A final trap and transfer question: Elk

Do you support the trap and transfer of elk for public hunting in NC?


  • Total voters
    37
  • Poll closed .

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Do you support the NCWRC trapping elk (from the current NC herd or elsewhere) to public game lands open to hunting to create a "huntable" herd on public land in NC?
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
They don't have huntable numbers now, how could you trap from them?

There are "huntable" numbers now, but none of them are on public game lands.

Minnesota hunts an elk herd that numbers 30 animals and has done so since 1987.

Wisconsin has about 180 elk and has been able to trap elk and relocate them to other areas.
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
You can hunt a herd of elk numbering 150 animals (about what we have now) regardless of how they do it elsewhere
Good point, with that being said then there is plenty of deer to be hunted in the western section of the state using that logic with no need for habitat enhancement. In fact you could hunt elk if there was just one.
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Good point, with that being said then there is plenty of deer to be hunted in the western section of the state using that logic with no need for habitat enhancement. In fact you could hunt elk if there was just one.

There is a deer season :rolleyes:

Still doesn't answer the question of releasing elk on game lands
 
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FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
A lottery for 5 bull tags would generate a substantial amount of money that could be put back into the program.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cklem

Guest
I think they should do it, only problem is , without habitat improvement I think elk would find a farmers field much more inviting than our mtn land. I think as it is now, it would only be problems, look at Kentucky's elk success story, they had those old coal mines for habitat, so it works, we have nothing for them here. Nothing.
 

Frostcat

Twelve Pointer
That's what's happening now with the elk coming out of the park and finding farmers' fields more inviting. The only benefit I see is that they could become the 'poster child' for better land management on national forest land.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
That's what's happening now with the elk coming out of the park and finding farmers' fields more inviting. The only benefit I see is that they could become the 'poster child' for better land management on national forest land.

That is what I hope too.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Hmmmn, spend millions of dollars to manage land or issue dep. permits. Now which way do you think the govt. will go? Wanna take bets on that one? Better yet wanna bet they wind up where the excess deer have lately (at no cost to the state :rolleyes: ) and if you have enough money you can buy a canned hunt for one. Since the big chief is on the board. Stevie Wonder could see that one coming.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Are we talking the Feds or state?

State is already improving and managing their lands better than the Feds

The state is already trying to buy land specifically for elk management

Tract Name :Silvers Tract

Management objectives will focus on continuing and/or expanding elk monitoring and research in
Western NC. WRC ownership will ensure that critical elk habitat is conserved, and will also provide
areas for WRC staff to conduct elk research and monitoring projects.
WRC ownership will also provide
opportunities to create early successional habitat, which is also a priority
wildlife habitat

http://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/About/documents/Agenda_Package/2014/022714-cm-adg-pkg.pdf
 
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1SHOT1KILL

Old Mossy Horns
If the gamelands in western NC supposedly cannot support a barely huntable deer population, how are those very same gamelands going to support the addition of elk into that very same habitat??
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
If the gamelands in western NC supposedly cannot support a barely huntable deer population, how are those very same gamelands going to support the addition of elk into that very same habitat??

Maybe this from the US Forest Service??

26. Elk introduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are multiplying and expanding their range. National Forest System lands adjacent to the park may provide some of the best opportunities for range expansion if appropriate habitat is available. There is a need to provide direction for managing elk habitat in anticipation of their expanding range.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/1155...i.com/11558/www/nepa/97846_FSPLT3_1631755.pdf

Nobody said the habitat has to remain bad for wildlife.

Please contact the Forest Service and urge them to manage for elk and other wildlife. And yes the Wildlife Commission a couple years ago directed the staff biologists to look at elk on national forest lands. Some commissioners I guess think an elk hunt= $$$$$.

The NCWRC is looking at the results of this poll.
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Estimated costs of elk trap and transfer from next door Kentucky to next door Virginia (source: VDGIF 2010)

$17,000 dollar estimate for a mobile elk trap.
$20,000 dollar estimate for an elk quarantine and holding facility at release site(s)


It was estimated to cost $1,500 per elk for this project ( I suspect in NC this will be cheaper if elk from inside NC are re located)

VA completed its project (to move 75 elk from KY) but I could not find much on what it actually cost

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/meetin...Game_and_Inland_Fisheries_Presentation_07.pdf

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/meetin...Game_and_Inland_Fisheries_Presentation_07.pdf

That looks like roughly 40,000 dollars for a trap and a pen that might be used only once or twice.
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Wisconsin does not have an elk season yet but estimates it will make monies on an elk hunt if 40,000 or so hunters apply for tags/permits/licenses. Elk in Wisconsin are on national forest lands and other public lands:

While very few licenses would be available, DNR anticipates applications of perhaps 40,000 annually, which would generate approximately $390,000 annually in net revenue (after deducting the issuing fee) with $280,000 of that funding available specifically for elk management and the remaining $110,000 Page 4 Natural Resources -- Fish, Wildlife, and Recreation (Paper #461)
deposited in the fish and wildlife account

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/publications/budget/2013-15 budget/documents/budget papers/461.pdf

Elk license costs in Wisconsin have been set at 49 dollars for residents and 251 dollars for non residents plus a 10 dollar application fee when a hunt begins. Wisconsin has set a goal of 200 animals before a hunt takes place.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
It cost roughly 1 million dollars to reintroduce elk to the Great Smoky Mountains. Source: Asheville Citizen-Times, Hendersonville Times News

So elk reintroduction is not cheap. I think costs are going to be a bigger issue than suitable habitat.

Are folks in eastern NC going to want to spend money on an animal they may never see benefits from?
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
You mean like the CURE program that nobody has seen benefits from?

As I understand it the CURE Program has worked on some private lands but not so much on game lands.

The CURE Program is still going on, even on the game lands where it has been a failure for quail.

Yeah so the NCWRC got some landowners to plant a little switchgrass for cows? So what?
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
So what? They ruined thousands of acres on GL that used to be productive for rabbit, squirrel and deer. The only thing it is good for now since they killed everything out except mature pines and planted switchgrass is they still can jump a few deer in the swamp heads where they couldn't kill out due to EPA standards. People used to spends days on tracts hunting game that now is barren of everything but protected woodpeckers.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
So what? They ruined thousands of acres on GL that used to be productive for rabbit, squirrel and deer. The only thing it is good for now since they killed everything out except mature pines and planted switchgrass is they still can jump a few deer in the swamp heads where they couldn't kill out due to EPA standards. People used to spends days on tracts hunting game that now is barren of everything but protected woodpeckers.

At South Mountains Game Land (the only CURE area I have been too) they did improve the habitat- just not for quail and grouse like was supposed to happen.

The quail are not coming back there yet it is still a CURE area.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
They ruined thousands of acres of fox squirrel habitat at the Sandhills GL.
 
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CRC

Old Mossy Horns
The ruined thousands of acres of fox squirrel habitat at the Sandhills GL.

They clear cut mature oak forests to the ground at South Mountains.

How does that benefit deer or squirrels?

Ironically though, if it grows up, it will make some decent elk habitat.
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
You don't think squirrels, deer, racoons, bears and various other animals eat acorns and again squirrels and racoons den in those mature trees? If you don't know how mature hardwoods benefit squirrels you really need help, they help deer also, they just need some edge areas also.
 
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