Wolves will Not to be reintroduced into Colorado.

Due to the overwhelming public outcry and over 15K emails and letters in the last few weeks regarding the wolf issue this letter was released in the Grand Junction Sentinel:

Wolves will not be reintroduced to San Luis Valley

There has been some recent speculation that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to reintroduce wolves in the San Luis Valley to help manage elk and other species. It is important to set the record straight, the service in fact has no plans and no intent to reintroduce wolves in the valley.

The confusion about the service’s intent arose from a draft plan to manage overabundant elk populations affecting vital wildlife habitat on the San Luis Valley’s National Wildlife Refuges. The draft plan references a suggestion by some members of the public that the service consider wolves as a potential management tool.

By law, the service is required to analyze the comments and suggestions we receive. We do not, however, believe that wolf reintroduction is the appropriate management strategy for this area. We have instead put forward three other options including public hunting, which we believe will help ensure that the wildlife refuges in the San Luis Valley continue to provide high quality habitat for elk and other species — as well as recreational and economic benefits for local communities.

We encourage members of the public and our partners to review and comment on this important draft plan as we work to finalize it over the next two years. We’re committed to ensuring that the San Luis Valley’s land, water, and wildlife remain the pride of Colorado and the nation for years to come.

STEVE GUERTIN

Regional Director, Mountain-Prairie Region
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Denver           

Scroll to bottom of page to see original letter: Grand Junction Sentinel

Wolves in Colorado?

USGS Proposes to reintroduce wolves in Colorado

Last month the USGS issued a proposal for managing the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex this area includes the Alamosa, Baca, and Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuges in Colorado. Tucked away in the 8th page of the overall proposal was one sentence that should scare every hunter in Colorado and the west.

"The elk populations would be reduced on the refuge

complex primarily through hunting and kept at a level
that would foster recovery and improve the long-term
health of native plant communities. The Service would
explore the potential for wolf reintroduction for
balancing wildlife populations."

To see the entire proposal click here - San Louis Valley Plan Update

Being someone that has had a front row seat to the last wolf reintroduction debacle growing up and hunting just south of Yellowstone I can tell you this is a very scary road for Colorado to begin heading down. I can also tell you this is exactly how the, "reintroduction" process begin in Yellowstone, we can only imagine how difficult it would be to ever manage the wolf population in Colorado if Wyoming is still yet to have an established season 18 years later.

Once these vermin are reintroduced there is no getting rid of them!

The same issues that plague us from the Yellowstone reintroduction would in essence be repeated this time around.

1. Using Canadian Grey Wolves instead of the truly native at one time Southern Rocky mountain wolf (yes there is a documented subspecies difference) even though the USGS keeps overlooking this "little difference."

• The main difference between these Subspecies is that Canadian Wolves are 30%-35% larger in body size overall and they maintain a much larger pack structure. Allowing them to hunt much larger prey and have a much higher hunting success rate. This also means they have to kill much more often. If you think it is hard to get a moose tag now just wait until wolves destroy the Colorado moose population. Just this last year Wyoming completely closed what was once the most populated and best trophy unit in the country due to lack of population. From 20+ tags a year to 0 due to wolves.

2. The second and most overlooked problem with releasing wolves into the lower 48 is the restricted winter range. Every year the battle to keep winter range in tack becomes ever more difficult as this winter range diminishes more and more animals are pushed into ever smaller areas. Although this problem is not as exaggerated as areas of Montana and Wyoming where the winter range is so limited that there are supplemental feeding grounds that run throughout the winter, there are still limits on the winter range in Colorado.

Regardless of where you live in Colorado wolf reintroduction will affect your adversely effect your quality of hunting at one point. Wolves travel and travel a lot in fact as many of you may know Yellowstone wolves have been documented in Colorado beginning 2006 lucky these wolves have not taken hold in the state yet. But it is only a matter of time until the wolves spread state wide and even into Utah, New Mexico and Kansas.

The sportsman of Colorado need to send a strong and clear message that wolves will not be accepted in our state!

Please take a few minutes to send a letter or email to the planning team see below:

Deadline for comments is February 24, 2012

Submit comments on the project visit: www.fws.gov/alamosa/planning. Comments will be accepted during the meetings or via letters addressed to: Laurie Shannon, Planning Team Leader, P.O. Box 25486, Denver, CO 80225-0486; or via email to SLVrefugesplanning@fws.gov.

For some reason or another USGS is determined to get rid of hunters in the west and replace our traditions with wild dogs. You can be assured that the pro wolf groups are on top of this issue already, we as sportsman and the true stewards for wildlife need to band together before this gets too far along.

To follow this issue on Bowsite Click Here

Some Exciting products of 2012

A few of the new products for 2012 we cant wait to get our hands on.

Big Agnes Wyoming Trail SL2

New from Big Agnes in 2012 is the Wyoming Trail SL2 which seams like it was built with hunters in mind weighing in at only 6.2 lbs this two person tent has plenty of room to sleep two but ups the backcountry comfort with a 39 sq/ft vestibule. For extended hunts in areas with lots of bugs or areas where you could encounter rain for days straight the Wyoming Trail could the a sanity saver.





Easton Carbon Injexion

When Easton decided to improve the overall performance of the AXIS line of shafts released 8 years ago they looked at the arrows they had been using for Olympic field archers for years. These Mico diameter shafts produce 33% more Kinetic energy than standard shafts along with the highest straightness standards in the industry these 100% American Shafts bring the demanding standards of  100 yd Olympic competition to the woods. Paired with the 98 ft lbs of Kinetic energy from the 2012 Bowtech Insanity CPX sounds like every elk hunters dream setup.

Big Agnes Insulated Q Core

Weighing in at only 25oz this 3.5 inch think 3 season pad is every hunters dream rated down to 15 degrees this pad works for 80% of the western hunters needs but at the same time brings comfort to the next level. Gone forever are the days of bad nights sleep on a closed cell pad, just because you are in the backcountry why sleep poorly?

Bowtech 2012 Insanty CPX

Following up in Invasion CPX was going to tough, but the Insanity lives up to the name. 98ft lbs of Kinetic energy, 4.3 lbs overall weight 32" axle to axle, 80% let off and an amazing 355 fps. But the real difference just like the Invasion CPX, is when you let the first shot fly out of an Insane CPX there is a total lack of hand shock. There is none, even when put head to head with the Assassin which has always been toted at Bowtech "Shooter Bow" many come away with the Insane for overall shoot ability. The next revolution comes when you start to Dial in the Insanity and realize not only is this bow fast and hard hitting but it is super accurate. This bow has taken hunting bows to the next level.

There are more exciting products to come stay tunned!



Some Links We Love

 Helpful Research Links

National Snow Fall Map -  Overall snow fall has a huge effect on the health of our western big game populations. Big snow fall in late winter can lead to higher than normal winter die-off can have an effect on that next seasons hunt.

National snow fall map

NFS Active Fire Maping Program - A great tool to get up to the date information regarding fires across the nation.

                                           National Fire Mapping Program

Wildfire Today - Another great resource to keep up to date regarding any wild fires close to your favorite hunting area.

Wildfire Today

National Precipitation Map - Lots of water durring the summer mean lots of food and lots of food means healthy herd and bigger trophy's.

National Precip Map

Keep checking in as we will continue to add more!

2012 Wyoming Big Game Brouchure

2012 Wyoming Big Game Brochure

The 2012 Wyoming Brochure is now available, the dead line is closer than you think! Resident is not out yet.

Wyoming Non-Res Big Game

Wyoming Gray Wolf Finalized Managment Plan

Wyoming Wolf Management Plan

For everyone that is interested below is the link for the Wyoming Gray wolf management plan. As far as we know they  have not announced season yet but we hope it will be soon. Also with the current management plan wolfs will be managed as predatory animals outside of trophy management units which means we have a great shot at keeping them from spreading to Colorado!!

Full Management Plan Management Plan

Summary Management Fact Sheet

Into The Wind Outdoors

We wanted to share this video of our friends at Into the Wind Outdoors http://intothewindoutdoors.com 

Click on the link to view the video



Congratulations to Ken and his great Wyoming bull!!!