Next year for Turnbull?

They said it last year, and they’re saying it again this year:

“Next year looks real promising for having a limited elk hunt in Turnbull (National Wildlife Refuge),” Kevin Robinette, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional wildlife manager in Spokane, said last week.

The go-ahead is being delayed as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff completes its management plan for the 16,000-acre refuge.

Federal biologists at Turnbull support limited hunting within the refuge to thin the elk herd and move the animals around to reduce the damage the elk have been inflicting on refuge habitat, especially aspen groves.

“The state has been having meetings with the refuge staff on and off for three years, but we’re real close now,” Robinette said. “They should be able to go into the public comment process this winter. That means we would have time to set up the hunting permit process for fall of ’09.

“We’re looking at something like 30 to 60 permits for an antlerless hunt and two permits for branch-antlered bulls,” he said.