I’ve been seriously hunting elk with a bow for a couple years now in Idaho. I’ve also taken a few online classes that give me a little insight on elk hunting that I’ve never thought about. Specifically, why is the eastern side of the state specifically the Yakima herd managed for age class? Spike only or true spike only means a lot of old bulls die of natural causes and go to waste. The big bull permits might as well be 0 it’s so low. And me as a late hunter would be better off putting points into a lottery ticket instead of trying to catch up.
How long has eastern been spike only? I feel like some hunters and the commission at the time wanted to manage the herds for big antlers instead of opportunities for regular folk.
I’ve read parts of the North American elk book put out by Wyoming years ago and they have quite a few interesting studies. One of them was a 3 year study of changing the management plan to open up any bull in a certain area. Their objective was to see the effect it would have on the herd. They found out at the end that yes there were less big old bulls but that the herd health did not have a noticeable impact on the population. That younger bulls were still doing the job and that opportunities for regular hunters was much higher.
One of the long term questions was if mostly younger bulls were doing the breeding how would the herd social structure change as well as younger bulls would usually breed cows later than big bulls so calves would be a little younger going into the following winter. I may have gotten some minor details mixed up but that was the gist of it.
So was there a time in Washington when the eastern side wasn’t spike only?
