There's just so many things one can do with an elk!
Posted on 08/27/2009 8:35:34 AM PDT by george76
The elk in New Mexico are big and beautiful — a hunter's dream, a landowner's nightmare.
Property owners across the state long have complained about wildlife overrunning their private land and destroying crops. But the problem is boiling over in the Sierra Nacimiento in northern New Mexico, where ranchers say they're being ignored and wildlife managers aren't doing enough to curb the damage or compensate them.
Some frustrated property owners say they are considering a last resort: shooting the hungry animals.
"We enjoy the elk. We don't mind the elk being around but we cannot feed the elk. If it comes to feeding the elk or feeding our families, there's no choice," said Art Martinez, an outfitter and a spokesman for more than 30 landowners in the Cuba area.
Starting Tuesday, the state Game and Fish Department is holding a series of public meetings to consider proposals that would change the area's hunting unit boundaries and how hunting tags are allocated to landowners who allow elk on their property. Currently, the formula doesn't take into account agricultural damage.
Another proposal calls for giving more tags to private landowners as a form of compensation for elk damage.
Other states also have had problems with wildlife damage, including Colorado, Oregon, Montana and Minnesota.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
“It’s not the animals’ fault. It’s who manages the animals,”
Elk Liver=Prairie Fois Gras.
Vi Garcia made a promise: “I am not backing off.”
Cuba is NM version of G*ds Country!
There's just so many things one can do with an elk!
Surely if a Lousiana congressman can store $70K (or whatever the amount was) in his freezer, the landowners should be allowed to store elk in their freezers.
I try to do my part. If the state would give out more permits, my part would be easier.
I’ll be doing my part to reduce the elk population in that area in about 2 months. I drew a Mature Bull tag for Unit 6C (on the other side of the monutain from Cuba)!!! I’m heading back home to NM for the entire month of October to scout and hunt. Can’t wait!!
Rodney Culverwell ( a Moffat County rancher ) had similar elk problems.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080908/NEWS/809089989/1062/CLASSIFIEDS&parentprofile=-1
Cuba itself is a sh**hole, but it is a western access point to some of the most beautiful mountains in the world (not the best roads on the western route to Seven Springs though). I used to own a cabin on Thompson Ridge north of La Cueva and I sometimes really miss it. My wife grew up in a house just up the hill from Soda Dam. Darnit, it’s been too long since I’ve driven up there.
Its the same old, same old. Its all about who gets paid. Ranchers around Tucumcari 2 years ago were bitching about antelope breaking fences and scattering bind weed seed. I said to one, let me shoot one of them for you,,,,,,he says,,,OH NO,,,THOSE ARE VALUABLE GAME ANIMALS, I GET $2500 EACH FROM HUNTERS. Last year I talked to a rancher from Des Moines, he had a bear problem, according to him, he had lost 6 calves and gotten his barn torn up. I told him, I will go track that bear and kill it for you,,,OH NO, THOSE ARE VALUABLE GAME ANIMALS, I GET $2500 FOR A HUNT. So there really was only one problem, and that was that hunters were no longer willing to pay outrageous prices for small game, and they were not on the gravy train, but they felt entitled.
It sounds like a pay me now or pay me later deal. Hopefully the days of the multi thousand dollar hunts are winding down. As with everything, the liberals have turned the New Mexico wildlife into a cash cow and now only the wealthy can afford to go hunting. The states natural resources are available only to the priviledged
Maybe its not the elk that needs shootin'.
S...S...S...
Shoot, Sauté, and Shut-up
“New Mexico is very stringent on nonresident tags.”
I’m a resident, but I was under the impression they just put all the names in, and do an electronic drawing. I live near units 50, 51 and 52, all of them thick with elk, and the game department complains that not enough elk are being taken. If they would make the rifle season early enough to allow calling the bulls up, and draw my name more often, they would have one less elk to worry about each year. I’m happy with cows too, but it is hard to draw a cow hunt in the later seasons, because that is what everyone puts in for. This year, instead of drawing on the names of people who followed the rules and got in before the deadline, they extended the deadline in an effort to get more hunters, and sure enough, one of those late registered hunters beat me out. One of my sons drew a cow hunt though, so I’ll go along, and dress it out for him.
Shoot, Sauté, Savor, shovel and Shut-up ...
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