a lot more then ever before where I spend my time hunting.

As for the LEH, I haven't even looked yet, but, it makes sense if they reduced it to 1, and by doing this, avoid those fools in
Victoria, so that's a really "good idea".
I do agree however, that the herds need to rebound, so we need as many cows as we can get, so, basically stopping the cow leh is something I support.

As for seeing elk by the highways, I am not surprised at all.
It isn't even an elk issue, as I am seeing this with deer and you name it, in a lot of areas of BC.
Personally, I think they are doing this more now due to avoiding Preds (hanging close to humans instead).
Unfortunately, by having that zone x, we basically culled off a big chunk of those elk herds, as they just weren't returning back to the high country come spring.

Hopefully, with some of the fires we had, and basically getting rid of the LEH, and hopefully there are some individuals putting in their own time targeting the preds, we may get to see these elk up in the region come back.
Keeping fingers crossed.