Craig Daily Press

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Tencman,

What resources did the DOW need to offer that htey were not already offering? They offered hay to bait elk away from feeding opperations. All that was needed was the transportation. They offer 12 foot pannels every year to area ranchers to enclose the feed. Most importantly they give these guys wildlife worth tons of money. Can you imagine a the amount money lost if the elk were not here. Not only would the majority of ranches go out of business, but hte town would die as well. This area would dry up if the hunting was not good here. Even with te oil and gas comming in it would stil be extremely hard on the town.

They only went into investigation mode once they had evidence that a crime had occured. Good for them, that is thier job. They protect and enforce the law surrounding wildlife. They are not here to save every rancher from going out of business. If the elk population is too high they do have limited resources. Offer more tags is one. Guess what they offer more tags for the area than peopple typically buy. On top of that Mr. Culverwell and other area ranchers tend no to let people on to hunt with out paying a fee. Kind of double sided. Are you seriously in denial that he did nothing wrong? He broke the law. Plain and simple. No matter how you look at it he broke it multiple times.

What else were the DOW to do? ranch for him? Feed for him? Take a poop for him? seriously the guy deserves what he gets. Here just months before our little town recieved a great honor as a top spot to live for sportsmen. Now we are known as the place where wealthy ranchers shoot game at will anbd other local idiots support it. He is a black eye for our community and a disgrace. A common criminal who broke the law and should pay for it.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Defend it how you want the guy did something totally stupid and is now paying for it. He made a choice and now has to deal with the consequences. Just like he made a choice to ranch in this area. He does not have to ranch here, if hte elk are so bad then how could anyone possibly make a living here as a ranch. If he does loose the ranch or the property, then it is his own fault for being a criminal,

I need no reports from the local paper, I have first hand knowledge of hte situation. I also saw whwere some elk were accessing the feed. There were no deterrents in that case. only a single fence. Our forefathers had a different mind set than you might imagine. This is the reason that wildlife belongs to the people and not some idiot who owns lots of land. Yes a good chunk of the Culverwell property is in RFW. Yes he makes good money off of the hunting of all the property.

I will leave you once again with this argument. The guy is a criminal who broke the law. He is no different than any other low life criminal. He desrves to be punished and forced to serve out his sentence. The great thing about America is our ability to handle matters in legal manners. We have the opprotunity to change the laws and policies if it is needed. So next time you want to fight for a noble cause go do it. Do not waste your time here trying to defend the guilty. There is not possible way for him to win this case because he is guilty and has no good defense. Unfortunately for him being dumb is not a defense.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

No matter how you put it he knowingly and willfully broke the law. He deserves the penalty. A person only has the right to protect themselves and property if doing so is done with legal means. He loves having hte elk there for the months of Septmenber through November when people hand over money for them, but then they are just supposed to leave?

I do not care if elk die during a hard winter, that is part of the cycle. I try to do my part to help the DOW use the best population control they have. That is hunting. There are many ranchers around here last year that managed to get by without killing animals. Yes every year we have to fix fence and some hay may get stolen, but most people are smart enough to put up the pannels, and have 8 foot fences around stacks. He had plenty of other options than shooting elk at will. He also had no right to act as if he was above the law. Both he and his wife often take this approach even with neighboring ranchers and county employees.

Simply put, if you own a ranch in this part of the country you have to deal with the wildlife. Just like ranchers in Neveada have to worry about water, farmers in the plains worry about hail etc. If you can not make a living while dealing withte natural pressures of the area, then get out. So far this whole oreal has cost him way more than the feed and fence repair cost. I also hope eventually it cost enough to put him out of business and lerave room for someone who can ranch with 1/2 a brain.

I will continue to support and work with ranchers who choose to work within the confines of the law. For him he is a criminal and deserve to be treated like one.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Work,

No the issue I have is this guy makes very good money off the hunting lease on the land. He does so because of the elk. If there were no elk then it would not be an issue. Except if there were no elk he would not make that quick and easy money. I have no problem with people charging access to the land for hunting etc. I do have a problem with the hippocracy that occurs when the elk are so bad, yet the guy is make tons of money off of it. See the catch. I only want elk when it is good for me. Do think the opposite would be true? If there were no elk in the area what do think would happen to this place? There would be no money. No matter how many cattle you raise the location and the competition with larger producers would never make ranching a ver y lucrative business. At somepoint the coal mines will be gone from here and in all honsesty local producers will never earn enough from the cattle market to make an decent living. Once the coal is gone and the energy boom bust like it always does, the only other thing to keep our whole community a float is hunting. SImply look at the dollars and you will realize this.

He did not convince me of anything than the fact that he is a low life criminal. He broke the law no different than anyone else. I guess I really do not know what else you would have expected from the DOW, Should they whipe your butt everytime you get a hanger? They have a very delicate job of balance. Sometimes they do well other times they do not. As citizens we must monitor the actions and take appropriate actions, no illegal actions. I hope the guy gets hung out to dry for this. Just like he would want me hung out to dry if I shot an elk illegally on his property.

If a person can not make a living in a business with in the laws that regulate that business they should go out of business.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Come on where is the buy everything you can afford option? Ride it out is a great option, but if you really want to increase your networth buy while things are cheap. Gold and silver are pointless commodities and the only thing driving those markets are the late night infomercials and speculation.

History repeats itself and history shows thathe market recovers and recovers pretty fast. If you have money in it now wait it out. If you have extra money see an advisor and invest it now.

Let this market issue be a lesson to everyone. As you near retirement take money out of the market and start putting it away in to garunteed returns. Shift the money around as to protect it. Do not make the mistake my parents made and leave it sit.

On What do you believe is the best course of action in handling personal investments during this current unstable economic climate?

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Julie,

Futher more what does your comments about Elk in the east have to do with anything? Yes, there were elk throughout the eastern states not all but most. Now a handful of states and sprotsmen have worked hard to reintroduce a native species to the area and the elk are doing well. Your argument about the animals being farm raised and released is wrong in many ways. The majority of hte animals released came from herds in western states like Idaho, Montana and possibly Wyoming is memory serves me right. They were placed in pens for a period of time to make sure they were disease free then released into the wild. As of now they have a succesful breeding population.

I come from a ranching family that for generations worked hard to make a living in the slowly dieing sheep industry. Eventually low market prices, loss of leases and several other factors forced us out of the business. It was no ones fault, not the state not the government, we just no longer were not able to make a living at it.

No one here is saying that beef is bad or that the majority of ranchers are bad. Infact I know and still work with some very hardworking ranchers. I also know thathe majority of them are able to keep the ranches not because the beef market is so awesome, but because of the money they recieve from leasing. Take hunting out of our economy and see how long any ranches around here would make it. This guy is no different than any other criminal, he broke a law. Further he took animals that belong to me as a resident of the state. Animals that mean money, food, clothing, etc. Animals that are the backbone of our economy and will be the backbone long after the oil and gas has left. They are a renewable resource and should be treated with greater respect and care than simply shot because you believe you are above the law.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Julie,

Your facts could not be more ridiculous and you are both ignorant and way off base. You obviously know very little about the ranching for wildlife issue if nothing at all. Ranching for wildlife is not raising elk. It is simply more about taking large landowners and combining the ranches for wildlife herd management. If the ranchers enroll the property gets a set a amount of tags to be sold at premium prices. I mean premium considering they do not take monster bulls like in units 2, 10, etc. They are also allowed to hunt about any time of year from September all teh way through the end of January. The real issue comes because of the set up the ranches do not hunt much during the regular rifle season. Thus the animals hold up and gather in large numbers on the property and thus the herd does not get culled like it should. It aslo means thathe landowners and outfitters get big money because a paying hunter can come out and see thousands of animals. Some if not all the Culverwell property is in this program. They set out to make hunting a money making venture. Gues what to make money they have to have animals. Pretty dumb logic to want animals for money then turn around and kill them for because they eat your feed. No not all ranchers make are enrolled in the RFW(note the propper abbreviation) program, but do lease land to outfitters. Those that do not tend to because they save the hunting for family. He did knowingly and willfully break the law, end of story. If he could make a living as a rancher within the laws of man or nature, then he should loose his business. This is true in any industry.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Simply put the some of the parents and adults in this town(and other places) make me sick. I have worked with youth in 6 different counties and in several different communities. The biggest issue I tend to see is crappy parents. It may not always be bad parents, but most of the time there are people having kids that have no business having them. There are some really great parents in this town, and some that are really bad.

The biggest issue I see in the area is lack of dreams, motivation and ambition. Kids sit around thinking everything "sucks" or everything is "gay". They spend hours on end with out parent interaction, they sit at computers for hours or text on the phone etc.

Our community sends a very negative attitude about education and the quality of education here. general concensus is to blame the school for not doing the job, but this does not work. Every student in teh school has the opprotunity to learn and accomplish great things. It is up to the parents and the students to make this happen. Sure every once and a while there are some crappy teachers, but that is not enough to keep any child in this community from becomming what ever they want to be.

With out hope, there is nothing. With ambition there is no hope. In this town too often kids lack both and accept defeat.

On What issue concerns you the most regarding Moffat County youths?

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Further more the herds would not be as large if they allowed people to hunt hte land with out making them pay large amounts of money. It took me a couple years to gain access as a local. Around here there are very few peces of property not leased out. The larger ranches are selective in the number of hunter and pressure they apply. Animals hang up on public land and are not getting killed by hunters because landowners are more worried about tresspass fees, and getting paid for hunting.

Simply put, open up the land to hunters to take off the animals or live with the animals. I am pretty sure a good chunk of the Culverwell property is in the the RFW program. Means few hunters, lots of animals and big money. The property I am aware of gets very little hunting pressure so that when a person pays $6,000-$10,000 they have lots of animals around. then all teh sudden the hunting season is over and now what do we do with all teh elk we attracted to our property.

People need to make thier living within the confines of the law accepting that mother nature has place or they need to get out of hte business and make room for someone who can do it.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case

hunter (Anonymous) says…

Sorry I tend to not eat beef. Very rarely do I. I live off the land for the most part. Look in my freezer and 90% or better is wildgame.

There is no truth to teh fact he shot starving animals. One bull in question was shot and laid about 15 yards from a feed bin. The bull in question showed no signs of starvation. He was healthy, no ribs no back bone showing. He claims to be doing the animals a favor, but is he just took the law into his own hands despite knowing it was illegal.

As a rancher in this area you are going to have to compete with all sorts of animals to make your living. The elk have always been a competition. They should always be a competition. The DOW has done many things to try and cut hte herd down. Infact, we are one of the only states where a person can buy 2 elk tags. That right I shoot 2 elk each year. My wife also takes one on an average year. The DOW has one sensible/economical tool availible to manage numbers and that is hunting. The elk population is up, not because the DOW wants so many elk, but because the weather has decreased the kill rates over the last several hunting seasons and because we have not had hard winters.

The last winter was hard, but not extremely hard. There were starving animals, but only inpart because the herds had not been culled from decent winters over the last years.

Your Point about the deer inteh town does not really apply here. The truth of the matter is the deer herds in many eastern states are way above objectives. To the point that several areas allow hunters to take 4-6 deer a year. Yes encraochment is part of the problem, but also are landowners who want ridiculous amounts of money to hunt the property. The private landowners want the animals come hunting season. Also the wildlife belongs to people of the state. They belong to me as much as they do anyone else here. As a result this man committeed a crime aghainst me and I hope he pays.

On Judge grants stay in Culverwell case