|
There also comes a time when you have to weigh the balance of demand. Do you lower the wolf population to a level below what the area could actually support, due to hunter demand for elk or do you manage for the wolves and hunters are further down the list as far as priorities.
It can come to that. So you as hunters have to decide .....do you want to hunt elk or are you content to know that the elk and wolves are out there and you are no longer a part of the equation.
There is another aspect to this and it is non-resident hunters. They are further down the priority list than residents. If the wolf impact on the elk herds is so strong that they have to cut back on hunting allocations, then the residents are going to scream even louder than they currently do and demand that the legal harvest be kept for resident hunters. After all they live there and they pay taxes in the state and.....I couldn't blame them.
So do the non-resident hunters think that a high wolf population is more desirable than them having a chance to go out west and hunt elk?
I'm not making this stuff up.......I've seen it.
So, I guess we all need to think long and hard about just how PRO wolf we really are. I like wolves.....I do want some of them out there, but I'd rather see them kept below carrying capacity so that I can still hunt. If wolf predation is to the point that they are closing the season (It happens) or it is so bad that the resident non-first nations people are cut off.........then things have gone too far.
|