Optimism for hunting in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain News

Published March 8, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado Division of Wildlife Director Bruce McCloskey said today he’s optimistic about Congress changing the law so hunters will be allowed to hunt elk in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Associated Press reports.

The law currently prohibits killing elk by selling licenses to hunters.

Park officials say there are more than 3,000 elk that frequent the park and they are destroying the vegetation. So the Park wants to pare the number back to around 1,700.

"I think we’ve jiggled loose some positions that were previously pretty well entrenched," McCloskey told the state Wildlife Commission at its monthly meeting today.

His hopes rest on a bill that Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., introduced in Congress giving the Park Service authority to allow hunters into the park to thin the elk.

The park’s preferred plan calls for park rangers and designated marksmen to kill elk at night using night scopes and silencers on rifles to minimize disturbances to visitors.

The animals would be tested for chronic wasting disease — a disease that attacks the brain and kills the animal — and if clean, the meat would be donated to organizations catering to the needy.

Other elk hopefully would disperse from the park.

Park officials envision a 20-year plan costing up to $18 million to accomplish the goal.

Elk herds are one of Rocky Mountain National Park’s biggest attractions, especially in the fall, when the males’ distinctive mating calls echo across broad meadows.

Their numbers have mushroomed partly because they have few predators in the park.

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