Nothing dies of old age in the wild!

We live very invasively in their environment. We also need to assist in fostering their survival by means of feeding them if required, and culling them out when the population explodes.

Isn't letting elk die in the forest feeding bear, wolves, cougars?? and isn't it inherintly dangerous to attract bear, wolves, cougars to within smelling range of human habitation? my point being if we let the elk starve, and feed the cougars and such would that cougar not return in a couple of weeks when hes hungry again to see if there are anymore dead elk laying around? Just a question, i am not a conservation officer nor a hunter, nor a bleeding heart liberal. But I do see allot of wild animals as i do spend my leisure time outdoors, and I do read the conservation officers advice each year about how to be so careful not to attract carnivores by what we have on our apple trees, garbage etc.. isn't a dead elk just as much of an attractant? what do we do then?

Maybe it would be better to feed them farther away in the bush. You might have to leave a trail of hay to where you feed them though.

"...it’s really up to Nature to decide,...)

We have not allowed nature to decide for many decades. We shoot bears, wolves and cougars. We stock lakes and rivers with artificially created fish...not much left of nature's way.

It's natural for humans to assist starving animals by letting them have some food. This is a good human trait and it is called compassion.

I would not fault anyone for being compassionate.

You're just delaying the inevitable. Next fall some hunter is going to put a bullet in that "wildlife".

The feed, feed, feed then shoot, shoot, shoot cycle is cruel, inhumane, unnatural and ineffective.

Its no different than planting trees and then cutting them down eighty years later.

We help them when their hungry, let them multply and then kaboom

I was talking to a guy who works for CN rail, and out of 36 trips by rail up to Chetwyn, he has hit 31 moose. So why don’t we see these numbers published. Lot of them just gets their legs cut off and lay there till they die. Sometime days later, some one is supposed to put them out of there misery, but it doesn’t happen. So just imagine how many moose are killed every winter by CN.This is not natural population control.

hey Ruez, I take it you believe its a waste hospital beds to take care of our seniors as well!

What the heck does starving elk have to do with hospital beds? LOL He spoke shouldn't of spoke.

The elk will survive attract more cougars when they calf, cougar population will increase and start taking out pets or somebodies kid. And it will be the cougars fault.

Someone should butcher those dead moose caused by trains and feed the poor folks that want it. But then the crows will starve......nevermind.

How do you make the connection between wildlife and seniors? Come back when you've got something.

Elk are not native to this part of BC; same as moose. We have not invaded their living space. They have invaded ours and should be regarded as an "invasive species". The elk in that area were "dumped" there by Conservation years ago. I regard elk very highly and strongly believe there is always room for them beside the mashed potatoes and gravy.
(and fried onions)

If conservation doesn't want people to feed them to keep them alive, why not let us harvest them? They always make some profound statement that is contarty to what "conservation" means.
Elk are the laziest animals out there and they eat all the food in the lower areas in the summer rather than the high areas. This practice starves them in the winter as well as the deer.

The DNA of bone findings indicate that the Elk were in BC before the Ice age and re populated the province some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
They have gone and come through this region for much longer than we have, but don’t let the facts get in the way of writing something that you have no idea about

Bilm, are you saying that an ice age is on its way again?

Reuz, I take it every little details needs to be explained to you, or you don't comprehend

He spoke, I take it you are incapable of a mature intelligent discussion?

The railway killing moose is natural depending on what your definition of natural is. Humans build railways. There are extensive rail networks on every populated continent. Therefore it can be concluded that when possible humans "naturally" build railways. It could also be concluded that moose numbers drop when railways are built. People have to face the fact that humanity must be included in the environmental management equation - if you don't do that, your beliefs state that you should commit suicide. I'm at a loss to explain just at what point we stopped considering ourselves stewards of the earth and started considering ourselves parasites. Get a life people!

"Conservation Office Not Happy With Elk Feeding."

Keep in mind this is coming from an agency (ministry of environment) that will nuke/kill an entire lake of its native fish species to introduce forgien fish to that lake(eastern brook trout..for example.)

In February 1996, the Peace/Williston Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (PWFWCP)
translocated 50 elk to the lower Ingenika River drainage to supplement the small existing elk
population. Ten of the transplanted adult females were fitted with motion-sensitive radio
collars. Twelve seasonal radio-telemetry elk monitoring flights were conducted from
February 1996 to March 1998 to monitor the movements, seasonal habitat use, and mortality
rate of collared elk. Of the 10 radio-collared elk, 4 expressed fidelity to range in the vicinity
of the release site, 2 established home ranges nearly 20 km from the release site, one
emigrated from the lower Ingenika River area, and 3 died during the monitoring period.
A mark-resight total-count population inventory of the Ingenika elk herd was conducted in
February 2000. The survey resulted in a conservative population estimate of 34-62 animals,
slightly below the expected estimate of 65 animals based on the actual age/sex ratio of the
transplanted animals (Wood 1998a). The desired objective of establishing a population of
100 elk 4 years after the transplant was not met, however, this was due in part to the actual
age/sex ratio of the transplanted elk (Wood 1998a). Intraspecific resource competition
and/or high natural mortality may be limiting factors. A prescribed burn planned for the
Ingenika area is expected to benefit resident elk by increasing early seral forage areas.

What they're trying to say is; "We sure wasted a whack of money there!"

Thank you to those who care - starving to death no matter who/what you are couldn't be a nice way to die.