“Call of the Wild”
American Elk – Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
“It is a shame that our land management agencies
fail so miserably at the task of preservation,
originating in a pervasive inability to fully acknowledge
what there is to preserve and to place proper value on it.”
– Guy Tal, from his essay Canyon Time, “More Than A Rock”
As I read these words, I reflect on the inability of Park management to acknowledge and understand their failure to preserve the real and actual essence of Rocky Mountain National Park. Instead, they have, and continue, to over-manage this priceless parcel of nature. Its soul is no longer recognizable. Its wildness gone. Fences fill the landscape where deer and elk once roamed. Elk sparred from wasting disease, have been slaughtered by the thousands both inside and outside the Park . . . all in the name of management.
I am no longer able to go into the Park without recalling what it was like 20 years ago and this saddens me greatly. Rocky is but a shadow of its former glory. Its heart and soul are missing. Gone today are the herds of elk that filled its valleys during the annual rut. Only a hand-full remain.
Realizing their blunder, there’s now talk of reintroducing elk into the Park.
Tears, I’m confident, fill the eyes of Enos Mills, the Park’s champion and founder.
Weldon,
I totally agree. They are totally over managing the wildlife. Let the wildlife be wild.
Joyce Edson
Amen to that! Will we ever learn? Based on history, probably not.
So true! And the National Wildlife Refuge system suffers from the same “disease”. Still nice places to visit, but not what they once were. And yes, we’ve gotten into the “Let it fall apart, then let’s spend millions to bring it back” Syndrome. Look at our wolves, once prolific, then taken down to very low numbers, then re-introduced. And our grizzly bear will likely be next. Why can’t we learn to just manage it properly to start with … and spend the re-introduction money to further improve on what we have?
Unfortunately, history is bound to repeat itself. It’s amazing how Nature took care of itself before the Europeans arrived on Turtle Island.
Sad to say similar miss management is the norm.here in Oregon the Fish & Wildlife Board voted to increase the gill netting of endangered fish stock even though they were mandated by sportsmen to eliminate the greedy slaughter.
Thanks so much for standing up and giving to the wild park a passionate voice. Let us know if we can help(a good friend of Dennis Kirkland ).
We all need to stand up and speak out when we witness abuse.
I, too, am very saddened at the changes in RMNP. I have been many times and doubt I will go back. I was there July 2016 and was very disappointed in numbers and variety of wildlife. Even the birds seem to be diminishing. Such a shame because for some people, that is the only time they may witness the wilderness. I say wilderness, but not sure it is anymore.
I was in RMNP in June 2016 and saw less wildlife and birds than in the past visits. Gee!
You should have seen it back in the late 80s when I moved to Colorado. Elk and deer were everywhere. At one point there were probably too many elk for the land to support them. What many individuals don’t understand is when any species eats itself out of house and home, they go and find another home. That’s when their old home returns to its old self. Mankind does not need to manage Nature. It’s done quite well on its own over the millennia.
Why don’t we ever learn, recognize, and be pro-active that we are destroying ourselves when, in the name of management and re-establishment of our sacred creatures whose lands we mutilate,, we allow the “Ego” of those to determine “what is right”.in the balance of Nature…AMEN Weldon!! so grateful for you, Guy and others to stand tall and speak out.
Unfortunately, history is destined to repeat itself. One of the problems is demonstrated by a gentleman that I consider to be a good friend. His post is directly below this one. He is one of the Volunteers in Rocky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, he has become casualty of the rhetoric being fed to the public by Park Service personnel.
20 years ago Rocky didn’t have four and a half million people visiting each year. The over use by us is pushing the park to its limit. Wildlife don’t like people, so they go someplace else – big surprise.
Twenty years ago, Rocky Mountain National Park was under the supervision of individuals who better understood the balance of nature. Year-after-year, during the annual elk rut in Horseshoe Park, I frequently witnessed 20-plus harems going about their routines out in the open, automobiles parked bumper to bumper along the entire stretch of roadway, as hundred’s of onlookers, many preparing dinner on their habachi grills, watched from the sidelines. This was routine prior to the Park implementing its Elk Management Program.
The elk were not frightened. They were habituated to the huge numbers of people. It wasn’t until much later that large numbers of elk left the Park; a home where they felt safe . . . one where they had lived for years. They left because Park management fenced off large sections of their food supply. Many also underwent sterilization, while hundreds of others were killed, both inside and out side the Park.
I’ve noticed the same, marked, diminishing numbers of elk during the annual rut on the west side of the park. As was mentioned in another reply on this blog, there used to be herd out in the meadows, even during mid day. And visitors lined the roads for a spectacular view of nature in action.
We can all thank Park management for what’s happening. It’s our tax dollars at work.
The fences are a blight on the landscape, a price the park should never have paid for a few stands of healthier willows and the supposed healthy Aspen stands which I still haven’t seen. From a photographic standpoint they pretty much ruin any landscape you might want to take along the park’s lush valleys.
BTW, if you want a copy of the draft Elk Management document recommending the re-introduction of wolves (issued prior to the Bush-era decision to use culling, sterilization, and fencing), I still have them I think. It’s good to remember that someone at one point thought Nature was a better course than a very un-natural intervention.
Thanks for the article.
I totally agree with you regarding the fences. It’s shameful Park management would even think of doing something like this. Although protecting vegetation was part of the reason for installing the fences, they were primarily put up as part of their Elk Management plan to fence off food supply and force elk out of Rocky Mountain National Park.
It seems that MAN cannot keep his hands off the natural world around him. I hope someone sees the folly of their actions, but I believe it is too late to save our once magnificent parks and the wondrous wildlife who inhabit the mountains and valleys.
I pray that those in charge have thousands of nights without sleep as they ponder their errors.
You are absolutely correct, Kathryn, regarding mankind. Perhaps we need to adhere to the words of Edward Abbey and do a little stirring. According to him, “Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.” We definitely need to get rid of the scum.