ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — As the residents of Estes Park were waking up Wednesday, two groups of sharpshooters were gathered just to the west in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The marksmen will be there in the early hours of most days for the next six weeks, culling up to 100 cow elk. They shot one Wednesday.
Residents are divided over the National Park Service plan to thin the herd.
Jean Weaver, a 53-year Estes resident, said the animals are out of hand.
“There are way too many elk,” Weaver said. “They are destroying the vegetation for beaver and the birds. I’ve lost three clothes lines, one birdhouse, one bird feeder and numerous flowers and vegetables to the elk.”
Weaver said she is doing her part to reduce the elk by allowing bow hunting on her land.
But others have a different view.
Judith Elliot, who has lived in Estes Park for 31 years, has been a volunteer elk counter for four years.
“There has been a steady decrease of elk in both the park and in the town in recent years,” Elliot said. “My approach is to see what nature changes through chronic wasting disease. Nature should have priority before human intrusion.”
Guy McCoy, who has lived in Estes Park 12 years, agrees.
“I’m against killing,” said the 75-year-old Vietnam veteran. “I think we should transport them to another location. Another alternative is to use (birth-control) drugs. Another is to leave them alone and let nature work.”
But park officials say it is urgent to do something now. Scientists say the elk have devastated willow and aspen stands, severely impacting other plant species and birds, butterflies and especially beaver, whose population has declined by 90 percent since 1940.
Research, said park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson, shows that the herd in the park and the Estes Valley is large, less migratory and more concentrated than it would be under natural conditions.
The elk culled Wednesday was the fourth killed. Two were shot last week and one was shot Tuesday.
Up to 100 cow elk will be culled between now and early March in an effort to keep the elk in the park in the 600 to 800 range.
The group of sharpshooters — made up of two National Park Service employees, a Colorado Division of Wildlife representative and two expert volunteers — has been trained and prepped.
Their work must be completed by 9 a.m., when visitors start arriving in earnest at the park.
“We are making sure we are in and out to minimize the impact on visitors,” said Ben Bobowski, the park’s chief of resource stewardship. “We don’t take this lightly. It is difficult for us to go out and take an animal.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
