Page 16
The INDEPENDENT, January 6, 2011
Ike Says…
From page 2
decline around by ODF&W,
and sports people continue to
buy over-allocated tags while
grumbling how bad the hunting
is.
Roosevelt elk are one of the
bright spots in our state and are
believed to be stable to slightly
declining. I predict that this will
continue into the near future al-
though there most likely is
starting to be more pressure
coming into play on the elk
herds from an ever-increasing
cougar population. ODF&W
will need to pay close attention
to antlerless harvest from hunt-
ing and the predation from
cougars to properly continue
managing the elk herds. One
thing we have seen over time is
the unwillingness of ODF&W to
cut antlerless tags in a timely
fashion, to head off herd de-
clines. ODF&W in our region
has cut some tag numbers and
reduced season lengths in the
cow hunts, but this was mainly
to address the increased cows
being taken by handicapped
hunters during regular sea-
sons. With low deer numbers
in our area, the cougars have to
be impacting elk at a higher lev-
el than would be normally ex-
pected, and this will have to be
figured into the population dy-
namics or we will eventually
have a declining herd.
The one bright spot in Ore-
gon is predator hunting; there
are lots of coyotes, bears, bob-
cats and cougars. While these
populations are up, they may
not continue into the future
once their primary prey species
decline to a point that cannot
support their numbers. Then
they will simply stop producing
offspring and, in the worse
case, starve to death.
The other day, a co-worker
told me a quote that I think ap-
plies to us sportspeople, “peo-
ple will treat you the way that
you allow them”. We all need
to step back and ponder if what
we are allowing to happen to
wildlife in our state is the direc-
tion we want to head. Will we
continue to sit back and allow
it?
Izaak Walton League,
Nehalem Valley Chapter
meets monthly on the 3rd
Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Call
503-429-7193 for location.
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Casey and Kyle by Will Robertson
Solve this Sudoku
A n s w e r t o De c e m b e r 1 6
Sudoku is on page 22
We have no
right to as-
sume that
any physical
laws exist,
or if they
have existed
up to now,
that they
will continue
to exist in a
similar man-
ner in the fu-
ture.
MAX PLANCK
German
physicist
(1858-1947)