elk populatios

[Black Tail Hunter]

SO… Does their land management increase or decrease elk numbers as that's what this thread is about (In your opinion of course).

To me their land mgmt. practices from the standpoint of how they harvest timber has always been good for game numbers. We hunted alot of Weyerhauser property when i was younger before you had to buy in and there was lots of deer and elk. Roseburg forest in my area allows access during low fire danger with no fee. Some areas can be driven in, most are gated and are walk in. I would agree the elk numbers in the coast range remain strong, however it is steep and brushy where i live. Along with vast tracts of reprod make finding game difficult but not impossible.

 

[26Reload]

My opinion is as i have stated on all kinds of reasons elk arent in the places they used to be like ticks......
Populations of elk migrate....hunting pressures from humans as well as other predators chase animals away from easy Pickens spots.....leased lands hunting pressures arent as heavy as public access areas....elk will move to less pressured areas...and in the case of Oregon it may be a mile over a ridge to a ranch or leased timber area.....in Idaho Wyoming Montana...i believe the vast amounts of animals have dispersed......if humans can access it..wolves can also....the elk in Wyoming have already been seen in huge numbers on the the southwest side.....
Wait til Colorado's elk move from the parks...wont take long for big fat elk to be chased to death.........

 

[Gone Ballistic]

I live in Idaho and we have elk everywhere. I have never seen as many elk as I did this last fall.

I don't know where all the elk you are seeing are but my grandfather's family once owned a large ranch located at Blowout, ID. Now most of it sits beneath the surface of Palisades Reservoir. I have hunted this country for over 50 years and the elk must have moved to where you are hunting because 6 years ago the wolf tracks outnumbered the elk tracks in McCoy Creek and Bear Ridge where I hunted.

 

[Eagle eyes 17]

Here in Oregon the numbers are down dramatically. At least the areas that I run around in. Which is Eastern Oregon. Places that I use to see 25-100 elk a day I'm lucky to see that many in a season. Mostly talking about archery season. Like some I think it has a lot to do with the wolves. May be wrong but sure seems to me like the number of elk started to decline when the wolves started to show up.

I hunted Deer and Elk for many years in Eastern Oregon on the breaks of the Grande Ronde River and started noticing that the number of Hunter's coming from the West side of the State was continually increasing.

Many attribute the decline in Elk and Deer populations to predator's, whether it be Cougar's, Wolves or Bear's.

When in fact based on Wildlife Management Data the reduction of numbers in these Big Game Herd's is attributed more to illnesses, diseases and improper Wildlife management of the Big Game Herd's (excess of Hunter's in certain hunting zone's)

There is no doubt that Predator's are accountable for a percentage of the reduction in the herd's but it's not the largest percentage as some would think.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

I daw that yellow stone is looseing a lot of game because of the wolves.the other states are also having same problem..what are you as hunters out there seeing?
gary b

During the 15 year period after Canadian wolf introduction our elk herds were decimated by as much as 90% in some areas. One area I would normally see several hundred cow elk when I was hunting bulls I watched a pack of 7 wolves take down 3 cows and 2 calves by getting 4 wolves in front of the bunch with 3 pushing them into the attack. I was about a mile across a canyon from them. The next day we rode our horses up to the area finding one cow still alive with her uterus eaten and hamstrung. The others were the same way. Zero meat eaten from the quarters but the uterus chewed out of every one of them. I spent 3 days glassing the kill site and never saw anything but a mountain lion and camp robbers eating on the elk carcasses so this told me that they just kill to kill.
There are many mountain lions in eastern Oregon and I suspect that they are responsible for most of the predation in your area but once some of our wolves decide to go west beware of the miserable outcome we have experienced here in Idaho. Home of the Canadian Wolf Factory!

 

[tmmcampbell]

I agree that private land owners should be able to do what they want with their property. I'm a huge believer in private property rights! However, if a private property owner is getting a tax break on timber or farm property, and charging people money to hunt state owned wildlife, they should pay the same property taxes that I do. Fair is fair.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

Many account a decline in Elk and Deer populations to predator's, whether it be mainly attributed to Cougar's, Wolves or Bear's. When in fact based on Wildlife Management Data the reduction of numbers in these Big Game Herd's is attributed more to illnesses, diseases and improper management of these Big Game Herd's.
There is no doubt that Predator's are accountable for a percentage of the reduction in the herd's but it's not the largest percentage as some would think.

These reports are true today based on the much smaller population of elk we now have after they decimated our large population that hunter money was spent on habitat for increasing the elk populations over many years of time. Not one penny has been spent from those who pushed wolves down our throats for habitat for any animal species in Idaho. All of it is spent on trying to lock ranchers and hunters out of our forests by out of state groups that try to hide as concerned citizens of our state. This is their true objective.

 

[Black Tail Hunter]

I hunted Deer and Elk for many years in Eastern Oregon on the breaks of the Grande Ronde River and started noticing that the number of Hunter's coming from the West side of the State was continually increasing.

Many attribute the decline in Elk and Deer populations to predator's, whether it be Cougar's, Wolves or Bear's.

When in fact based on Wildlife Management Data the reduction of numbers in these Big Game Herd's is attributed more to illnesses, diseases and improper Wildlife management of the Big Game Herd's (excess of Hunter's in certain hunting zone's)

There is no doubt that Predator's are accountable for a percentage of the reduction in the herd's but it's not the largest percentage as some would think.

I seriously doubt the Dept. of fish and game (at least here in Oregon) have accurate data of predator populations or the numbers of game they kill. I am certain that they either wrong or not forthcoming with the number of cougars they claim are in this state.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

I hunted Deer and Elk for many years in Eastern Oregon on the breaks of the Grande Ronde River and started noticing that the number of Hunter's coming from the West side of the State was continually increasing.

Many attribute the decline in Elk and Deer populations to predator's, whether it be Cougar's, Wolves or Bear's.

When in fact based on Wildlife Management Data the reduction of numbers in these Big Game Herd's is attributed more to illnesses, diseases and improper Wildlife management of the Big Game Herd's (excess of Hunter's in certain hunting zone's)

There is no doubt that Predator's are accountable for a percentage of the reduction in the herd's but it's not the largest percentage as some would think.

Wait till our wolves that take casual vacations across the Snake River decide to stay after tasting a few Roosevelt elk and start building packs. Then watch the numbers change until you have less than 20% of your elk population left before it starts to level off. I will surmise that the people living from Portland down the west coast to the Rogue River Valley will vote to protect the wolves in your state from being trapped and hunted. Then you will experience what we have in Idaho.

 

[Black Tail Hunter]

Wait till our wolves that take casual vacations across the Snake River decide to stay after tasting a few Roosevelt elk and start building packs. Then watch the numbers change until you have less than 20% of your elk population left before it starts to level off. I will surmise that the people living from Portland down the west coast to the Rogue River Valley will vote to protect the wolves in your state from being trapped and hunted. Then you will experience what we have in Idaho.

They dont need to, there has already been a reintroduction of wolves in oregon for years. They started in the NE corner of the state and i have heard they are already in the coast range. And you are correct, unlike wolves in Idaho, Oregon wolves are hands off unless you are a rancher who obtains permission from ODFW after you animals have been killed.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

They dont need to, there has already been a reintroduction of wolves in oregon for years. They started in the NE corner of the state and i have heard they are already in the coast range. And you are correct, unlike wolves in Idaho, Oregon wolves are hands off unless you are a rancher who obtains permission from ODFW after you animals have been killed.

As I understand it you only have about 3-4 packs in that area. They cause damage immediately to livestock and elk herds. Here the wolf lover pushes for non-lethal deterrence and think ranchers should implement hundreds of miles of electric fencing, although it has not yet been proven to detour them from getting to cattle due to the low placement.
Brace yourself for what you're going to see in the future on your elk populations.
Wolves are opportunistic killers and are leaving here to find easier hunting. This is why they are heading for Oregon and Washington to get easier pickings

 

[Black Tail Hunter]

As I understand it you only have about 3-4 packs in that area. They cause damage immediately to livestock and elk herds. Here the wolf lover pushes for non-lethal deterrence and think ranchers should implement hundreds of miles of electric fencing, although it has not yet been proven to detour them from getting to cattle due to the low placement.
Brace yourself for what you're going to see in the future on your elk populations.
Wolves are opportunistic killers and are leaving here to find easier hunting. This is why they are heading for Oregon and Washington to get easier pickings

Yes i am aware of what they do. 4 or 5 years ago we were hunting up in the Chesnimnus unit north of Enterprise. We were packing an elk out of a canyon at about 8:00 PM and had 2 packs of wolves howling back and forth at each other approx. 1 mile away (further down the canyon). At the time ODFW claimed that Oregon had 60-80 wolves total. Since there were probably 8-12 in that one canyon that night, i immediately understood how dishonest the state game commission is about the info they release. I never trust anything they say or do. They are politically driven bureaucrat liars and nothing more and the numbers of cats they claim are in this state is simply laughable.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

We were fortunate in Idaho to have our fish and game set up outside of our legislature. However, our governor controls the appointments to the Director and commissioners on the board of directors of the commission. The money and funding of the commission is paid by license holders so it is autonomous of the state's coffers.
I don't know anything about how Oregon has theirs set up but I believe it is similar to California and Washington where the state legislature makes the decisions on how things are handled by your f&g department.
Enjoy your rhetoric on this topic. Thanks again!

 

[Michael Souther]

Idaho hunting has been decimated by Wolves. They spread like a cancer. Don't believe the tree huggers and others.