An elk season for Boulder County?
Proposed hunting possibility on Rabbit Mountain Open Space riles some Lyons neighbors
A Boulder County proposal to create a limited season for hunting elk at Rabbit Mountain Open Space is stirring the passions of people on both sides of the issue.
Carol Walker has lived within a mile of Boulder County’s Rabbit Mountain Open Space northeast of Lyons for the better part of two decades, on property where she cares for three formerly wild mustangs, which she adopted.
A photographer specializing in photographing wild horses across the Rocky Mountain West, she sees the elk as her neighbors, and is appalled at the idea that the county would permit a limited hunting season as a program for managing a herd that wildlife officials see as having grown out of control.
“I think there absolutely should never be hunting on open space. It is just too dangerous,” Walker said. “I also worry about hunters wandering around over here, horses getting hurt, neighbors getting hurt. I’m worried about that. And out-of-state, out-of-town people who are just wandering around.”
The draft proposal, which is endorsed by and would be implemented on about 5,000 acres in and around Rabbit Mountain in cooperation with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, first came to light in March and was the subject of an open house earlier this month where more than 100 people showed up to learn about the plan.
The county Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee will hold another public meeting Thursday night. The panel may make a decision on how to proceed with the “public harvest program.” If the committee approves the plan, the matter should then go before Boulder County commissioners, who will also hear from the public before voting on the proposal.
“We know this is controversial. This is not a decision we take lightly,” said Therese Glowacki, resource manager for Boulder County Parks and Open Space. And, she said, countering the suspicions of some critics of the plan, “This is not a done deal.”
Glowacki said it’s not known how many elk might actually be taken through the program, if it’s approved, but the draft proposal envisions an elk herd of 30 to 70 animals on Rabbit Mountain — the lower figure representing nonmigratory elk, and the upper end envisioning a reestablished seasonal migration.
At the center of the storm are some 350 elk that now stay on Rabbit Mountain year-round. The Rabbit Mountain subherd, as it’s called, is a segment of the St. Vrain elk herd that lives in northern Boulder and southern Larimer counties.
The Rabbit Mountain herd, according to the county’s Draft Rabbit Mountain Elk Management Plan, had roots in a Heil Valley herd, and migrated to the Rabbit Mountain and Indian Mountain area in the mid-1990s, their numbers long hovering around 10 to 30 animals. The numbers stayed there until approximately 2013, when the population ballooned to at least 100, then jumped as high as 350 by last year.
Recent radio telemetry data show that the herd has figured out that it need not fear hunters. And female elk, which make up most of the herd, have stopped seasonal migration to higher elevations and stay there all year, traveling no farther than adjacent farm properties at night.
The price being paid is extensive damage to area vegetation caused by grazing, browsing and trampling, right down to the mineral soil in elk bedding areas.
Something has to be done, according to the county, and a limited hunting program is recommended by open space staff members. The state stands behind them.
“Colorado Parks and Wildlife is totally behind it,” said CPW Area Wildlife Manager Larry Rogstad. “With the amount of impact on the vegetation, both the grassland and the shrub community, it is definitely needed. To wait longer … in another couple of weeks, there will be another 120 to 140 calves up on the hillside, so the need keeps growing.”
Rogstad added: “In a month or so, we’ll have close to 500 head of elk on that mountain. The longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes to effect a management strategy that would work. We want to get going on it.”
The proposed limited season — intended to run Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from Aug. 15 until Dec. 15, but to Jan. 31 outside protected eagle closures — is the best method available to save the land from ungulate overload, according to Rogstad.