Fewer numbers of elk are being counted every year in and around Rocky Mountain National Park, giving park officials hope they won’t have to cull as many animals to reduce the herd.
Park officials are trying to figure out how to handle the elk wintering in the park and destroying stands of willow and aspen trees.
In June, park officials will release their final plan of how the herd will be reduced – which will likely call for culling the herd to some predetermined number.
As the numbers of elk decline, the extent of the killing will be reduced, said park superintendent Vaughn Baker.
Elk numbers have been on a downward trend in and around the park since 3,000 were counted in 2002.
Since then, the animals have been migrating toward Loveland during the winter, and hunters helped reduce the herd last season by taking 790 elk in the game unit near the park.
“For the last couple of years, we noticed winter surveys have indicated the population was less, down in the mid-2,000s or even possibly lower, and that is just an example of how the herd will fluctuate over time,” Baker said.
Final numbers for 2007 are still being tabulated, Baker said.
But if the decline continues, the number of elk in and around the park could be fewer than 2,300, he said.
One plan that park officials are considering would allow as many as 2,100 elk in and around the park.
The elk issue has been controversial because park officials say the herd must be culled with agency or tribal shooters or through contracted shooters.
Colorado’s Wildlife Commission wants the Park Service to allow hunters into the park, but park officials say that is against federal law.
Two bills – one by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and another by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. – have been introduced in Congress to allow trained hunters to cull the herd.
Lawrence Pacheco, Udall’s spokesman, said Baker is using his position to lobby against the congressman’s bill.
“Now they are coming up with new numbers now that we have this bill,” he said.
Rob Edward, of the Boulder-based carnivore conservation group Sinapu, said wolves would solve the problem – forcing elk to keep moving and not stay in one place to dine on willows and aspen.
Wolf reintroduction is being considered, officials say, but it is not part of the preferred plan.
“Hunting will not ultimately achieve that same permanent solution,” Edward said. “Wolves are the answer to the problem of lazy elk.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
