If I read it right , that 80% was reduced earlier. Showing, at least to me, ML don' t have significant impact on elk herds.
Quote from the article:
"Another factor in the decision was the growth of the number of archery hunters in the last decade. In these game management units, depending on location, the numbers have grown by 45 to 80 percent; and those archers could hunt bulls or cows.
During the same period, in an attempt to halt the decline in the elk population, CPW reduced licenses for rifle and muzzleloader hunters by 80 percent[WB2] .
Despite those reductions, elk populations have not responded with the growth biologists were hoping to see."
It also says they have seen the decline for ten years now. Why in the hell did it take them ten years to figure it out and do something? Most answer is they didn't want to give up the revenue stream.
About warmer seasons/snow
I have been ML hunting since 1976.My memory isn't all that good, but I can remember only three times we had snow.Once was in the 79's and it was a real freak storm. Coming home, I had to drive a county road that was blown out because they could not get a plow thru.That snow was deeper than my horse trailer was tall. Another a few miles north of Vail. It covered the ground, then gone the next day. A few years ago we had about the same up in Unit 12 south of Craig. At times the rain changed to sleet, but it seemed to be dependent on the elevation. Here at 7650 ft elevation, I have 2+ft piled up and in town 15mile south, the ground is bare.
Now rain, t seems we had more of .I remember having a lot of misfires in my old TC side lock Hawkin from it being so wet.One year in the Flat Tops, we set up camp on the edge of a nice meadow with a little lake about 100yards away. By the end of the season the water was at our tent door. All thru the years, we usually lose two days of hunt because of the rain .To me this climate change is BS. firs they called it global warming and then that was debunked, so they changed it to climate change. It's known fact that weather patterns rotate about every ten years between drought and wet.
