Colorado's 300,000 Elk Boom Drives Local Economy and Hunting

Colorado has between 280,000 and 300,000 elk. That is not a rumor. It is not a seasonal blip. It is the current estimate for the state’s largest ungulate population.

If those elk formed their own municipality — let’s call it Elk Mountain, for lack of a better name — it would be the fourth-largest city in Colorado. It would sit behind Denver, Colorado Springs, and Aurora. You know Aurora. You’ve probably driven through it. You might even live there.

This is the reality for folks around here. The elk you see grazing in your backyard aren’t struggling refugees. They are the dominant species. The total elk population in the West is about one million. Colorado holds the vast majority of them.

Locals have been seeing them everywhere lately. Not just on the mesa where the writer of this column lives, but in the valley floor. A herd of 40 to 50 elk moved slowly through the pasture below Old Snowmass last evening. It felt natural. It felt right.

They hang out on the Snowmass side of the airport, beyond the tall fences. They spread out along Owl Creek Road. A herd spends significant time on the bench above the Roaring Fork in McLain Flats. They cross the road at night. It isn’t precision driving, but it is a fairly organized procession. Last week, they were massed in the old potato fields on the lower reaches of Lower River Road.

For years, the assumption was simple. The elk population was diminishing. They were being pushed aside by human intervention. They were adjusting to our encroachment.

That assumption was wrong.

The population is booming. And that boom drives the economy. Last year, around 130,000 permits were issued to elk hunters. Just shy of 40,000 elk were harvested in the state. The town of Craig in Moffat County, about a three-hour drive from here; markets itself as the “Elk Hunting Capital of the World.” It trademarked that phrase in 2012. It means something.

The logic is straightforward. Without reduction, herds starve. Disease runs rampant. An unhunted herd suffers higher mortality rates from nature alone. Hunters play a role in keeping herds at reasonable levels. They keep the ecosystem healthy. It is a valid argument.

But right now, it is springtime. The elk are treading through the woods and scrub oak. They are grazing in the grass. They are getting ready to calve.

The short version? We are not fighting for space. The space is theirs. We are just lucky to share it.

The question isn’t whether the elk will be there next week. The question is whether we can handle the weight of that fact.