# Boulder Mountain Elk ?



## Hunter Tom (Sep 23, 2007)

Some local historians claim that there had never been elk on the Boulder until they were introduced sometime in the twentieth century. Hard to believe with such great habitat? Also, I have heard that the low Boulder elk herd objective of 1500 head resulted from a deal made with local grazers to allow the elk stocking. I say low herd number considering that the Boulder has more elk habitat than the adjacent Fish Lake unit that has an elk objective of about 5500 head. Anybody have any info on this?


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Yes, The cattlemens association and the wool growers have
a ton of pull there. They are solely responsible for holding the antelope
numbers down as-well.....

Look at this year's antlerless tags being issued on Boulder/Parker this year..

700 rifle cow elk permits, and 500 doe antelope permits.....

There will be lots of trucks and campers pulling through Loa with orange
in them this fall,,:shock:..


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

Tom,

The historic range of elk in Utah was in the northern and central mountain areas, although there were some pockets of elk farther south. The locals may be right about the boulders never having a herd, but hard to believe there weren't some elk down there prior to the white man settlement of the state. From what I understand, the Boulder Mountain unit, along with the Beaver Mountain unit were open to elk hunting for the first time as units in 1979, with 25 and 10 permits, respectively. Goofy is probably right on about the reasons for the low elk numbers on the unit currently.


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## HighmtnFish (Jun 3, 2010)

goofy elk said:


> Yes, The cattlemens association and the wool growers have
> a ton of pull there. They are solely responsible for holding the antelope
> numbers down as-well.....
> 
> ...


That's not entirely accurate, most of the sheep and cattle ranchers down here think that they are giving away WAY too many cow elk tags this year, on the boulder and Fishlake both. There are many ranchers that think the elk are a great resource to have and would like to see more of them (as long as they don't get in their hay fields)
The antelope on the other hand are considered pests down here and need to be controlled.


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