Planning for elk management

I watched and listened in awe during my first year of hunting elk as a large bull screamed, nose flared, while he herded his cows from his bugling challenger. That was in 1979 and a lot has changed over the past 40 years.

Today elk are plentiful in places where they were absent back then and on some forested public lands they are no longer as common. Predator populations are doing well, major fires are common place as our climate changes and hunting technology continues to advance.

Landowner acceptance of elk has also changed, varying widely from a commodity to be hunted, a nuisance to c...