I have never heard an elk hunter or a Forest Service employee complain about too many elk on Montana's public lands. The persistent narrative of over-abundance is a private lands issue, not one of public lands. Yet, we are about to make it one, with dire consequences.
Under FWP's current proposal to open up January and February elk hunting in 19 hunting districts — now including national forest — many will die for the wrong reason, in the wrong location, at a time when they shouldn't be hunted in the first place. Worse, in the process of decimating our public land elk herds in the interest of meeting outdated goals set by select and narrow interests, we will kill the wrong elk — the good elk that try to stay on public lands in winter — and train the surviving elk to set up shop on private refuges, perpetuating the very problem we hope to solve. This is declaring war on elk and will perpetuate a death spiral that we will not escape as long as we believe we can somehow shoot ourselves out of the dilemma and treat the current situation as an "abundance" rather than the "distribution" issue that it is.
About Thomas Baumeister
Capital Chapter Leader - Montana BHA; Board Member - Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame; Board President - Orion -The Hunter's Institute