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Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles, Washington Copyright 2000 Eric Rush www.ericrush.com |
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“Why this area and why this herd?” Elk hunting in Unit 621 was closed for many years. A very few permits are now awarded by lottery for the part of the unit near Sequim in response to complaints that the elk have become fearless and tear up yards and gardens. Car-elk collisions on the highway occur as the elk make their rounds of the neighborhood. Some residents feel that, since the elk were here first and are part of the rural experience many people move here for, a certain amount of landscaping damage is a small price to pay for their presence. Others, many of whom would probably be happier living in Disneyland than in the real world, resent smashed shrubs and hoof prints in manicured lawns and want the government to do something. Relocating elk is not practical because those that survive the trauma tend to return home. Part of the solution was to attempt to herd the elk away from the town. Part of the solution was to put electronic collars on some of the elk that would cause lighted Elk Crossing signs to flash along the highway and warn motorists of their proximity. And part of the solution was to shoot a few each year to remind them that people can be hazardous to their health. Shooting is prohibited in town, but there aren’t many city limit signs and it’s hard to tell where Sequim begins and ends. Maybe that’s why Sequim city police investigated legal hunters outside of town. A newspaper story attributed to the police chief the surprising assertion that the entire area north of U.S. 101 from the Elwha River east to the Clallam County line is a no-shooting zone. That is not correct. Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations list the area as a “firearms restriction” zone. All that means is, center-fire and .22 rifles are not permitted for hunting. Bows and arrows, shotguns, handguns, and muzzle-loading rifles-all with less range than modern rifles-are legal for hunting north of the highway. Some people have been pretty nasty in their criticism of the hunters that drew the four permits to hunt the Sequim herd. Not real hunters but cowards, shooting elk near town instead of way off in the woods. Lazy, too, shooting them near roads so they don’t have to pack the meat far. Hogwash. Permits for killing a few Sequim elk are not intended to give hunters a wilderness hunting experience. The purpose is to teach elk that people can be dangerous, and it doesn’t much matter whether people pay for hunting permits to fill their freezers or the state hires professional shooters to kill them. Teaching fear being the purpose, the best place to shoot the elk is near town and close to roads. What’s the sense of teaching them that the forests and mountains are dangerous and that subdivisions are safe? Anyone who thinks that those elk are tame simply because they’ve become fearless is dangerously deluded. Some irate citizen will run outside to shoo “tame” elk out of his garden one of these days and will learn the difference between tame and fearless. Meanwhile, if a hunter is lucky enough to draw a tag for a Sequim elk, and if he or she hunts strictly by the book and with a dash of courtesy and common sense, it is certainly not “a shame” if that hunter’s family eats elk this year instead of store-bought beef full of growth hormones, antibiotics, and who knows what. I spent most of this season hunting the way I like to hunt, away from roads and as far from other people as practical, but if I’d drawn a permit for a Sequim elk, and had the opportunity presented itself, I’d have cheerfully shot one in my front yard, just a few feet outside of town, and as close to my driveway as possible. |