Let nature take course

Idaho says they are going to kill elk predators. This doesn’t bode well for anyone walking on state land in an orange vest.

Fish and Game Commissioner Mark Doerr does admit that in some areas the decline of elk is from over-harvesting by hunters. Ranchers and farmers as a whole do not want the elk increased due to the damage they can inflict in one night on grazing land.

On one hand you have a predator taking the injured, the slow, the weak or the young to thin the herd, while another more successful predator singles out the prime of the herd; the biggest, healthiest and the male who will build a robust herd is the exact elk hunters are looking for. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why a once-healthy herd is in demise.

Nature is wonderful at checks and balances until you factor in a .30-06.

Tom Zwart

Colville