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Craig — Early-season cow elk hunts happen every year in Moffat County's northwest corner, but 2008 will be the first year for early cow hunts in Game Management Unit 2.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife plans to sell cow elk licenses for about one-eighth of Unit 2 this year, DOW spokesman Randy Hampton said. Those hunts would last from Aug. 15 to Oct. 31.

Hunters have long considered Unit 2 a destination spot. The Browns Park area has milder winters, and an average bull elk from Unit 2 can score 350 for its antlers, which would be very rare for other areas, local hunter Justin Duzik said.

There has been some concern that if hunters go into Unit 2 before the bull elk season starts later in the year, they might chase trophy elk away from their usual habitats. That could ruin a hunt someone has been anticipating for a long time.

"Unit 2 is a trophy area," Duzik said. "Through (the DOW's) draw system, it probably takes 15 years to get a license.

"It's such a long wait, I can see why someone would get nervous about them chasing the bulls out."

That concern isn't misplaced, but DOW officials were "very aware" of those potential ramifications when they discussed opening parts of Unit 2 for early-season cow hunts, Hampton said.

For that reason, he added, early season was only opened in Unit 2 along a narrow sliver of its eastern border along Unit 3, which has had early cow hunts for a long time.

The area is confined to lands north of State Highway 318 around the Little Snake River.

DOW officials felt the new plan was necessary to help alleviate summer damage problems from deer and elk on private lands. The elk need to be pushed off those lands, but there wasn't anything pushing them out, Hampton said.

"In a lot of ways, they're eating the farmers and ranchers out of house and home in the summer," Hampton said.

The area is purposefully distant from traditional trophy elk spots, he added.

"A majority of the quality bulls in Unit 2 are 20 miles away," Hampton said. "Anybody that's hunting a bull in Unit 2 in these areas is really hunting in the wrong place."

The DOW likely will release the number of available hunting licenses for all areas and the season about the end of March, Hampton said.

Research numbers still are coming in, including fewer than expected successful hunts in 2007, which could push up license numbers, and winter mortality, which could push them down.