I saw some errors reading this.
" After the rut starts in mid-August, elk typically breed the last week of September or first week of October."
Although elk are vocal to some extent, bulls usually do not start gathering cows this early. It is known as pre rut. Disrupting the actual breeding rut is what affects the breeding.
"And, he added that muzzle-loading rifle season should not happen in the middle of the rut.“Biologically, morally this is wrong,” he said.
BS,In areas where there is unlimited archery tags,most areas permit only 100 bull tags for ML season. Why isn't
that morally wrong? Peterson,hunting since 81 is far from an expert just because he is so vocal.Hell, I have been hunting elk since 61 and probably killed more elk than he has,and I'm certainly no expert, but I bet I could teach him a thing or two.Opinions don't count for crap.
It wasn't only the 3500 cow tags down south but for several years CPW sold 2000 cow tags/year as OTC in the Flat Tops units of northern Colorado
One thing is for certain, the entire elk herd management strategy for the last ten years + and the elk herd decline falls 100% on the CPW because of the letting too many elk being killed. Two factors. Their love of more money and being in bed with the Agricultural community .This past legislation that granted them a very large increase in revenue and the ability to increase it with out legislative approval will see salaries grow, fancier trucks ,less CPW in the field, increases minimal with respect to sound management.Yet the average hunter will see less hunting opportunity available in return for his more expensive tags .
The only way this is going to stop is all hunters come together and put and end to some of this BS. They did this in NM about 40 years ago and were successful. Anyway you spin it CPW has screwed up. Hunters need to start attending the meetings, both CPW commission and Round Table meetings.Currently if you see 50 attendees, it's a crowd.
