To All California RMEF members,
UPDATED INFORMATION: We just received word from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that comments regarding California’s wolf plan (see below) will no longer be accepted via the email address they previously provided. Instead, GO HEREto comment.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is holding public informational meetings right now about its new gray wolf plan. It is urgent that we let the state agency know how we feel about wolves and their looming detrimental impact on California’s elk population and hunting opportunity.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is holding public informational meetings right now about its new gray wolf plan. It is urgent that we let the state agency know how we feel about wolves and their looming detrimental impact on California’s elk population and hunting opportunity.
Important points:
·California has too little baseline information about deer/elk populations where wolves may establish territories.
·California’s Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk population (est. 7,000) is too small to sustain CDFW’s plan of 9 pairs of wolves, which equates into approximately 125 individual wolves. (Oregon has est. 120,000 elk while managing for 11 pairs of wolves.) We find no science to sustain California’s numbers.
·CDFW must manage elk and deer for optimum numbers so predators have their needs met while maintaining a surplus for hunters to pursue and wildlife watchers to view.
·Key is to bring about a balance based on the latest science to manage habitat, prey and predators so all can thrive without diminishing ungulate populations that Americans worked for more than a century to resurrect.
All meetings will be held from 5-8 p.m. Dates and locations are as follows:
Sacramento: Feb. 1, 2016 (final meeting)
Double Tree Hotel
2001 Point West Way, Sacramento, 95815
Double Tree Hotel
2001 Point West Way, Sacramento, 95815
If you cannot attend, please submit a written comment. Again, it is vital that sportsmen and women weigh in on this issue for the sake of California’s elk population and the future of hunting. Please make an effort to do so.
Sincerely;
M. David Allen
RMEF President & CEO