https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...ERY3nypNLbG1qEsMC863x5oA&oe=69B19DD6


The Hunting News
17h
·
The first thing people need to understand about wolves is why hunters have grown to hate them so much, because that hatred did not come out of nowhere. It came from city people voting to put wolves on landscapes they never have to live on, then acting shocked when the people who actually deal with them want them dead. If a mouse gets into somebody’s house and starts eating their food, they do not call it majestic. They set a trap and kill it, and nobody questions that. But when a wolf starts killing livestock, hammering deer and elk, threatening dogs, and taking food and income away from rural families, suddenly the people dealing with it are told they are cruel if they want that predator gone. That is the disconnect. People who never have to hear wolves, see wolves, lose animals to wolves, or change the way they live because of wolves are the same ones demanding that the people who do just tolerate them forever. What hunters hate is not just the wolf. It is being told by outsiders that they are supposed to live with a problem those outsiders would never accept in their own home.
— Stephen Zieegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures

Ohio is spending a fortune on a study on reintroducing elk in the state. I like elk, but think it's a bad idea. Deer do enough damage and kill a lot of drivers. Elk would be worse.

Keith

Every state around Ohio, has elk. Not sure about Indiana , but seems they're doing fine.
Southeastern Ohio has room for them.
The mole hills through southern and eastern Ohio seems to be good habitat for them.
Not a lot of grain fields in those areas, or many main highways.

I-77, US33, US35, US50, US23 and SR7 all run through South East, Ohio and I-70 cuts through the top of it. There's many windy, hilly local roads, with high speed limits and extremely limited visibility in places. I used to hunt down there a lot. I still go down there a few times a year.

If elk are introduced, Ohio won't let people hunt them for many years. Even though there are less crops in South East, Ohio, there are still many people who make a living off their land. They won't be allowed to easily kill any problem elk.

Keith

Seems Pennsylvania and Kentucky , Michigan have done it.
Doesn't West Virginia have a small herd started?
Sure there'll be problems, but we also have more predators than we had 50 years ago.

WI did it too

I like the mouse analogy, good one to remember.

Around here, we’ve had wolves here for a few thousand years, despite a generous trapping season with no limits and wolf hunting tags that are linked to a big game tag. Dispute that, wolves have a decently healthy population. I always say regarding wolves, if the land can support them, they’ll probably show up on their own. Not sure about other mammals though.

I don’t go bragging to the farmer who’s land we camp on about how many wolves I got last season. He’s got no livestock, only corn and grains and he wants wolves around. So we tell him how many beaver we pull out of the drains around his properties that used to flood fields and leave the wolf discussion out. Between the deer and bear, his crops got hammered by them and wolves will take both of these. The beef producers around and most deer hunters obviously want the wolf eradicated, but with poachers, a generous trapping season, ADC all summer and the odd hunter lucking out………they still are doing just fine.

Yes and now those states have CWD
Good luck with that.

My time line mite be a little wrong but in the early 60's the state started bring in White Tail deer then about 25 years or so later here come the turkeys. Around 35 years ago they brought in those darn otters. All of those took off and now there everywhere. Coyotes,,, One day tthere were none and it seems like the next they were everywhere. I still say the state brought them in but they say no. BS to that. In the mean time we lost out wild pheasants, our grouse, our big hardy quail, our red and gray fox and our muskrats. Bob cats are moving in now form a joining states and some fisher. They want to bring elk in,, just give us back what we once had. Rant over.

I don't want to be the stick in the mud here, but I actually enjoy deer and turkey hunting. I enjoy having the chance at an otter. To KeithC's point on the elk, we do have a lot of high speed, winding roads, but down here in Gallia County, there is so much space. We have as many dirt roads as paved. You can find areas where you could walk for 20-25 miles in certain spots and not see a house or road. Not arguing with you, Skippy 1, I think it would be nice to have our pheasants, grouse, quail, fox and muskrats back, but to be honest, we can't go back now, and I enjoy the taste of deer backstrap too much to pine away for upland birds.

Elk.
How much, what, and where do they eat?
I've seen the Pa elk laid up in yards waiting to be fed$.
Automobile crashes.
In old days if they made problems, we ate them.
Not so with majestic trophies.
I hope the Biologists weigh in on these topics.

Beav Knocker 20-25 miles?
I did not realize this. Thanks.

If you are implying that elk are the link that cause CWD outbreaks in those respective states, youd be wrong. If you know something the rest of us dont, please fill us in.

I used to hunt the Symmes Creek portion of Wayne National Forest and in a swampy portion between the hills, if I remember right, it was 28 miles to the next road. We mainly hunted it for wild boar. I killed a very large buck there with no antlers or even pedicels. I thought it was a huge does until I went to gut it and saw testicles.

There seems to be plenty of room for elk, except they wander much greater distances than whitetail deer do.

Keith

NO, don't get me wrong. I like deer hunting, turkey hunting. When we had the farm I made sure there was always corn in the deer feeders during the winter so the turkeys could feed. Our farm was right across the road from where the very first otters were turned loose. I had to be extra careful of how I made my sets so I wouldn't catch one. It cost me some fur but that's what I did. Some sets I wouldn't make at all. Took 4 years but I did catch one. Took some doing but I got him turned loose. As a side note,,, Catch poles don't work so pretty good trying to turn an otter loose.

Maybe with global warming and climate change it will melt the ice enough to get good DNA from a woolly mammoth and reproduce them. I'm sure everyone will want one in their back yard ! If its too warm in your area, you can always give them a haircut.

It has been determined that elk re-introduction in northern Arkansas also introduced CWD into the local whitetail population there.

Likey has occurred elsewhere before live animal testing came about.

VA introduced elk and good luck trying to get a tag, it’s done by lottery, I think there are 5 tags given each year. They were introduced in a county where they are building a new highway that connects Va to KY and WVA. Real smart they just hang out beside the road.

Part of the problem with reintroducing any wildlife is the game departments fabricate the numbers (usually lowball) of animals in an area or simply don't manage or missmanage the species they introduced with low limits of take.
An example would be here in North Central WA with turkeys, yes I like turkeys however, when one lives within a towns limits and has to contend with 50 birds in their yard, enough is enough. Get rid of the 1 bearded bird limit and let hunters take 3 birds Tom or hen. A few unhatched eggs is not going to decimate this population.

Indiana has no elk.

When they get done with elk what about buffalo. They used to live here as well as the rest of mid west. Sounds like a great idea. ( sarcasm)


The upland bird loss in population from what it was in the 40s and 50s is due to changing farming practices. Went from small family farms with small equipment and fields with grown up fence rolls in between. To large farms big equipment that requires big fields. They ripen out the fence lines and have fields so large it a rabbit needs to pack its lunch to get to the other side. Also protection on Hawks. Didn't help.