ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK-
Sharpshooters will start killing elk
in the next few weeks to thin the herd in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The reduction is the result of a decade of
research and development
of a management plan to cut the number of elk in the park about 70
miles northwest of Denver. Park officials want to thin the herd because
overgrazing by elk has nearly wiped out aspens and willows, prime
habitat for beavers and birds.
There are about 600 to 800 elk in the park
and 1,000 to 1,300 elk in and around the neighboring town of Estes Park.
Biologists have said Rocky Mountain
National Park's elk densities --
up to 285 per square mile in some prime winter range -- are the highest
recorded for a free-ranging herd in the Rockies.
Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit
saying that releasing wolves
to prey on elk is a better solution that has worked in Yellowstone
National Park.
Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker said the
National Park Service is conducting the culling with the public in mind.
"We are doing this with the utmost care --
that this, in fact, is a national park with visitors," Baker said.
The areas where the animals will be shot
will be closed to the public.
Two teams of sharpshooters will soon begin
culling up to 100 cow elk
in the park. The teams will include Park Service and Colorado Division
of Wildlife employees and screened volunteers.
The culling is designed to be humane and
swift, with primary and
secondary shooters, said Ben Bobowski, the park's chief of resource
stewardship.
Each animal shot will be tested for chronic
wasting disease, a
brain-wasting ailment similar to mad cow disease. The meat that tests
positive will go to a mountain lion research project and meat that
tests negative will be sent to participants of a lottery.
|
