I’m disappointed with Salazar too and will have to drop him a line along with plenty of others I’m sure. We need to get attention for these wolves and keep it there.

Here is where I obtained my info: http://wolves.wordpress.com/2006/04/08/wyoming-elk-numbers-are-9000-over-states-

And that info was obtained from the state: objective/http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/04/08/news/wyoming/60-elk.txt.

Because you might not check the link, it says: JACKSON, Wyo. — The annual winter census by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department estimates 91,555 elk in Wyoming, nearly 9,000 more than what the agency considers the optimal number.

The department’s goal is for an elk population of 82,645.

“We would like to get the elk down to our population objective,” Game and Fish spokesman Al Langston said. “But overall in the state, the elk population is doing well.”

“Even though we sound like we’re 10,000 over, it’s way better than it was in the ’90’s,” when numbers were much higher, said Reg Rothwell, supervisor of biological services for the agency in Cheyenne. “What we need to do is continue dinging away at those high numbers, and we are.”

Sorry, Annie Oakley. You might want to read the first response on the first website I cited. It says:

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been making a concerted effort to reduce elk numbers through late season, cow-calf hunts over the last decade to bring the herds down to objective. In most herds in western Wyoming, these targeted hunts have been successful. When you hear in the press that WOLVES are killing Wyoming elk by the score, recognize that the claim is absolutely FALSE. Worse, Wyoming G&F knows that it’s false. The fact is, Wyoming’s hunters have been killing elk by the score in these late season hunts, by design. Many late season hunts will continue this coming hunting season.

So there you are.