Good news for elk hunters
<p>Brad Corkill, Idaho Fish and Game commissioner, left, and Virgil Moore, IDFG director, listen as Chip Corsi, regional supervisor for IDFG, center, talks about fish and wildlife management during an editorial board meeting Monday at the Coeur d’Alene Press.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Idaho’s elk numbers are on the rebound and either sex hunting may be the norm again in the not-too-distant future.
“We would like to get back to an open cow season,” said Chip Corsi, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Corsi, along with IDFG Director Virgil Moore and IDFG Commissioner Brad Corkill, sat down with The Press Monday to discuss a variety of issues including the progress they are making on restoring elk populations in several areas across the state.
Corsi said of Idaho’s 29 elk management zones, only about nine of them are underperforming.
In the late 1990s the elk population in Idaho began to dramatically decline primarily due to a variety of predators and winters with heavy snow.
Corsi said elk populations in 20 of those zones meet or exceed the agency’s targeted goals.
Moore said certain areas of the state, such as the LoLo National Forest area, suffered a loss of nearly 80 percent of it elk population in the mid to late 1990s, which prompted the agency to restrict elk hunting to antlered elk only.
The decline in that area started before wolves were reintroduced to Idaho, Corsi said. While wolves are responsible for some of the predation on elk, he said mountain lions and bears take a heavy toll on the elk populations as well.
Corsi said IDFG has put high tech satellite GPS collars on 165 elk in North Idaho. The collars send a signal back to Fish and Game twice a day relaying all kinds of data to the agency.
“When an elk dies the collar sends us an email,” Corsi said, explaining how the agency responds to the elk’s location within 24 hours to determine the cause of death. “Out of the 18 to 20 deaths we have so far, about 75 percent of them were mountain lion kills. Lions are a big part of the picture.”
Corsi said the amount of and type of data being collected will help wildlife managers improve the mortality rates of the elk into the future. IDFG is going to collar calves and cows in seven different locations across Idaho.
“We want to get a handle on what’s killing the elk,” he said. “That is going to give us a remarkable data set.”
At the worst point, Corsi said the calf to cow ratio was about nine calves per 100 cows surviving. IDFG would like to see a ratio closer to 35 calves per 100 cows.
This year, Corsi said during a recent flight they counted 31 to 42 calves per hundred cows.
He said that has a lot to do with predator management.
Corsi said the numbers are encouraging, and added that gives him some hope hunting for either sex of elk will become a reality again.