West Kootenay LEH Bull Elk - Poll

[BCrams]

BCR I do have to agree with you on a GOS for 6 or better ,this would work good and then go from there.
Have the opening day and the closing day the same as the EK GOS .
The LEH then could be dumped.

What I would disagree on would be a GOS for 3 or better for the entire GOS.

This was never proposed. A short 1 week to 14 day season is all that should be in place first as far as 3 pt seasons go.

Look at the EK they implemented a 6 or better GOS over 10 years ago and now look at where the population is to this day .

6616 beat me to it ..... it wasn't because of the 6 pt season.

6 pt seasons also do not create more elk or bigger bulls

I think many hunters (including advocates of the 6 pt regulation) will be surprised that by opening things up and reducing the EK elk population from where it is right now and harvesting a cross section of animals......the trophy potential /opportunity for those who wish to hunt big bulls will increase.

[KevinB]

What the heck am I writing this for, it's all been said over and over again on this thread already.

It doesn't hurt to have it all spelled out again, repetition is a great tool!

[hunter1947]

Interestingly even though the 6pt regulation was a component of the recovery strategy, the truth is that the 6pt rule alone was not the reason for the recovery (and this has also been pointed out before on this thread). The recovery occurred primarily because they stopped issuing antlerless permits. The same goes for population control at the current time. You simply cannot impact population densities by harvesting male animals alone. Male harvet levels are only a single component of any harvest stratgey. As BCRams said, harvesting a cross section of the population from all age and sex classes is an important step.

By the way Wayne, I agree with FisherDude on the WK LEH when it comes to recruitment/retention. Increasing LEH odds from 100 to 35 to one is not going to cause any dramatic increase in participation. LEH should be a last resort. Shorter seasons, season timing, antler restrictions, and many other tools should be fully exploited before resorting to LEH. It's been shown in several cases where LEH has simply killed off hunter interest. LEH is only one tool in the toolbox, but it's been overused since it's fail safe and doesn't require a whole load of data. It's become a crutch F&W has become reliant on due to poor budgets and manpower situations which limit surveys and data acquisition.

Well Andy if they do dump the LEH in the WK how are they going to know how many bulls come out of this region in a calender year ???.

The only way I see it is to have it mandatory to report your harvest.

[6616]

Well Andy if they do dump the LEH in the WK how are they going to know how many bulls come out of this region in a calender year ???.

The only way I see it is to have it mandatory to report your harvest.

I agree 100% with compulsory reporting. Hard and firm data that cannot be disputed.

[BCrams]

Well Andy if they do dump the LEH in the WK how are they going to know how many bulls come out of this region in a calender year ???.

The only way I see it is to have it mandatory to report your harvest.

Region 7a had mandatory reporting when they opened up the elk season here to monitor the harvest. The elk population is doing very well and consequently, the compulsory inspection was removed this year.

The same would apply for the WK.