With all the great stories, equipment, adventures and people out there I thought it would be great to get some pictures.  If you have any pictures from a hunt, your gear or best of all you geared up that would be great.  If you send in pictures I will post on our site as well as putting some of the best pictures on all our sites.  Things I am looking for, but not limited to.

•    Gear: Clothes, utility tools, ATV’s…
•    Favorite weapons: guns, bows, sticks, stones…
•    Best Duck Blind or Hide…
•    You, family or friends dressed for the hunt…
•    Where you hunt

All I need is a digital picture in any PC compatible format and a description of the picture.  You can make the description as long or short as you would like.  If there is a story behind the picture we would love to hear about it.

Send Pictures to:

Todd Krater
U.S. Hunting Today
Managing Editor
todd@ushuntingtoday.com

Note: If you want a picture posted and do not have a digital copy I would be willing to scan it for you.  Please contact me for details.

US Hunting Today reserves the right to refuse any picture for any reason as well as edit it where appropriate.

(Columbus) – Today, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) officially unveiled a dynamic new initiative aimed at building an army of sportsmen from coast to coast to protect America’s outdoor heritage for future generations.

The USSA’s Sentry Program is free to join and represents the most intense effort ever focused on attracting sportsmen to become active players in the fight to preserve hunting, fishing and trapping rights whenever they are threatened.

By becoming a Sentry, sportsmen gain access to instant email communications about local and national threats to their outdoor rights as they happen. They will also be given specific instructions on which public officials to contact and when as these threats emerge. This communication network will enable sportsmen to mobilize quicker and more effectively than ever before.

In addition to getting sportsmen engaged in advocacy, the Sentry Program offers additional benefits, giving sportsmen a “one stop” web site for key information including state hunting regulations, information on where one can find a shooting range and other hunting and fishing tips from recognized leaders in the outdoor community.

“There are many anti-hunting organizations seeking to do away with what we love,” said Bud Pidgeon, USSA president and CEO. “By coming together under the Sentry Program, sportsmen will enhance our ranks and collectively stand tall against those groups.”

There is no cost to join the Sentry Program and requires only a minimal amount of information from those interested. For more information, please contact 614-888-4868, visit the USSA’s website at www.ussportsmen.org/BeASentry, or e-mail info@ussportsmen.org.

You can also view a video describing the program by clicking here.

Tanner Colten Moad, 5 years old, is one of the coolest kids I know. The youngest of 4 children of mine, Tanner never stops moving.

Before gun season in central eastern Oklahoma, the traditional bow season usually takes priority. I had taken the first week of bow season off from work in an attempt to tag out early at the request of my wife Lori. In her mind, if I was to tag out early, my deer season would then be “dear” season, with lots of additional chores getting done that get overlooked during each year’s deer season.

As a bow hunter, I was able to harvest a doe pretty quick, and two days later, stuck a nice 8 point that only took two steps before falling over. I had watched that buck spare with a 9-point two days earlier, and was in hopes I could manage to get the edge on one of them as both were very big bodied deer. Well, upon getting the close up view of the 8-point I had just harvested, I realized that half way up one side of his G-2, his antlers were completely broken off. A few of his other tines were damaged as well, which led me to believe that the 9-point he had previously been sparing with, probably wasn’t sparing anymore.

With bow season quickly becoming gun season, my son Tanner, was getting pretty excited about going hunting with dad this year. I had to work the first day of the season, but promised to take him on Sunday. Sunday afternoon, around 3:00pm, I was off to the deer woods and had my little man right there with me on the 4-wheeler. We drove to a spot where not much hunting activity was going on, and climbed into the buddy stand that was located there. The buddy stand had the camouflage netting around its fall protective bars and I knew that if a deer did come in, that the anticipated movements of my son would go undetected.

To my surprise, Tanner, sat quietly in the stand with me, pulled out his binoculars, and commenced to scanning the woods all around. When a squirrel would drop an acorn from a tree, it would hit the leaves, and Tanner would turn quickly to identify what made the noise. He would whisper to me that he thought he heard something over there, or over there, and over there. I know this sounds crazy, but I loved every minute of watching him pay attention to what was going on in the woods around him. Now he was hungry, 15 minutes after we were in the stand. He pulled out a package of crackers and quietly munched on them while looking around. We switched positions about 10 times, so he could see everything. He would ask me questions about all kinds of woods activities and now sat in my lap to get a better view. About 1 and ½ hours in the stand now, Tanner started doing the chicken head. You know, when someone is trying desperately not to fall asleep, but their eyes roll back, and their heads starts popping up. Well, it wasn’t long before “Mr. Energy” was resting against my arm, quietly sleeping.

Soon as Tanner decided to snooze, I elected to stay in the stand since there was only about 30 minutes left of daylight. So I positioned Tanner so he could lay down across the buddy stand seat that was covered with a camouflage blanket, and I would stand up. After positioning Tanner towards comfort, I stood up in the stand, now facing the rear, and spotted a nice buck standing there watching me. I touched Tanner on the face and arm attempting to wake him from his afternoon nap. I whispered to him “Tanner, there is a deer, wake up”. No response. So I looked back up the deer was gone. I positioned my rifle across the stand bars and waited for the deer to exit the brush. Just as I thought, he walked right through the opening in the brush headed for the deep woods. I announced I was there with a mouthed made “grunt”. He stopped and “bang”. As soon as the shot rang out, “Tanner, jumped up, wide eyed and said “Did I GET HIM?. Excited now, he really wanted to know if he got a deer. I smiled at him and excitedly said yes son, you got a big old buck. He jumped up and down in the stand and hugged me, and said “Well, where is he? Let’s go get him.” His little voice was squeaking high and low with excitement. This was his first experience in the deer woods hunting, and man he sure loved it, as did I. We climbed down the stand together, and went to where the buck was standing. I showed him the blood on the ground and explained to him that he should walk beside the blood, not in it, when he was tracking a deer. He started to walk beside the trail when he squeaked again. “I found him, he is right there” pointing. All of these events happening so fast, I wanted them to slow down some so I could savor the enjoyment of watching him. I showed him the caution of approaching a wounded or dead animal, helped him count the points on the antlers, and hugs and pride just rushed through me. After all, this hunt was supposed to be all about him.

He helped me load the deer on the 4-wheeler, and away we went to show the family. Close to the house now, I walked beside the 4-wheeler and allowed Tanner to drive up to the house. Picture this, A five year old boy, dressed in a camouflage shirt and orange hat with vest, driving a ranch 4-wheeler with a rifle in the rack on the front, and a 140 pound 8-point deer strapped to the utility rack in the back, coming out of the deer woods and driving up to the house with his mother waiting for him with a camera. Wouldn’t you be proud? I know I was. Tanner will never forget his first deer hunt, but neither will I. I think Lori, my wife and his mother, took a million pictures that evening.
Not only that, but he beat me this year with his deer. Mine during bow season was 150 pounds, but his rack was bigger. It is good to start them off young.

Mac enjoys duck hunting in the Midwest.

Send Pictures to:

Todd Krater
U.S. Hunting Today
Managing Editor
todd@ushuntingtoday.com

Note: If you want a picture posted and do not have a digital copy I would be willing to scan it for you.  Please contact me for details.

US Hunting Today reserves the right to refuse any picture for any reason as well as edit it where appropriate.

The first week of October was finally here.  The first three days were spent in my favorite stand watching 3 raccoons in which I had named Larry, Curly, and Moe.  The mother raccoon was slightly bigger than the two younger ones, and seemed curious to every movement surrounding them.  The days here in eastern Oklahoma in October were still in the 80’s with mosquitoes buzzing everywhere.  I was wondering if it were still to hot to hunt and questioned myself again over and over.  Each day so far, I had hunted morning and evening with only a few does showing up.

Our family is one of three families (all related) that live on the mountain with about 360 acres of land owned by our families.  Each year we hunt, we always establish the rules.  {8 Point or better for the husbands} {Wives and kids, buck or doe} Now last year I hunted all year and didn’t harvest one deer, but I had seen enough antlers to keep me excited.  Every time Bill and Grover, my brother in-laws, sure let me know how I got spanked on last years hunt.  Both are avid rifle hunters and tagged out the year I brought home nothing.  I was thinking about this already early in this season while elevated about 18 feet up in my climber.  I wondered, as every other hunter does, will this be my year.  As I looked down from my stand at the raccoons again on the 4^th morning of October 2007, I was once again thinking of how pretty they were and how every day I am in the woods, I look for the highlight of the day.  Whether this was the highlight of the day again, or was an owl going to sit on the limb next to me, a squirrel sitting on my boot, quail leaving a fast trail for a coyote, bobcats on the prowl, turkeys rustling, what was going to be the highlight?

Then, I saw movement directly in front of me.  I was a deer for sure, and no does were present yet.  I had placed my stand in what my wife calls the quiet spot.  High cedars with no brush, not to thick, but perfect for a good bow shot.  A well used doe trail to my right, and another trail coming in from the left, thicker trees to my front.  I could see about 40 yards around me with a creek bed behind me on a down hill gentle slope. The deer in front of me wasn’t spooked or aware of my presence as it slowly made its way directly toward me.  Sun to my back and the breeze in my face, finally, I could see him completely.  “Very nice buck” I was thinking.  As he moved closer and closer, I could count 4 on one side and 4 on the other.  Not sure if I wanted to take the shot just yet, I moved into position just in case.  Standing now and ready to draw, I used the bow as if I was hiding behind its small limbs.  The buck was much bigger than I originally thought the closer he moved to my stand.  20 yards and still coming, 10 yards and still coming.  He stopped, head concealed by a large cedar tree.  I came to full draw and picked my shooting lane.  As if knowing I was now ready to shoot, the 8 point stepped from behind the cedar and moved closer, directly into my shooting lane.  7 yards, I picked my hairs on the buck, just behind the shoulder and quartering down.  I could sense the raccoons to my right and felt a sense of calm, took a large breath, let it out half way, became steady as a rock and released.

{‘Wham”}  I dropped him in his tracks.  I intended to penetrate spine, heart, and lung if possible for a deadly and swift kill.  My broadhead did exactly that.  I stood for a moment and watched the buck lie still and quiet.  Larry, Curly, and Moe were nowhere to be seen.  I called my wife using my cell phone and quietly whispered I had a good buck down, her response to me was “why are we whispering”.  Laughing a little I said, I am in the quiet spot.

After checking the buck in and heading to the processors, I continued to hunt the evening in another stand.  Each day I hunted, I elected to use my climber instead of pre-placed stands used each year.  October the 7^th, 3 days after my first buck of the year, my 14 year old son was ready for action.  This would be his first year bow hunting, and he practiced every day for the last two months.  He was actually quite good shooting the pillow target and 3D’s, in which I was very proud.  Sunday after church, he would be in the woods with me for the evening hunt.  Everything seemed to go wrong.  I found out he was afraid of heights the hard way, but patiently, I assisted him into a lock-on stand with steps, explained the safety belt, strapped him in and climbed down.  I hooked his bow on the bow string and up and away the bow went.  While the bow was being pulled up by my son, I was watching all around me, trying to quiet down the woods, when {Wham}!!!!  My right hand was numb.  I looked at my hand and there was a deep cut to the bone on the top.  My son had almost had the bow in his stand when the bow string slipped.  The bow caught me square across my hand.  Seriously nervous and seeing the blood, my son asked if I was alright and maybe we should just go home and get the hand took care of.  He said he was so sorry and it just slipped, and…………  I assured my son everything was fine, helped him get the bow up the stand, and assured him he was ready to hunt.  “Don’t worry about me son, you just keep your eyes out for the big one.  I will be about 100 yards straight across the creek.”  I pointed with my other hand where I would be, wished him good luck, then started walking away from his stand. After crossing the creek and out of sight from Chase, I stopped and looked at the top of my right hand.  I was hurt pretty good, and I still couldn’t make a fist yet.

Not wanting to leave the woods with my son still in a stand, I elected to set up on a trail I knew of and wait it out.  I pulled off the climber from my shoulder and worried a little about if I could even use the stand to climb or not.  After setting up the stand at the bottom of the tree I picked out, we were going to find out if I could climb with one hand.  It actually wasn’t that bad.  Up the tree I went, got situated, smiled a little at how stupid I was to stand directly under my sons stand when he was raising his bow then shrugged it off as “my stupidity, my fault.” Now situated and seated in my stand, I wondered if I could even draw my bow back with the bum hand.  So, I stood up quietly, drew the bow and wow, man did that hurt.  I sat back down and thought once again, I hope a big buck goes by my son instead of me this evening.  Not real sure I could even draw again.

45 minutes later, about 6:05pm, I caught movement from over my right shoulder.  Yep, you guessed it.  It was a buck, but a very small buck.  Knowing that early in this season the bucks were still traveling together, I stood, turned and prepared.  Sure enough, 5 yards behind the 4 point, was a small basket 8 point.  Immediately I decided not to shoot this small 8.  To my surprise, directly on his heals was a really nice 8 point.  Now I was getting excited.  By the way, the first buck in front had walked directly under my stand and was now in front of my stand.  I drew slowly, aimed center mass of the shooting lane in a gap in the brush.  The small 8 point buck walked through the gap, and then “There he was”,  A fine 8 point standing in the gap.  Once again, I picked my area of hair behind the shoulder, quartered down, controlled the breathing, paused, and slowly squeezed the trigger release.

{Wham} I dropped him in his tracks.  I intended to penetrate spine, heart, and lung if possible again and sure enough, the broadhead did the work.  Can you believe this, 6 yards, another nice buck on the ground, just laying there.  I stood in amazement, I was shocked.  This was a really nice buck, pretty wide and may score as well.  The odd thing about this was, “dropped in his tracks.”  The very thing every hunter hopes for is to find the deer, or even better a swift and clean kill.  Well, not only did I find the deer three or four days ago, I found this one too.  I was like a dream.  Two 8 point bucks, both bow kills, both in the same week, both dropped in their tracks. I realized after a brief moment of silence, that my hand did not hurt anymore, and to make things even better, my son was on this hunt with me only 100 yards away. The two bucks that were in front of this one, there would be a good chance Chase saw them or even may get a shot.  But what will always cross my mind is how big was the buck that was still coming in from behind the buck I harvested.  I saw him jump when I released.  I climbed down and walked to Chases stand, walked cautiously up to the side of him and told him we had a good buck down.  Excited, he said he saw two bucks running and asked how big my buck was.  I told him, “well, I don’t know really, maybe you should help me track him”.  Chase was so excited when he walked up to my tree, buck in plain site.  “Man, I’m gonna get me a buck like that” I went to retrieve the 4-wheeler, we loaded the deer and headed to the house.  I was kind of in a hurry as the darkness was starting to set in, and I still needed to check this buck in too.  Arriving at our home on the mountain, my father stepped out on the deck and observed our approach.  My father had just come in from out of town that day to visit us for a week, so that was kind of cool him seeing me bring in another deer.  He was a big deer hunter with hunting skills that I always admired.

As far as the wife goes, she was so excited.  Not so much that I had gotten a nice buck, but that I had gotten two nice bucks with a bow in the first week of hunting season.  She rubbed it in real good to her two brothers whom still hadn’t harvested anything.  The next morning, as I watched the brother in laws roll out to the woods to deer hunt, I told them the same thing I always told them.  “Good luck and I hope you get a big one” Every bit of this is true, and I honestly believe this will be hard for me to beat next year.  After all, now my season just went from deer season, to “dear” season.  Being tagged out in the first week of bow season is a sure sign that honey-do’s will be a major part of the rest of my season.

This is a warning to outdoor users about a potentially deadly biological event that could result from one’s curiosity to poke at and kick through scat from wolves, coyotes and foxes. Of course not everyone knowingly does this but many hunters, trappers and simply the curious, want to know what these animals have been eating.

Back in the end of November I gave you a link to a story, “Of Wolves and Worms”. That story introduced many of us to the subject of worms being found in wolves in the Greater Yellowstone area.

According to a new study out in the October issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, three-millimeter-long tapeworms known as Echinococcus granulosus, are documented for the first time in gray wolves in Idaho and Montana. And the authors didn’t just find a few tapeworms here and there… turns out that of 123 wolf intestines sampled, 62 percent of the Idaho gray wolves and 63 percent of the Montana gray wolves were positive. (Ew!) The researchers wrote: “The detection of thousands of tapeworms per wolf was a common finding.” (Again… Ew!!) This leads to the interpretation that the E. granulosus parasite rate is fairly widespread and established in the Northern Rocky Mountain wolves.

There is discussion about how some think the worms ended up in the wolves in this region but the article tends to downplay any serious concerns people should have from coming in contact with these tapeworms and the eggs they leave behind.

In the comments section of the article, Will Graves, author of the book “Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages“, left his thoughts on his own research discoveries about the dangers to humans of these parasites.

In the first paragraph in my letter to Mr. Bangs dated 3 October 1993 on the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) which was titled “The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho,” I warned about the damages and problems wolves would cause to Yellowstone and other areas by carrying and spreading parasites and diseases over larger areas. Some of these parasites are damaging not only to wild and domestic animals, but can also be dangerous to humans. One of these parasites is Echinococcous Granulosus and Echinococcus M. Since 1993 I have been working to tell people what I have learned from about 50 years of research on the characteristics, habits and behavior of Russian wolves. From that research I came to the conclusion that one of the most serious consequences of bring wolves into the US would be the wolves carrying and spreading around damaging/dangerous parasites and diseases. I did my best to explain this in my book titled, “Wolves in Russia – Anxiety Through the Ages” edited by Dr. Valerius Geist. Details about my book are in my web site: wolvesinrussia.com.

After several years effort, I finally recently obtained help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Parasitic Research Center in Beltsville, MD. This research center will try to conduct research on the blood taken from wolves in our western states. Oneparasite they will be researching is to determine if wolves carry and spread the parasite Neospora Caninum around. It is established that coyotes and dogs carry this damaging parasite.

I remember that about two years ago there was a report about one wolf carrying Echinococcus Granulosus in Montana.

Much more research is needed about the danger wolves bring to our environment. Some of the parasites carried by wolves are dangerous to humans.(emphasis added)

Around this same time that Will Graves posted his comments, he contacted me by email and asked if I could somehow be of assistance to him in obtaining blood samples from wolves taken during the Idaho and Montana wolf hunts. The word went out quickly and hopefullyGraves gets what he needs to help him in his research. This can become extremely valuable information for all of us.

In the meantime, Dr. Valerius Geist, professor emeritus University of Calgary and Dr. Charles Kay, of Utah State University, who holds degrees in wildlife ecology, environmental studies and wildlife biology, exchanged thoughts on the discovery of worms in Yellowstone wolves in emails I received.

Well, Charles? What else is new? What did we warn about, how we were censored as alarmists………………………
And yes, a colleague assured us that all that is not a problem for us, but for some native types. Nothing to worry about, really. Remember how, early on, we put out a warning – do not kick dry wolf feces or poke about in such looking for evidence of food habits. Do not handle wolf feces as it will disturb the tiny Echinococcus eggs that float up like little dust cloud to envelop you, and you are very likely to ingest some of that “dust”. This know-how, which we older Canadian types carried away from our parasitogy lessons was poo-hood by some American colleagues. Wolves are after all, harmless! Remember the question we posed: is it really such a great idea completing ecosystems when the progression is herbivores, carnivores, finally diseases and parasites?

It is not my intention nor that of Drs. Geist and Kay to attempt to instill unnecessary fear in people but to educate, as it was back in the day before wolf reintroduction. There are very important lessons and warnings that all should heed and take into consideration when in the woods or maybe even in your own back yard.

Dr. Geist emailed me the other day and asked me if I would be kind enough to post this information so that anyone and everyone will be aware of the potential for some very serious health issues.

Urgent: could you make a point of it that now, that we know that the majority of wolves are infected with Echinococcus, that all hunters control their curiosity and not poke about in wolf or coyote feces to find out what these predators ate. these feces are saturated with tiny, lightweight Echinococcus eggs that rise like dust plume from the disturbed feces and envelop the poking hunter. If the air-born eggs are ingested, the an infection is possible, and having Echinococcus cysts grow inside oneself is not a desirable condition. Trust me!

He followed that up with more information about the dangers.

As to the pathogenicity of Echinococcus granulosus: Yes, I noticed that Foayt, leaning on Raup’s research in Alaska, toned down the dangers from this northern form. My understanding based on what we learned from an old, experienced parasitologist at the University of British Columbia is that it’s nothing to fool around with. It’s serious! In my career as a biologist in touch with the north, I have heard nothing else. I have not, however, done a recent literature search. Foayte’s assessment may be on even though it conflicts with mine. Either way, getting an Echinococcus cyst of any kind is no laughing matter as it can grow not only on the liver or the lungs, but also in the brain. And then it’s fatal.

There is however, another much more alarming angle. Echinococcus multilocularis is a nightmare, and much more virulent than Echinococcus granulosus of any strain. We cannot encapsulate this cyst, and it grows and buds off like a cancer infecting different parts of the body incessantly. Were some of the wolves infected with multilocularis? Coyotes and foxes carry it and it has been spreading. Do canids in Idaho, Montana, etc. have it? It’s found in Alberta. Regardless, now is the time to send out an SOS to ALL outdoor users. Hold your curiosity in check, do not poke into the feces of wolves, coyotes and foxes. If you do you will release clouds of Echinococcus eggs which will envelop you, and you may ingest the eggs, bring the eggs home and endanger your family. This is nothing new to me and I have lived with this constraint on my curiosity for over 40 years. This is just a know how that maintains your personal and your family’s safety. Also, never feed uncooked offal to your dog as it may become infected with Echinococcus and infect you and your family. Echinococcus cysts love to be in lung and liver, and if consumed by dogs you have a health hazard on your hands. And such cysts now grow in deer and elk where you live. Somebody should take a second look searching out Echinococcus multilocularis.

You and I probably have no idea in the world whether these worms exist in the woods we hunt, trap, hike, etc. but good advice given by Dr. Geist should tell us it’s not something we should mess around with. Squelch the curiosity to dig in the poop and just assume there could be hidden danger.

I want to take a moment to thank Will Graves, Dr. Val Geist and Dr. Charles Kay for caring enough about the rest of us to be willing to share their findings and experiences.

Whether hunting public or privateland, the fundamentals of calling elk remain the same.

By Michael Waddell

We heard the bull bugle at first light and snuck into his core area. When I hit a lick on my bugle, the bull simply came unglued and stormed our position like a tank, crashing through brush and small lodgepole pines like they were atchsticks. Before we could react he was in our lap and we were pinned down, myself hiding behind a camera, too afraid to even touch the tripod for fear of my shaking hands would run the footage. All I could see of my partner edged against a stunted pine was the tip of his undrawn arrow shaking uncontrollably on the rest. Before a shot presented itself, the bull smelled a  rat and disappeared as quickly as he arrived.

While this experience didn’t result in a dead elk, it did hopelessly addict me to calling them. It seems that in all walks of life, be it the animal kingdom or humans, communication is a key ingredient for all social interaction. However not all living things communicate to the same degree. If you ask my wife, I am sure she will tell you I lack in the communication department, in fact I am sure she believes I don’t listen to her at all, but when it comes to communicating with animals I can barely shut up. Of all the animals I love to communicate with elk rate right at the top. By nature elk are very vocal. The uninitiated often simply think of bulls bugling, but cows, calves and bulls make all sorts of noises year around. If you encounter a larger herd of elk while you might not hear a thing from a distance, if you get close you will hear lots of subtle vocalization. Most of the time these are sounds of contentment, but depending on what’s happening the vocalization reflects it. Elk can convey contentment, danger, curiosity, or a cow in heat. Bulls for instance only bugle primarily in the rut, but they also communicate to establish a pecking order. After spending a considerable amount of time chasing the mighty wapiti, I’m convinced every elk in the herd knows each other by sound alone. This happens with the cows as well as the bulls and based on my evaluation somewhere in this mix is the deadly secret to calling elk archery-close.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

It seems that the more vocal a herd the better the odds are for success at calling them. Some cows call subtle, while others are loud-mouth ladies actively looking for a date. By listening it gives you a better opportunity to imitate the particular tones and intensity of the herd. By calling we are automatically intruding into the social club without an invitation. The closer we can sound to a known elk, and match that intensity the better the odds are of filling a tag. Even though we may sound like an outsider to the herd, luckily for us, love crazed bulls are not looking to be intimate with just one or two cows they are looking for all the love of every cow in the world, so taking advantage of their sexual frustrations and promiscuity is what we aim to do. It doesn’t take a world champion elk caller to trick bulls within range. By simply paying attention to the herd and understanding simple elk rhythm, tone and more important volume when calling, a hunter can depend on an elk call to be a valuable asset to dulling broadheads.

Public Versus Private Land

Since I started hunting elk 16 years ago, on private as well as public ground, I have realize that comparing these two different types of ground are like comparing night and day and it is all about the amount of pressure each receives. Generally speaking private ground bulls are way easier to call than public ground animals, but this is not always the case. Some private land does get a lot of pressure, which can make for some pretty tough calling duels with elk that can serve you up a humble pie every time you bust out a call. While conversely some public land either through sheer remoteness or hard-to-get tags is like calling the best private land in the nation. Hunting un-touched land and cow calling to bulls that have never heard a Hoochie Mamma would obviously be nice and it wouldn’t take long working over these uneducated elk to start feeling like an elk calling pro only to be deflated the first time we went to the national forest and mixed it up with bulls so well-known by local hunters that they have knick names. However, regardless of where you hunt the basics of calling remain the same. Start with mastering the cow call and all its various inflections. Your basic reed type calls are the easiest to learn as well as get proficient with. You will find two kinds; both are bite down reed-type of calls, one being enclosed and the other having an open reed or reeds. These calls make a very realistic sound and before your wife can run you out of the house you will master the basics.  I rely heavily on the cow call and think most of the time hunters are better off sticking with it over a bugle no matter where he is hunting. But learning how to make a basic bugle is important, especially for locating bulls at a distance before getting close and working him with your cow call. In addition, sometimes it is the bugle that finally provokes a dominant bull to commit, especially during the early season when bulls are still sorting out their peckin’ order.

Earning Your Public Ground PhD

Lets face it, unless you have deep pockets much of the private ground in the West is pretty much off limits, so you have to learn to hunt public land. This is not a bad thing as public ground comprises millions upon millions of acres across the West and happens to have some of the biggest bulls found anywhere. While it can be tougher than private, once you learn how to hunt it you won’t be disappointed. Over the years, one of my favorite places to hunt is the Gila National Forest, in New Mexico, and even though this is a trophy area tags are fairly obtainable through application. In the Gila, the trophy potential is off the chart, sporting some of the biggest bulls in the country, but just because the big ones live there doesn’t mean thatyou automatically make one call and they come running to get in the back of your truck. These mature jokers have a PhD in avoiding hunters. Over the last six years I have hunted this area religiously and have had the opportunity to shoot some nice bulls all by using elk calls as an aid to close the coffin. Notice I said, “as an aid”, meaning the call was just one thing in a bag of tricks to help smoke these monarchs. My biggest bull that came out of the Gila was a 378 P&Y bull that had earned the name Professor because he always seemed to take you to school when you applied too much pressure. However, this bull was vocal and would bugle his butt off. He also seemed to be fairly easy to find, not only by his gnarly, raspy bugle that set him apart, but frequently he could be found early in the morning in a large meadow just south of a particular water hole that always attracted a large herd. The Professor was not the only bull in the area that had large headgear, but it was The Professor that seemed to call the shots. I had caught this bull in the open several times, but calling seemed to really make him uneasy when you were in close. The Professor however would bugle hard to distant cow calls and seem to be whole heartedly interested, but had a sixth sense when you moved in for the attack. Final we decided to have a caller stay behind as we worked him coming off the meadow at daybreak. By doing this we could keep him interested and bugling as we stalked in closer. The caller always was no closer than 80 yards behind me. While the caller kept him occupied, I slid within 50 yards and gave him a G5 Tekan right behind the shoulder. This hunt was really a stalk, but the call and caller had a big part to do with his demise. Once we started quartering the bull up, we found a piece of an old arrow lodged just below the backstraps, so obviously someone had him in close before and gave the Prof and education, which explained why he was so wary.

The Double Team

As this old bull showed, hunting with a partner can work extremely well. It not only puts the hunter out in front of the call, but it gives the hunter a chance to move and adjust the angle based on where the bull might be approaching. Likewise, the caller has the flexibility to move as well and apply a lot of different calling techniques. The double team plan worked again on another hunt. It had been hot and the bulls were only bugling early and late. As soon as the sun would rise the elk woods would turn in to a ghost town.
Just after daybreak on the fourth day of our hunt we heard this bull bugle. He hit it only two times, both very weak and he sounded like the littlest rag horn in the land but with no other game in town we went after him. Getting as close as possible to where we thought the bugle came from I eased up and sat down by a pine stump while my buddy moved back and to my right about 40 yards. Neither of us were very optimistic about our chances. My buddy made one or maybe two very soft cow calls on a two reed diaphragm then he started raking a tree and rolled a few rocks. We sat there for possibly 10 minutes in silence, then out of nowhere appeared a wide 340 inch 6 x 6 coming directly to us, at 25 yards the bull let out a soft chuckle, looked over his surrounding and kept walking in the direction of where the last rock had been rolled, which led him 16 steps from my pine stump. By now I was at full draw waiting for a broadside shot. When the arrow left my bow, I knew we had killed a call shy monster by keeping it low key and staying patient. Needless to say, I was never convinced by the two times he had bugled earlier that he was a shooter. This was a lesson in itself. Never judge a bugle until you can see what is making the sound.
The most exciting way to bag a bull elk is to get him in close, and the best way to do that is with a call. Confidence in your call is critical, because if you’re insecure about using your call there is a good chance you will spook elk. Have confidence in your calling ability and become just another elk in the herd where you are hunting. Find a call that works for you and not what works for some else. Think like an elk and do as elk do. Realism, rhythm, and volume control can make the difference between bringin’ them in or running them over the next ridge. And remember its not always about calling, it can be just patiently listening to the sounds around you and applying minimal calls, while practicing good woodsmenship, and stalking skills that could help you put that monster on the back of the truck.

By Michael Waddell

Things I am looking for, but not limited to.

• Gear: Clothes, utility tools, ATV’s…
• Favorite weapons: guns, bows, sticks, stones…
• Best Duck Blind or Hide…
• You, family or friends dressed for the hunt…
• Where you hunt

All I need is a digital picture in any PC compatible format and a description of the picture. You can make the description as long or short as you would like. If there is a story behind the picture we would love to hear about it.

Send Pictures to:

Todd Krater
U.S. Hunting Today
Managing Editor
todd@ushuntingtoday.com

Note: If you want a picture posted and do not have a digital copy I would be willing to scan it for you. Please contact me for details.

US Hunting Today reserves the right to refuse any picture for any reason as well as edit it where appropriate.

In the early 1980s the 197-page unpublished research report, “Wolves of Central Idaho,” surfaced. In it, co-authors Timm Kaminski and Jerome Hansen estimated that elk and deer populations in six of the nine national forests in the proposed Central Idaho Wolf Recovery Area could support a total of 219 wolves without decreasing existing deer and elk populations in those forests.

They based this on an estimated 16.6 deer or elk killed by each wolf annually, and on estimated increases in elk and/or deer populations from 1981-1985 in the two-thirds of forests where they had increased.

But even if their estimated prey numbers and calculations were accurate, their report said only 17 wolves could be maintained in the Salmon National Forest, five in the Challis NF, and none in the Panhandle, Sawtooth and Bitterroot Forests. Yet the obvious question of what to do when the number of wolves in any National Forest or game management unit exceeded the ability of the prey base to support them was not adequately addressed.

Relocating “Problem” Wolves in Idaho Wilderness

Although there were increased reports of sightings of single wolves or pairs in Idaho during the late 1970s and early 80s and credible reports of at least two wolf packs with pups, no confirmed wolf depredation on livestock had been recorded for nearly half a century. Realizing that livestock killing would occur as wolf numbers increased, Kaminski and Hansen recommended relocating livestock-killing wolves into the central Idaho wilderness areas.

That was written more than 25 years ago yet the recommendation was still followed by FWS and the Nez Perce Tribal wolf managers even after wilderness elk populations had been decimated by severe winters, excessive hunter harvest and excessive wolf populations.

In September of 2001, Idaho F&G Commissioner Alex Irby complained that FWS relocated two breeding pairs of “problem” wolves from Montana to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness despite the fact that the number of elk hunters there had “been capped for several years due to declining herds.” But Tribal Wolf Recovery Leader Kurt Mack responded that these and other livestock-killing wolves probably wouldn’t remain in the wilderness very long and were released there “to keep them out of trouble temporarily until they relocated someplace else.”

Wolf Impact on Big Game Populations Ignored

Tribal, FWS and State biologists all ignored wolf expert David Mech’s warning that relocating wolves that killed livestock did not stop their killing livestock. Transplanting even more wolves into areas like the Selway and Lolo Zones, with inadequate elk calf survival to support any wolves, guaranteed an accelerated decline in the elk population and the exploitation of alternate prey.

At a Predator-Prey Symposium in Boise, Idaho on Jan. 8, 1999, the featured speaker – North America’s top wild ungulate authority Dr. Valerius Geist – spent two hours explaining to federal, state and university wildlife biologists why wolf populations must be carefully controlled to maintain a healthy population of their prey species. Idaho biologists and members of the Idaho Wolf Oversight Committee appeared to listen carefully – but later invented excuses not to follow his expert advice.

“New” Wolf Plan Prohibited Hunting Wolves

In the 2002 Legislative session, Idaho Senate Resources Committee Chairman Laird Noh introduced legislation to approve his Wolf Oversight Committee’s seventeenth version of a proposed Idaho Wolf Plan. Previous similar versions had been rejected by both Idaho legislators and several former Wolf Committee members but alarming increases in wolf numbers convinced some groups that a state wolf plan that offered no solution was better than no plan at all.

The Wolf Plan promoted by Sen. Noh would not have allowed wolf hunting until five years after delisting occurred and Idaho assumed management. It included the statement, “The plan must satisfy the USFWS, wolf advocacy groups…and a diverse public,” and gave IDFG full authority to update the plan solely at its discretion without Legislative oversight or accountability.

Two reviewers of the Plan, each with several decades of wolf research experience (Mech and Boertje) both predicted that Idaho wolves would multiply far beyond the alleged management goal of 10-20 packs before delisting. Boertje added that conflicts with too many wolves was probably the greatest threat to the responsible future conservation of wolves in Idaho and said pre-wolf prey data was vital to estimate wolf impact on elk and deer.

Major Wolf Plan Flaws Corrected in Senate

Despite the pressure to pass the Plan that was written explicitly to please USFWS and pro-wolf extremists, a motion to amend it succeeded. Senators Bartlett (Judy Boyle), Brandt and Hawkins re-wrote parts of the Plan to shift the emphasis to protecting Idaho big game herds, livestock, property rights, and the physical and economic well-being of Idaho citizens as spelled out in the Idaho Constitution.

The Plan, which became official on March 15, 2002, directed the Idaho F&G Commission, with assistance from the Governors Office of Species Conservation (OSC), to: “begin immediate discussions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to define unacceptable levels of effect on ungulate populations by wolf predation; specifically, they will define how these effects would be measured, and will identify possible solutions.”

Even before amendment, the Plan directed the Idaho Fish and Game Department (IDFG) to conduct annual census of selected important prey populations to include at least total population estimates and age-sex ratios, along with the annual census of wolf populations. As Alaska wolf researcher Rod Boertje emphasized in his review of the Plan, comparison of that prey data with data from pre-wolf introduction was of paramount importance in estimating the impact of wolves on prey.

Increased funding was approved by the Idaho Legislature for annual deer and elk census flights yet they were not conducted every year. Instead, IDFG biologists continued an unsuccessful effort to prove that declining habitat – not wolf predation – was the primary reason for both declining elk numbers and unhealthy calf-to-cow ratios in a growing number of elk units.

Idaho Is Allowed to Kill Wolves Impacting Elk

In 2005 the Department of Interior announced that all of the criteria for delisting wolves had been met in December of 2002. On February 7, 2005 FWS promulgated a new version of the 10J (Nonessential Experimental) Rule which allowed states with approved wolf plans to take over management of wolves under the new provisions until wolves were delisted.

On January 5, 2006, four years after the Idaho Wolf Plan was adopted, Interior Secretary Gail Norton and Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) giving Idaho broad powers to manage wolves including the following:

“The State will begin to implement its federally approved Idaho Wolf Conservation and Management Plan of 2002 to the extent possible as permitted by the 10(j) rule.

6. Implement lethal control or translocation of wolves to reduce impacts on wild ungulates in accordance with the process outlined in the amended 10(j) rule.”

Before the Wolf Plan was adopted in 2002, the Idaho F&G Commission had already significantly cut the number of elk hunters allowed to hunt in the Lolo Zone, the Selway Zone and the Middle Fork Zone by placing caps on the number of tags that could be sold in those three elk zones. Total elk numbers and the percentage of surviving calves were severely declining in the Lolo Zone by the end of 1997 and the Commission capped the number of B-Tag (rifle) hunters for the 1998 elk hunting season at less than one-third the previous seven year average.

Sales of both “A” and “B” Elk Tags were capped beginning in 2000 and 2001 in the other two Zones for the same reason. That is why the 2002 amended Wolf Plan required the F&G Commission, with help from the OSC, to immediately obtain any requirements from FWS to reduce the impact of excessive wolf numbers on elk.

Later IDFG Big Game Manager Lonn Kuck told the Commission and the media that a specific decline in an elk herd over a five-year period was the IDFG criteria for removing wolves. Although some Idaho big game hunters and their elected officials saw the 2006 Agreement with DOI as the answer to halt declining deer and elk populations, IDFG Large Carnivore Coordinator Steve Nadeau continued to insist IDFG had no evidence that wolves were causing the elk declines.

The following FWS charts of minimum fall (end-of-year) wolf population estimates and minimum breeding pairs by FWS provide facts to refute Nadeau’s claims:

The July 1993 Wolf EIS predicted limited impact on elk from a recovered wolf population in the Central Idaho (CID) Recovery Area (estimating a maximum 10% reduction in cow elk hunter harvest and no reduction in bull harvest). This was based on a recovered wolf population of 10 breeding pairs – about 100 wolves.

It was also based on a post-hunting season CID ungulate population of 241,400, including 76,300 elk and 159,500 deer; and on 100 wolves killing only 495 elk (only one elk killed for every 2.36 deer killed). But, instead, the wolves killed nearly four times as many elk as they did deer and that was only one of the flaws in the prediction.

As the FWS charts clearly show, by 2001 there were already twice as many wolves just in known packs as were supposed to exist in a recovered wolf population. And by 2005 there were at least five times as many wolves as were supposed to exist in a recovered population.

~~~~~~~~~~

# A donation in any amount will help defray our cost of printing and mailing The Outdoorsman to more than 250 state and federal elected or appointed officials. A donation of $25 or more will pay the cost of printing and mailing all bulletins to you, or to anyone else you designate, for the period of one year.
———————————————————————-
Mail to: The Outdoorsman
P.O. Box 155
Horseshoe Bend, ID 83629

Name__________________________________________
Mailing Address________________________________________
City______________________State_____Zip_________
Amount Enclosed_______ Phone___________________
(optional)
New ______ Renewal_____ Extension______ Gift_____

~~~~~~~~~~

If 100 wolves would have required a 10% reduction in cow elk harvest as predicted, five times that many wolves – each killing three times as many elk as had been projected – would methodically destroy the elk herds. And 15 times as much wolf killing of elk as had been predicted in the EIS is exactly what happened while IDFG officials continued to claim wolves were having no impact on elk.

What about the 10J Provision to Remove Wolves Adversely Impacting Elk and Deer Populations?

The 1994 10J Nonessential Experimental Wolf Rule allowed the States to capture and relocate wolves if wolf predation was having an unacceptable impact on wild ungulate populations. The States – not FWS – were responsible for determining an unacceptable level of predation (still in the current rule).

The only FWS criteria for having the wolves relocated were: a) the State must have a wolf plan approved by FWS and b) FWS must assure that removal would not inhibit wolf population growth toward the 10 breeding pair recovery levels. In 2002 Idaho and Montana Wolf Plans were approved by FWS and Idaho had been forced to severely limit the number of general season elk hunters in all nine back country elk units – yet neither state F&G made any effort to reduce elk killing by wolves.

In 2003, FWS changed the 10J Rule to provide for automatic relocation of wolves depleting elk herds on a simple request from either state. Although the minimum estimated wolf population in Idaho was now increasing by nearly 100 admitted wolves every year, the Idaho F&G Commission was ignoring its mandate to preserve, protect and perpetuate Idaho’s billion-dollar wild game.

Jim Peek’s Fantasy

Wolf Oversight Committee member Dr. Jim Peek, who helped write the five-year-no-hunting Wolf Plan Draft No. 17, frequently publishes selected bits of scientific information mixed with personal opinion suggesting that wolf control is futile. As a University of Idaho wildlife professor, Peek taught future wildlife managers that habitat is always the real cause of declining prey populations regardless of how many are killed by predators.

In 2005 when FWS changed the 10J rule to allow Idaho and Montana to kill wolves, Peek followed the announcement with a media article suggesting that cow elk numbers should be reduced to only 50%-60% of biological carrying capacity. He cited red deer research on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland as proof of his claim that killing off half of the females will produce more and larger newborn male elk calves that can avoid predators and also provide more adult bull elk for hunters to harvest.

Peek’s academic credentials establish him as an ungulate and wolf authority, regularly quoted by the media and by wolf advocates who repeat his false claim that wolves have not limited elk harvests in Idaho. Until recent events forced wildlife biologists in Idaho and Montana to admit part of the truth, hunters’ lack of success was blamed on the change in elk habits rather than fewer elk.

Decline of the Clearwater Elk Herds

For nearly half a century, more than 45 percent of the elk harvest in Idaho occurred in the north central part of the state in the Clearwater Region. Large forest fires in 1910, 1919 and 1934 replaced timber with brush fields, providing additional winter range in the Clearwater, and this was credited for maintaining the bountiful elk harvest.

But following the end of World War II, the Wildlife Management Institute told the Idaho F&G Commission they must invite nonresidents to harvest excessive elk and deer herds that were damaging the forage in remote back country areas. Although there were some areas that were heavily browsed by abundant mule deer during severe winters, the WMI recommendation was part of a nationwide publicity campaign to create a new market for big game hunting and fishing following the economic slump after the War ended (IDFG Biennial Report).

By advertising in other states and creating several special cheaper classes of nonresident big game licenses, IDFG increased the number of non-resident big game hunters from fewer than 500 in the early 1940s to more than 15,000 in 1968. From 1951-1968 nonresident big game tag/license sales increased by 1,100% while resident big game tag sales remained virtually unchanged.

From 1960, to 1976 when all elk seasons were shortened and cow/calf harvest was halted, the total Idaho elk harvest declined by 75% (Thiessen 1977 Western States Elk Workshop). During that same period calf-to-cow ratios declined to only 25 calves-per-100 cows or less in the Clearwater (Schlegel 1977 Elk Workshop).

The 1964 Clearwater Elk Ecology Study

By 1963, thirteen years of unlimited either-sex elk hunting seasons lasting from the rut in September through the deep snow in December was decimating the back country elk herds. But IDFG biologists insisted that advancing plant succession (transition from brush back to conifers) was causing underweight elk calves that could not survive to be born.

In 1964, F&G initiated an elk ecology study to determine the best method of restoring the land to reproductive forage. According to the research reports, the area studied represented more than half of the elk harvest in the state.

After five years of careful forage evaluation, the researchers found that only 25% of available forage was utilized yet the elk population continued to decline. In the primary elk study area between the Lower Selway and Lochsa Rivers (portions of Units 10 and 12), post-hunting season elk numbers dropped from 457 to only 60-80 in that five year period.

More research from 1968-1972 revealed high conception and calf birth rates but very poor post-hunting season calf survival. In 1973 an intensive study was begun to determine the cause of all elk calf deaths in that study area during the first six months of life.

Elk Calves Were Not Born Underweight

Over the next five years, average calf birth weights exceeded the minimum required for 90% survival (Thorn) by 6% and the newborn calves gained about two pounds per day. Yet two-thirds of the calves were killed by predators – 84% of those during the first two weeks after birth when they are most vulnerable.

Of the five predators documented as killing elk calves, black bear killed 75%, mountain lion killed 15% and the other 10% were killed by golden eagle, coyote, bobcat or unknown. Most of the killing was done at night and because black bears were the major predator, with a calculated bear density of two per square mile, it was decided to relocate some of the bears in 1976 to see how it impacted the post hunting season calf-to-cow ratio.

Removing Bears Tripled elk Calf Survival

The elk calf-to-cow ratio was 21-to-100 for the three years preceding the bear removal and it increased to 61-to-100 in 1977 after the bear removal. The 1978 ratio was 51 calves per 100 cows and that reflected the increased number of 1977 female calves that had survived to become yearlings and thereby increase the number of cows.

Researcher Mike Schlegel asked IDFG Director Joe Greenley to authorize incentives for increased bear harvests by hunters and the average elk count in the study area increased from 358 in 1977 to 605 after 1979. Schegel continued his portion of the research through 1985 and, despite bear densities returning to pre-removal numbers, the 1989 aerial census of Units 10 and 12 (later designated as the Lolo Elk Zone) totaled 15,270 elk.

If Prey Numbers Decline Predation Prevents Recovery

The 22-year-long Elk Ecology study concluded that bears and elk had always existed in the study area but in the early 1900s ranchers grazing sheep controlled bear numbers. After the sheep were removed both elk and bears increased but the window of opportunity for black bears to kill newborn calves is limited to two weeks and there were enough calves to offset the impact of spring bear predation.

But once F&G allowed too many cow elk to be harvested, the same number of bears killed the same number of newborn calves which severely impacted the now much smaller elk herd. Schlegel’s study cited numerous similar long-term studies that reached the same conclusion (i.e. once the ratio of predator to ungulate becomes excessive, there are no longer enough surviving juveniles to replace normal adult death losses).

Even wolf researcher David Mech published the same long-term research conclusions for Isle Royale moose and Northeast Minnesota whitetails in 1985 and denounced the “Balance of Nature” myth that he helped promote as a graduate student. Yet Jim Peek and his followers in IDFG continued to ignore science and promote reducing cow elk numbers to allegedly increase bull elk numbers.

The Truth about the Decline in Lolo Zone Elk

When IDFG Fisheries Biologist Herb Pollard was appointed as Clearwater Region Supervisor in 1992 the Lolo elk herd was declining and he continued to deplete it by harvesting too many bulls. For several decades, Idaho biologists’ justification for continuing to overkill a big game species has been to point out continuing abundant harvest numbers to “prove” the herd is not being depleted.

Lion hunter/logger Rob Donley explained to them that a forest manager with 10,000 harvestable trees in a forest can let loggers cut 1,000 trees each year for 10 years and all looks well from his desk. But in the 11th year there are no mature trees left for the loggers to harvest.

However the concept of sustainable annual harvest appears not to be a part of the biologists’ agenda and in 1995 the phone survey reported that Lolo Zone hunters killed a record 1,759 male elk and 168 females with a quota of 150 antlerless permits in Unit 10 and 200 in Unit 12. Local residents were complaining vigorously about the Region-wide decline in elk numbers and the Commission promised to create a study committee to find solutions.

Meanwhile Pollard left the general bull elk season unchanged for 1996 and tested Peek’s theory by increasing the number of antlerless elk permits in the Lolo Zone from 350 to 1,900! The phone survey reported only 599 male elk harvested that year plus 638 females.

F&G Denied Winter Losses – Increased Cow Permits

The following winter (1996-97) was very severe in north Idaho and as the snow began to melt local outdoorsmen reported finding heavy winter elk losses along the Lochsa River in Unit 12. They asked Clearwater Wildlife Manager Jay Crenshaw to eliminate the 400 Oct.20-to-Nov. 13 Unit 12 antlerless elk permits to save female breeding stock to rebuild the herd.

Instead, Crenshaw responded in a May 29, 1997 Lewiston Tribune article with the claim that IDFG biologists had been monitoring the Lolo Zone elk since January 1997 and said total losses did not exceed the normal 5-10% winter loss. He increased the 400 permits in Unit 12 to 450 beginning Oct. 20 and ending Nov. 24, and kept the same 1,500 permits in Unit 10, with 375 of them good through Nov. 30.

These and similar antlerless controlled hunt elk permits in other Clearwater units could not be justified biologically so all were listed as “Research Study” in the 1997 Big Game Rules. And when hunters in Unit 10 and other Clearwater units complained about the lack of elk, a Dec. 4, 1997 Tribune article said: “Aerial and ground surveys of elk in the northern units of the Clearwater Region last spring showed no signs of unusual winter kill.”

As I explained in the April 2008 Outdoorsman, I obtained the “raw” (actual) 1997 and 1998 winter aerial elk counts from the Lolo Zone and other Clearwater Units and noted they were dramatically lower than the previous counts that were conducted in 1989. However Regional Biologist/Statistician George Pauley simply shrugged them off as “an anomaly” (an unexplained deviation from what was expected), and the media was not told the truth about the declining counts.

The Clearwater Citizens Advisory Council (CCAC) was formed and presented it recommendations to the F&G Commission in January 1996 yet no one made an effort to halt the breeding cow elk slaughter in either 1996 or 1997. Despite the increased opportunity in 1997 to harvest up to 1,950 adult female elk and their calves late in the season when they were more vulnerable, both male and female elk harvests took another nose-dive.

IDFG Lolo Zone Elk Harvest Statistics

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Antlerless* 223 166 638 277 7

Antlered* 1268 1759 599 316 264

Total 1491 1925 1237 593 271**

* includes calves

** continuing phone survey (mandatory report showed only 194)

Between hunters, predators and not enough surviving elk calves to replace natural adult losses, by the end of 1997 the Lolo Zone cow elk population had been reduced by 35%. In February of 1998 when IDFG finally admitted the massive elk decline, the CCAC demanded the Commission cap the number of Lolo Zone rifle elk hunters at one-third of the average over the preceding seven years.

But as the following comparison of 1989 and 1998 Lolo Zone elk counts shows, calf survival was down to only 6-1/2 calves per 100 cows compared to 28-1/2 calves per 100 cows in 1989. Capping the number of rifle hunters was a band-aid solution comparable to closing the barn door after the horses have already gotten out.

IDFG Lolo Zone Elk Population Surveys

Survey Year Cows Bulls Calves Total

1989 10113 2265 2890 15270

1997 & 1998 6529 743 433 7746

And despite the cap and an end to antlerless permits in the Lolo Zone, the adoption of the A-B Zone Tag system of elk management beginning in 1998 allowed unlimited numbers of general season A-Tag archery hunters to kill elk of either sex in a 32-day Aug-Sept general season during the rut. Archery hunters immediately began killing large numbers of six-point bulls as well as a few cows during the rut and their success ratio jumped well above that of the October rifle bull hunters.

The ~3,000 Lolo Zone elk hunters who could no longer hunt with a rifle had several options: (a) buy an archery stamp and archery equipment and learn to hunt with a bow; (b) hunt in another zone such as the Panhandle Zone and create hunter congestion there; (c) apply for a limited number of special privilege permits for a reasonable chance to harvest elk elsewhere in hopes of beating the poor drawing odds; or (d) give up elk hunting.

Colorado warned members of the Idaho Elk Team that Colorado’s A-B-(C) Tag system was not intended to manage elk and deer but was designed solely to add revenue from 200,000 additional nonresident elk hunters and distribute hunters equally in three (now four) separate seasons to prevent overcrowding. Yet IDFG and the Commission adopted the system and used it immediately to mismanage Lolo Zone elk – increasing the harvest of scarce breeding bulls and cows by hunting them in the rut for the first time in decades.

While Idaho encouraged hunters to buy an archery stamp and deplete the remaining breeding stock, Colorado halted antlerless elk harvest for a period of time and used antler point restrictions to increase its elk herds. Both state agencies were money-hungry but Idaho sacrificed its elk for a quick buck using Peek’s theory as an excuse while Colorado rebuilt its elk herd to the point where it harvested three times as many elk as Idaho did in 2008.

Did A 35% Reduction in Cows Improve Calf and Bull Survival As Peek Suggested?

Following the extreme 1992-93 winter elk and deer losses south of the Salmon River and the 1996-97 winter losses north of the Salmon River, Idaho biologists pretended the 1980s adult male and female populations were excessive and used the depleted adult female numbers to establish elk cow objectives in their 1998-2003 Elk and Deer Plans. Instead of admitting their failure to mitigate the losses, they could show the depleted adult female populations were meeting new management objectives.

The Lolo Zone objective for adult females was set at 6,100-9,100 with 1,300-1,900 for bulls (a ratio of ~20 bulls per 100 cows). When I asked the Elk and Deer Teams why they did not establish a minimum surviving calf/fawn objective, biologists responded that this varied so much from year to year that they paid little or no attention to it!

Did reducing cow elk numbers by 35% produce more and larger bull elk calves that could avoid predators and thereby provide more mature bulls for hunters to harvest as Professor Peek suggested? The short answer is “No”.

Annual elk harvests in the Lolo Zone in the 11 years since then have averaged only 272 and the 2003 and 2006 helicopter counts each totaled only half of the minimum 6,100 cow objective. Yet IDFG has thus far accomplished nothing to correct the problem.

Despite the fact that predators have killed 30-80% of radio-collared elk calves in F&G studies since 1997 (Zager 2001, 2008), Clearwater Elk Researcher Pete Zager, Regional Supervisor Groen and, of course, Professor Peek continued to claim that declining habitat was causing the declining elk herds. For nine years as Regional Supervisor, and continuing as State Director, Groen has used the media to promote his “Clearwater Elk Habitat Initiative” which was supposed to restore healthy elk populations to the Clearwater regardless of predation.

New Idaho F&G Revelations about Wolves

In 2008, Groen announced the Department’s intention not to reduce the number of wolves and to keep Idaho’s wilderness areas saturated with wolves to provide more wolves in surrounding areas. But on Feb. 5, 2009, Groen told the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee (JFAC) that, because of wolves, Idaho’s deer and elk populations are decreasing at the rate of 15% per year!

He also told them that without wolves the herds would be increasing at seven percent per year. Then he said that wolf packs have become overcrowded and wolves are beginning to kill each other. On Feb. 18, 2009, Lance Hebdon and Assistant IDFG Director Sharon Kiefer answered a request from Senate Resources Committee Chairman Gary Schroeder with a report stating that wolves are costing Idaho up to $24 million per year in lost revenue from elk hunters.

On May 6, 2009 Pete Zager told a Western States and Provinces Deer and Elk Workshop in Spokane that the number of elk harvested annually by hunters in Idaho has been declining, from around 25,000 in the mid-1990s, when wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rocky Mountains, to roughly 15,000 last year. That represents a 40% decline from the average harvest and even more from the 1994 harvest of 28,000 just before Canadian wolves were released into Idaho.

New Facts Do Not Alter 20 Years of Mismanagement

The sudden admission of these facts about the impact of wolves on elk and deer does not alter two decades of ignoring science and mismanaging the elk. Jim Peek and wolf preservationist allies in IDFG had already given all the information I have discussed in this article to Defenders of Wildlife’s Suzanne Stone and others who are using it to oppose reducing the number of wolves.

When IDFG issued a draft proposal on Jan. 24, 2006 to kill a maximum of 43 wolves in the Lolo Zone it cited cow elk numbers below objectives in Units 10, 12 and 17 (Selway Zone). Stone responded correctly that F&G – not wolves – had deliberately caused the decline by increasing the cow harvest in these units “in order to increase calf recruitment” (implementing Peek’s theory).

She pointed out, as I and others have, the statistically inadequate sample size of the radio-collared cow elk (less than 2%) and said correctly that the plan still implied that habitat is the root cause. She cited Groen’s Clearwater Habitat Initiative statement, “It will likely take a decade or more of habitat treatments to make a detectable difference on a basin-wide (or herd) scale,” as further “proof” that killing wolves now is not justified.

Peek: Wolf Predation “No Big Deal” to Elk Hunters

Stone and others also quoted Peek in both their 2006 and 2008 objections to IDFG killing wolves: “Elk populations across the upper Clearwater apparently peaked in the late 1980s, after which surveys of numbers and of cow-calf ratios showed declines. This occurred well before the introduction of wolves…there is very little evidence that the presence of wolves has caused a decline in elk numbers anywhere, especially in Central Idaho.”

These quotes by Peek were also printed in a Jan.12, 2007 Idaho Mountain Express report of a teleconference with regional wildlife experts hosted by Defenders of Wildlife. According to the article, Peek said it’s too early to tell how much wolves will influence elk populations in the long run and while there may be “some lower levels of elk, it won’t be a big deal from the standpoint of a hunter.”

New Montana FW&P Revelations about Wolves

After eliminating the sale of over-the-counter female deer tags in Montana’s Region 2 earlier this spring because of declining whitetails caused by wolves, in June Reg. 2 FWP Wildlife Manager Mike Thompson announced the lowest surviving calf-to-cow elk ratios they have ever counted in the Bitterroot. Thompson said that a reduced elk harvest last fall, a very mild winter and substantially increased wolf numbers all indicate that predation was the probable cause of poor calf survival.

Why Admit the Facts They Have Been Hiding?

Hunters and their elected officials who interpret these revelations as a change in management philosophy may not understand the agencies’ real reasons for admitting the truth about wolf predation. Because Idaho and Montana agreed to act as agents of FWS for at least the next five years in managing wolves for FWS, they have inherited several serious problems including how to address the loss of hunting license revenue caused by wolves depleting the game herds.

As wolf experts predicted in 2001, wolf numbers have expanded beyond their carrying capacity and are quickly decimating their wild prey base in both states. There is not adequate federal funding to monitor them and their prey – much less pay the cost for Wildlife Services to investigate the rapidly increasing livestock losses and locate and kill the offending wolves.

The animal rights groups that FWS and the State agencies have embraced for two decades have no intention of allowing wolves to be controlled in the lower 48 States any more than they did in Alaska. They have already won the battle to reverse wolf delisting in the Western Great Lakes and even if they fail in their request to the Missoula Judge for an injunction to halt wolf hunting, they have promised to appeal it to the Ninth Circuit which has also been friendly to their cause.

A Benevolent “Mother Nature” That Balances Wildlife in Ecosystems is a Figment of Disney’s Imagination

After “being in bed” with animal rights preservationists and sharing their “far out” philosophies for their entire careers, too many state wildlife biologists lack the ability to embrace science and facts. In Idaho, Groen continues to ignore decades of undisputed scientific wolf research and blames too many wolves killing too many elk on human interference with “Mother Nature.”

When Mike Schlegel conducted the Clearwater Elk research in the 1970s he truthfully reported that Clearwater elk had been overharvested and concluded that spring bear predation prevented the elk from recovering because there were too few elk for the number of bears. Although Department biologists were as opposed to predator control then as they are now, Director Joe Greenley eliminated extended seasons, special privilege hunts and antlerless hunting and increased bear harvest until the Lolo Zone elk herd recovered.

Yet 20 years later SW Region Supervisor Al VanVooren referred to Schlegel as “a traitor” and criticized Greenley’s elimination of special privilege hunts. Today no one in the agency will admit that the Clearwater elk were overharvested again, which created a predator-prey imbalance (predator pit) from which the animals cannot recover.

Several years ago Utah’s Deputy Director told the Idaho Fish and Game Commission they must stop killing adult female elk or deer in order to justify controlling predators that are killing those elk or deer. Yet these basic principles of scientific wildlife management have been replaced with an irrational form of ecosystem worship which holds that if native predators and native vegetation are preserved and protected, ecosystems will “balance” themselves.

IDFG Refuses to Control Predators of Big Game

For several decades these dedicated “wildlifers” who call themselves “professional wildlife managers,” have refused to control predators of any big game species unless the killing can be classified as a scientific experiment, or the control is being accomplished to protect human life livestock or other property. Allowing hunters to kill a few extra bears, lions or wolves is somehow acceptable but arranging for Wildlife Services to control those same predators or pay a bounty to hunters in order to restore healthy elk populations is not.

Although game fish are a valued form of wildlife, Idaho wildlife managers readily pay bounties on them to increase populations of other species. For example in the world famous rainbow trout fishery in Lake Pend Oreille F&G currently pays a $15 bounty on all lake trout and on all rainbow trout over 13 inches long.

As an added incentive for fishermen to catch even more rainbows to reduce predation on kokanee, on June 5, 2009 F&G announced it had implanted special tags in the heads of 100 Pend Oreille rainbow trout that are worth from $50 to $1,000 each. Biologists know bounties work but they have elevated large carnivores to a status comparable to humans and use excuses not to control them.

F&G Sells Opportunity to Harvest Scarce Females

The basic requirement for managing elk and deer is to establish an optimum population level consistent with the forage that is available during a normal year, and retain enough adult females, mature breeding males and surviving juveniles to maintain that population level. Minimum objectives were carefully established for adult male and female deer and elk in 1998 yet they are being ignored in order to increase income.

For the price of an archery or muzzleloader permit or a controlled hunt application fee, the agency charged with perpetuating wild game allows hunters to kill scarce female breeding stock that are vital to perpetuate the herds. How can F&G convince a judge that wolves must be killed because they are killing adult female cow elk whose numbers are below the minimum management objective, when F&G is allowing hunters to kill those same cow elk instead of protecting them?

Idaho Resident Elk Tag Sales Declining

The IDFG report sent to Senator Schroeder on Feb. 16, 2009 states: “From the perspective of the Department’s budget, sales of big game tags have been relatively constant over the past 10 years.” While the revenue may be constant due to fee increases, no change in the nonresident elk tag quota and a 1,500 increase in the nonresident deer tag quota, the following graph included in the report indicates significant declines in resident elk tag sales:

A sharp decline in resident elk tag sales occurred in 2000-2001 when several thousand more resident elk hunters were prohibited from hunting in seven more of the back country elk hunting units. As the impact of wolves on elk increased, another decline began in 2008.