Trouble in Yakima herd????

[yakimanoob]

when i visited the feeding station the people there told us the herd was looking better than ever and that they got some dandy pics of some giant bulls,they said the spike count was up more than previous years and that is why myself and a lot of other hunters over here were shocked at the drop in tags this year. ? 

Thankfully, WDFW measures more than just feeding station attendance.  That said, I heard the same things from the volunteers, which is why I think the news article is (predictably) over-dramatic.  If you judge by the mgmt plan, we've been over objective for awhile--hence the hundreds of cow tags.  Now that we're back down to target levels, no more hundreds of cow tags.  Seems to me to just be the system working the way it's designed to work 

This situation is a great counter example for the jokers who think the WDFW guys "just want to sell tags" though .

[boneaddict]

Let's just say there are a lot of other herds in way worse danger than the Yakima elk herd

[yakimanoob]

Let's just say there are a lot of other herds in way worse danger than the Yakima elk herd

x10

[winshooter88]

We talked about this at the GMAC meeting last Saturday, The herds aren't in any kind of trouble at all, the large number cow tags the last couple of years and a moderate winter kill last year have brought the herd numbers down very close to the herd objective numbers that the elk plan wanted. The Colockum herd really didn't have many animals die off, a large number just moved out of their traditional area to an area where they are disturbed much, much less. The drop in the number of elk tags this year reflects the fact that the herds are basically at their population objectives.

[bowhunterforever]

Let's just say there are a lot of other herds in way worse danger than the Yakima elk herd

Like what herd?

[Oh Mah]

I would think any herd that is suffering from hoof rot. 

[boneaddict]

Let's just say there are a lot of other herds in way worse danger than the Yakima elk herd

Like what herd?

Every other herd in Washington state(compared to this one).  Give it time though.  The wolves haven't really taken a foothold here yet.   As soon as they discover the all night buffet, then you can get worried.