Kootney elk

[HarryToolips]

Imagine if we had a province where the:
EK had 25,000
The WK 10,000- 15,000
The Peace 35,000
R8 with 8,000
AND R2 with 15,000.

That sure would spread out hunters and over activity in areas....wouldn't it???
(never happen though)

Wouldn't that be awesome...we need the funding, we need to set goals like that for wildlife, and we need pred management to make it happen...we need to get the prov. govt on board...and as you previously stated, maybe we should call the govt out on their decision to hold the elk populations lower through LEH authorizations - and maybe we should publicly call them out on this...by what I'm hearing, this is a now a conservation concern, maybe we should be talking to the BCWF and getting them on board to stop this from happening - make all the cow elk Leh's for 1 to only a few tags per zone only (like they are for reg 4 this year), including for the Peace region - we shouldn't let this happen to the Peace the way the EK is now by the sounds of it..

[Bugle M In]

Apologize for my long winded rants on this thread, but elk hunting in the EK "was" my biggest passion.
I thought we, as hunters and EK Elk hunting had hit are "low point" in the late 90's!
I thought by now, we might of had the 6pt restriction back to 3pt or better.
Boy!, was I wrong, and am really pissed off and ashamed at how poorly we are managing wildlife.

(Just watched sharkwater : extinction, and there was one line that I really liked)

"Ensuring Conservation on our planet Guarantees OUR Existence on the Planet."

How are we doing so far?
In a province/country where we should be leading this issue.
We cant even hold on to elk in the EK.

[338win mag]

Imagine if we had a province where the:
EK had 25,000
The WK 10,000- 15,000
The Peace 35,000
R8 with 8,000
AND R2 with 15,000.

That sure would spread out hunters and over activity in areas....wouldn't it???
(never happen though)

This is what we could/should have, I doubt whether we will ever see it as it looks like we are going down another road.
There only needs to be enough Elk for FN to hunt, and the way that is going there wont be enough for them either.
You cant shoot the entire herd and expect good times in the future.

To those who think its Wolves/Trains/Bears etc, I'm pretty sure you are correct, but the fact that guys are leaving the hunting grounds with truckloads of Elk cant be ignored.

[boxhitch]

It sure would be nice to roll back the date and have the elk pop we used to have
But along with that would have to be a return to the same land use we used to have
Pop numbers have been dropped in areas due to the impacts and complaints from landowners and farmers

What used to be good wintering grounds is now someones property being damaged.
For every 10 complaints from hunters the Gov probaly has to deal with a dozen complaints about property comcerns

A good project would be to map out the suitable, safe, non-invasive, winter habitat that is available to elk and make a judgment on holding capacity.
I bet we are there.

[Kootenaykid85]

Bingo boxhitch. Elk dont live in clear cuts. elk cant live in towns and on private fenced land. they dont like to hang out all day in big giant wild fire burns. we cant have the population we once did. its the facts, get off your quad go hike around enjoy the little things and give your fingers a break.

[Husky7mm]

Dam near every elk I killed or helped kill was in or near some type of clear cut.

[Husky7mm]

Did not see a problem with elk and unregulated hunting in the EK, before the big drop I have seen herds of hundreds of elk right on the reservations all winter long. Nice bulls too, right by the roads too.

[Kootenaykid85]

Well obviously they have to pass threw to get to their bedding grounds or to water !!and thats when whaaaaaamooooo they get shot off the handlebars of a polaris sportsman 800! congrats it must feel riveting..... all jokes aside its not going to get any better. those big herds of elk that used to live in the back country need area to winter, and when the dwindling winter grounds are allready full of resident elk it becomes a problem

[Husky7mm]

This elk problem is not just the EK it is just as bad in WK and is a whole region 4 issue, I hunt both sides of region 4 and to be honest the EK is in better shape then the WK right now in my opinion. I blame it on wolves. Every where we hunted in the past 3 seasons we are running into dead elk and howling wolves. We may have liberal elk season's now but wolves hunt for 365 days a year and dont follow point restrictions and dont tag out either. If we don't get the wolves under control this conversation will be mute because there won't be any elk left to hunt in region 4. How we deal with the wolves opens up a whole can of worms but we need to toughen up and make it happen before its to late.

These same elk number declines are happening in national parks were there are not FN's hunting, not land owner tags, not cow seasons etc etc etc. The problem is wolves!

I would agree that predators have played a big role in this and I do believe a good wolf is a dead one. That said where are all the dead wolves? If the whole country is polluted with wolves, the kill rates and harvest must be up, sightings should be way up too??

[Husky7mm]

Up here in the peace the elk winter in the bush, clear cuts and along the river breaks. They browse just like moose or whitetail off young alder, willow and aspen shoots. The snow has to get pretty deep for them to totally leave. They are not always pawing down to graze, they do not need to migrate into lowland , ranches, farmland necessarily. If they do they get shot cause late season cow tags have been going on for decades iirc.