I was just talking to a friend about Elk in Colorado, apparently the Elk are not successfully calving in areas with large amounts of hiking, bike and atv trails. Apparently if an Elk is disturbed 10 times during the calving season they have a 100% mortality rate of calves. The Moose population in MN dropped as the ATV and other offroad vehicle usage and amount of trails went up. For the guys in Northern MN (or anywhere moose have declined) do you think that ATV and other human disturbance could be a factor?

There should be very strict rules and very limited areas where they can be used on public lands.

No I do not believe so.

Osky

No.

No. Unless wolves are using ATVs then Yes.

Just spitballing here. But I think that with ATV's some hunters are now hunting in areas that were previously off limits to them. I don't think that it has a noticeable impact. Clearly the wolf re introduction is not all it was made out to be, but they would have to admit they did something wrong and it is way easier to have the ATV's as a scape goat for lousy predator management. Just my two cents and probably not even worth that.
Oh yes Gryhkl there should absolutely be a ton more rules and regulations about everything. Sure ......... FYI we still don't have a Sarcasm emoji, but if we did, I would put half a dozen here.

One of the ways wolves reduce the population of ungulates is by harassing them. The stress put on deer, moose and elk has proven to cause health issues that lead to lower fecundity. Even just having wolves around while these animals are pregnant leads to fewer fawns/calves. Smelling them and seeing apex predators can cause them to lose fat reserves by constant running, etc. Stands to reason that ATVs could have a similar effect except at a lower level than the predators.

No one is blaming ATV use on the moose decline, it just came to my mind and I wanted to flesh out the idea with people who are more familiar with the situation.

scuba, maybe you should read things two or three times or have somebody explain what you read. I said nothing about more rules and regs for EVERYTHING. You misunderstood or made that up. I wouldn't think want to think it's simple dishonesty on your part.

Grykhl In the past you have shown that you are all about having lore rules and regulations in place instead of appealing to the common sense of people. i know that common sense these day ain't all that common anymore. One of the main reason for that is though the multitude of rules and regulations taking away the feeling of responsibility for the individuals actions. More rules and regs are counter productive on the whole front IMHO. And as I said I was just spitballing from the outset.

You said there should be very strict rules. It's not a far leap to think that means you think there should be more rules.

If that’s the case just close the trails during calving season for a couple of years and see if that’s the cause.
Sort of equivalent to Florida not allowing turkey hunting after 1pm on WMA’s...they said they didn’t want the hens on the nest disturbed during that time. Last I checked you can now hunt all day since that theory didn’t pan out. Seems most wildlife decline boils down to only two things...habitat loss and predators.

They cut elk hunting licenses way back and the decline still continued. My friends who live there said that the cows do not have calfs. Reports from the Elk count said "very few Elk, Lots of ski tracks". They tried closing trails but people did not obey the closure. Like I said before they studied elk calf mortality and found that if cow elk are disturbed 10 times during calving season they would have 100% calf mortality.

Do you have a copy of the study and report?

Well if they have rules and don’t enforce those rules then it really doesn’t matter what they do.

Atvs have lost hunter thousands of acres of private land that was once opened to all here in PA.
If their use on public lands in the west is having and effect upon calf survival, F&G should take measures to reduce the damage and strictly enforce whatever regs are necessary.
Loosening laws that protect wolves and restricting the use of atvs would make sense if the goal is to boost elk survival.

Since our moose calve in peoples yards in Anchorage, my guess is this doesn't apply to moose?

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3803250?seq=1

Abstract
Restricting human activity in elk (Cervus elaphus) calving areas during calving season can be controversial because of increasing human uses of elk habitat, and little evidence exists to evaluate impacts of these activities on elk populations. We evaluated effects of human-induced disturbance on reproductive success of radiocollared adult female elk using a control-treatment study in central Colorado. Data were collected during 1 pretreatment year and 2 treatment years. Treatment elk were repeatedly approached and displaced by study personnel throughout a 3-4-week period of peak calving during both treatment years, while control elk did not receive treatment. We observed elk on alpine summer ranges in July and August on both areas to estimate the proportion of marked cows maintaining a calf. Calf/cow proportions for the control area remained stable, but those for the treatment area declined each year. Average number of disturbances/elk/year effectively modeled variation in calf/cow proportions, supporting treatment as the cause of declining calf/cow proportions. Average decrease in calf/cow proportion in the treatment group was 0.225. Modeling indicated that estimated annual population growth on both study areas was 7% without treatment application, given that existing human activities cause some unknown level of calving-season disturbance. With an average of 10 disturbances/cow above ambient levels, our model projected no growth. Our results support maintaining disturbance-free areas for elk during parturitional periods.

I'm not seeing the direct line from actively harassing elk till they move and driving atvs in calving areas?

So they intentionally harassed the elk...10+ times...just for a study?
And that’s provided that’s the “only” time those elk were harassed. Wonder what level of harassment was used. I could understand if ATV users were chasing the elk down, but just riding wouldn’t be the same as intentional harassment.