According to an
Associated Press story, the National Park Service needs to thin the elk herd in Rocky Mountain National Park. Officials estimate that it will cost $18 million to accomplish this.
The current size of the herd is estimated to be 2,200 to 3,000; the park wants to bring the size of the herd down to 1,200 to 1,700.
According to AP:
Park officials outlined the proposed program and its estimated costs during a public meeting Monday. The park's favored plan would involve killing up to 700 elk annually for four years. After that, an additional 25 to 150 elk would be culled annually for 16 years.
If that meant that 5,400 elk needed to be killed, it would cost the government about $3,300 per elk to thin the herd.
Here's how the money would be spent:
The costs would come from hiring extra staff or a contractor to shoot elk, building fences to protect vegetation, transporting carcasses, testing them for disease and processing the meat.
"Doing something like this is not going to be cheap, for sure," said park Superintendent Vaughn Baker. "But we're talking 20 years."
The park's preferred plan calls for killing elk at night with silencer-equipped guns in part to minimize disturbances to park visitors.
How's this for an idea: Why not sell permits to hunters to accomplish the thinning of the herd, and not spend the $18 million?
Why not charge hunters enough money per permit to cover the other costs of the program?
Nope. That would be too easy....
