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WESTERN ELK HERDS GROW VASTLY Some Eight Thousand Animals on Olympic Penin ¬ sula to Be Reduced by Law Licenses for the killing of 400 bull elk on the west slope of the Olympic National Forest have been recommended to the Washington State Legis ¬ lature by the forest service and the game wardens according to It B Fromme supervisor sajs the Oregon Journal JournalThe The game within the National forests is under control of the state rather than the federal gov ¬ ernment but forest officials are in most cases bet ¬ ter acquainted by reason of their duties with the game in the more remote mountain districts Mr Fromme says Through a study of the elk conducted on the Olympic Forest for the last eight or ten years said Mr Fromme estimates of the number have been made and it is now believed that certain watersheds are overcrowded to the detriment of the elk It is now estimated there are between 7000 and 8000 elk on the Olympic Peninsula probably all of which range on the const side of the mnuii tains and r 000 feed entirely within the forest boundaries boundariesThe The forest service recommends that the season be set for the month of November when the herds are pretty well scattered and the bulls in prime condi ¬ tion as to meat and antlers This would also place the hunting of elk after the deer season has ended which would make it easier to keep a check on tho number killed and to detect any violation of the game law lawAccording According to the plans nonresidents will be re ¬ quired to hire licensed guides who will be depu ¬ tized as game wardens at a rate of pay fixed at 5 a day Additional forest officers will likely In assigned as deputy wardens to watch for violations violationsLicenses Licenses will probably be sold under direction of the game warden at from 10 to 25 or possibly 50 There is some contention for a fee of 100 for nonresidents The forest service is in favor of i low fee feeling that the main object of the open season is for the scientific reduction of the hirds to what winter feeding grounds will support nat ¬ urally urallyEach Each license will permit the shooting of only on elk and will require that the meat lie taken crre of ofInstead Instead of killing off the elk said Mr Fromme some consideration has been given to trying to distribute them from the more congisteil watersheds to areas of better feed but owing to tin heavy stand of timber heavy underbrush and nn roads such a plan is impossible These elk an much wilder than the Yellowstone elk anil it is undesirable to make any experiment toward taming by feeding them hay It is much better to provim for sufficient feed in the natural state These elk have been protected by law from all shooting for thirteen years and have increased beyond the feed ¬ ing capacity of the range rangeMost Most of the loss is in the late spring in the years of heavy snows when cows with calves anil yearlings succumb for want of feed feedOn On tiie most crowded watersheds the bulls now amount to nearly Id per cent of the herds and tiie natural increase beyond the slight loss due to at ¬ tacks of cougar and wolf which are confined almost entirely to weak cows and young calves amounts to from 10 to 15 per cent
