Saturday, December 22, 2007

A plan to control elk herds in Rocky Mountain National Park that might include snipers equipped with night-vision goggles has received a hearty thumbs-down from the Colorado Wildlife Commission.

During its meeting last week in Denver, the commission roundly booed the National Park Service’s preferred alternatives in its “Elk and Vegetation Management Plan” for Rocky Mountain National Park.

Of five possible alternatives, including a “no action” plan, RMNP officials on Dec. 10 announced they have opted for alternative three, which would rely on “authorized agents” to cull up to 200 elk per year, reducing the current 3,000 or so elk now to about 1,600 to 2,100 animals.

The 20-year, $6-million plan says the “agents” would come from other federal agencies, volunteers and private contractors. Opponents of the plan say those agents could come in the form of sharpshooters sneaking around at night, plugging unsuspecting elk with rifles equipped with silencers.

Because of the limited harvest, the park’s plan also includes other methods of population control, including birth-control drugs and maybe, just maybe, the “adaptive use of wolves as a management tool.”

Overabundant elk numbers have destroyed many of the park’s aspen stands and willow patches that elk and other wildlife species need for survival.

Downplaying the possibility of wolves ever showing up in Colorado unless they walk here, the wildlife commission pushed again for the park to use “citizen volunteers.”

“Repeatedly, the Colorado Wildlife Commission has said that we are proponents of using qualified citizen volunteers to assist in managing the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park,” said Tom Burke, chairman of the Colorado Wildlife Commission.

“Culling 100-200 or less elk a year may not have the impact desired on the current population of 3,000 in Rocky Mountain National Park,” he said. “The language in the plan falls short of our expectations.”

He reminded park officials of a commission resolution adopted in July of 2006 that called for using qualified public volunteers to control the park’s elk numbers.

RMNP elk numbers first became an issue around 1930, reports the Wildlife Management Institute, and elk populations were controlled from 1944 to 1968.

On Dec. 11, Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, supported the park’s decision to include “qualified volunteers” in the final elk management plan and urged the park to heed the commission’s advice.

“I’m concerned the Park Service might give a higher priority to using people from other federal or state agencies,” wrote Udall. “I think if qualified sportsmen or sportswomen are willing to volunteer, they should be first in line.”

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