Cost To Taxpayers To Reduce Elk Herd, “Only $6 Million”

In what is looking like a great political maneuver to ward off the sensible thinkers in dealing with too many elk in and around the Rocky Mountain National Park, officials there, in revealing the elk management plan, say they will use “qualified” volunteer hunters to assist in culling the elk. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that those “authorized agents” will be used only if needed to help the park employees and the hired guns. All the meat, once tested for chronic wasting disease, will either be left to rot or given to Indian tribes and non-profits.

It was never the intention of the RMNP authorities to utilize volunteer hunters to solve the over population problem and they’ve devised a system where they hope to appease enough people in order to do it their own way. Part of that plan was an announcement that they have “revised” their plan and have cut the cost down from $16 million to only $6 million. Another revision lengthens the plan out over twenty years with the idea of taking perhaps as many as 200 elk each year depending upon herd numbers, etc.

Another part of the plan will use $2 million to build fences around certain areas to protect the vegetation claimed to be destroyed by the elk. That construction will begin almost immediately while the rest of the plan has to go through public hearings and comment period. If approved, culling could begin by 2009 but there is one problem. LAWSUITS!

That’s right. They’re lining up already filing their lawsuits to stop RMNP from killing any elk this way. Instead, the local animal rights extremist organization SINAPU and others are planning to file a lawsuit to stop the killing. Instead, they are advocating to bring in wolves to get the job done.

Tom Remington