Quote:
Originally Posted by brobinson
1800 elk out of a herd of even 10000, that's 18% of the herd. That's a pretty good start as far as a population control goes.
On to your ideas about why they are only allowing cow tags. The only way to control a herd of animals is to remove the females. If there are less females to be bred, that directly translates into less calves being born. If it were bull tags being handed out, it would not affect the overall number, the rest of the bulls in the herd would just breed more cows.
The only thing I have a question about is what are you getting at in the terms of mystery money? What here is costing millions of dollars?
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Unfortunately the 18% you reference does nothing in reducing numbers, won't even account for the new calves hitting the ground next spring.
Regarding cows only, if ESRD figures that dynamics of male to female ratio is nothing to worry about, well the rest of Alberta's wildlife resources are in BIG trouble. Basic math here, too many boys or girls is not a responsible approach to any management objective.
The mystery money I refer too is a complete loss to myself. We all know that budgets have been slashed to the point where we have little to no enforcement, terrible wildlife counts, fisheries taking a beating, ext. So, where did this golden goose come from to support the cost associated with CFB ? If you don't think this fiasco will cost millions you have blinders on..
How many individuals are involved to make this opportunity happen ? Fish and wildlife officers, biologists, base personal, range control, civil servants, ext. These people do get paid, they also require materials to conduct their respective roles in this hunt. Who's paying the overtime, fuel, maintenance of trucks, ext ?
I hope we can agree this effort will continue for years and costs will add up very quickly here. Something as simple as only the testing of these heads is already in the hundreds of thousands, this just scratches the surface of costs.
Is there any other species in Alberta that receives this sort of attention, manpower and money to manage ?
To my understanding, the greater sage grouse program has federal support when they deemed these a "species at risk". Conservation groups, federal money, and other interest groups provide the backing on this program. I'm sure there is provincial money as well, but not to the extent of the CFB elk.
What will happen at CFB if they do get this herd down to the original 800 - 1000 projected holding target ? Opportunity, well yes when it was out of control, but then pretty much nothing ? Worst case of wildlife management I can think of, please correct me if I am wrong thou..
Just so I am understood, the millions upon millions of dollars spent at CFB cleaning up a mess that should never have been is a travesty of funds that SHOULD be allocated to ALL species in Alberta. Will these magical funds dry up if these groups reach their target in the future ? I assume they will as I can not find a single source as to where this money is coming from...