The complete lack of access is going to eventually do the same damage as wolves. Especially when the hog population explodesA game warden told me a few years ago that to control the elk in the Turtle Mts they did discuss and consider bring wolves into the area. When one thinks about it you find there is no common sense in some people's brain. I am sure every livestock grower could not wait or do wolves only eat elk meat. Maybe hunters but then close to every inch of ground up there is posted.
We own land in the Turtle Mountains, and have never seen a wolf, bear, pig or cat on camera, and we run a bunch of cameras. Certainly there are a few cats in the hills, and I can't speak for what exists in other parts of the hills either. But in our area, we run 15 or so cameras over a section of land, and have never seen any of the above critters.
The elk are a whole different story, they have exploded over the past few years. When a huge herd of cows got pushed into our land this fall, we had a fellow come in and shoot one but it had no impact. A day later there were 23 elk on a photo in a food plot. When possible in coming years we plan to have hunters come in to shoot them, I'm not sure what else would help besides harvesting them. One herd was 12 or so, and there were only 4 or 5 mature cows in my opinion. Something has to change drastically with the elk tags up there in my opinion, they cause so much more damage than deer and other critters. I've been hearing a lot of grumbling from other landowners this year.
The NDGF says the elk were all over throughout the hills last winter when they flew the area with thermal sensing equipment. The saturation throughout the hills was something they were a bit surprised by, or at least that's what I was told (by them).So I was told a few years ago from a local that the reason the snowmobile trails aren't allowed to open up in the hills (regardless of snow conditions) until January is because the private land owners didn't want the sledders pushing the elk out until after all of the hunting seasons had closed?
The NDGF says the elk were all over throughout the hills last winter when they flew the area with thermal sensing equipment. The saturation throughout the hills was something they were a bit surprised by, or at least that's what I was told (by them).
I would doubt landowners want elk spending more time on their land and messing with bales, etc. over winter when they could be living up in the park. Maybe that's what you're saying, I can't tell for sure.
Just say "There're coming right at us" and claim self defense.If they’re destroying your property you can shoot ‘em right?