Another comparison to AK. There is no comparison between the two. If you liked the 10K wolves so much, why aren't you still there? We'd miss you and all, but...
I have to agree with you there. Alaska has way less quality habitat, and then there is the winter habitat. While winters can occasionally knock herds back here, In Alaska winter habitat is the single biggest limiting factor in herd stability. It doesn't matter how many animals your summer habitat will support the your winter feeding grounds will only support 1/10th that number. It's also why all the grand plans the "abundance management" crowd in Alaska have to grow herds through aggressive predator control methods such as the aerial wolf and bear shooting you like to mention, it will always fall flat on it's face with one bad winter. And if you have a series of bad winters with too many animals, you can set your habitat back so far it literally takes decades before it can support the number of animals it once did.
Washington has it's own winter habitat problems I will admit. And most of these are because of the growing number of humans and loss of wintering grounds and also agricultural practices and concerns. While on one hand, farm land can be a plus for deer and elk because of the extra crops grown through irrigation in once marginal desert land, those same farms demand that herds be kept at lower levels due to crop damage, especially from elk. And where the tree farms on the west side were once good producers of deer and elk, modern tree farm practices have limited that to a great deal. You can't grow your deer and elk herds to the levels hunters would like when a unit has too much thick reprod to produce the feed necessary to support those herds. And you throw in aerial spraying of herbicides on the younger units that would in years past have been the big drivers in herd growth, and you have a huge problem if you're trying to maintain herd size let alone trying to increase it.
But most hunters don't even think of these limiting factors and they don't care. They want more animals to hunt even if that is really impractical let alone impossible. And the more they complain and put pressure on those tasked with the job, the harder they make it for those managers because unrealistic expectations set those managers up for failure. Meanwhile many hunters thumb their noses at science and the habitat protections that would help managers do their jobs better in the mistaken belief that anybody that wants habitat protection is a "greenie" who just wants to end hunting.
Hunters really are their own worst enemy sometimes. And that really bothers me.
