It might seem that the western United States has enough land for people and wildlife, but essential wildlife habitat is being lost every year to human use. In Colorado alone, wildlife habitat is lost at the rate of about four acres every hour, which adds up to 35,000 acres of precious habitat every year.

This continuing loss of habitat is the most serious problem that elk face. For example, along the eastern edge of Colorado's mountains, high-quality elk winter ranges are in the "hogbacks" ridges that form a geologic boundary between foothills and plains. These ridges lie in the shadow of the Front Range where snow is not as deep as in the mountains, and the winds are warmer. Open water is usually available all winter. But some of the same features that make the hogbacks prime elk habitat are now attracting people. As people settle in foothills throughout the West, elk and other wildlife lose even more habitat.

Significant changes are also occurring in the wildlife profession. The World War II veterans who graduated in the wildlife management classes of the late 1940s have reached retirement age, and a whole new generation of wildlife professionals is moving into positions of responsibility. In addition, we are seeing shifts in relative numbers of practicing wildlife professionals in the state game departments and the federal agencies. States retain full responsibility for the management of resident hunted populations and enforcement of wildlife laws, but the welfare of wildlife is becoming a shared responsibility with federal biologists. Some states now employ fewer professional wildlife biologists than the federal agencies that manage wildlife habitat on lands within the state borders.

These ongoing trends have dramatic implications for elk and elk hunting. In the late 1970s about 93 percent of all the elk in the United States spent at least part of each year on national forests. However, very little of this land can be devoted solely to elk habitat. Approximately 89 percent of the national forest land occupied by elk will likely be assigned to multiple-use management to produce wood, water, recreation, wildlife and grazing. The Rocky Mountain elk is inextricably tied to the management of the national forests and adjacent lands -- and, fortunately, this fact has already become widely recognized. Joint research by Pittman-Robertson funded by state wildlife agencies and U.S. Forest Service Research Stations in Montana, Oregon and Wyoming have resulted in the development of elk habitat/timber management guidelines that are widely used on public and private land throughout the West. Elk are certain to receive more consideration than many other species in forest land management because so much recent research has gone into the development of these coordination guidelines.

If past history is a measure of probability, wildlife habitats in the Rocky Mountains seem less subject to change and modification than habitats outside the mountains. Yet substantial changes continue, and many of the expected developments cannot be considered desirable from the standpoint of wildlife. Habitat will continue to loom large as a problem for elk managers and land managers. Management of the national forests and adjoining private lands holds the key to the welfare of most elk in North America. It is particularly critical that the concerns of landowners about the impacts of elk on private lands be addressed.

Hunting Roads
Regulation of sport hunting will almost inevitably increase, and the management problems will continue to grow. Currently, for example, several states are concerned that overharvest of mature bulls could have long-term detrimental results -- young bulls, although capable of breeding, are suspected of being less effective. As human populations rise, the demand for elk hunting will also increase even though elk numbers remain static or even decrease. These trends lead inevitably to more and more rationing of elk hunting opportunities over the long term. At the same time, the ever-increasing numbers of roads being built into previously unroaded or lightly roaded areas of the national forests mean that more and more people will have access to these areas for work and recreation. This in turn will call for increased road and people management and law enforcement if elk numbers are to be maintained at current levels.

Recreational Development
Recreational development, specifically ski areas, condominiums and residential housing, will produce some of the greatest long-term undesirable impacts on wildlife habitat. Winter range areas in some parts of the Rockies are already gone -- and so are the deer and elk originally supported by those ranges. On forest lands with less potential for development, fire control has become more effective than ever before. There has been some loss of habitat diversity although large fires still occur. At the same time, land managers' attitudes toward fire and the role fire plays in ecosystem function have changed. Fire can be expected to play a greater role in habitat manipulation.

Summary
Establishing a link between these management trends and impacts on wildlife habitat is somewhat more complicated than simple increases or decreases. Habitat requirements are different for each wildlife species, which will mean that prime habitat conditions for any species are likely to be less than prime for some other species. The future of forest wildlife on federal lands will be governed by law and by the effectiveness of multiple-use management of the land. National Forest Plans completed under the Resources Planning Act, along with State conservation plans developed with Pittman-Robertson funding, now provide management direction that can assure the future for elk.

State and federal elk managers in the Rocky Mountain region are generally optimistic about the future of elk and elk hunting. Those of us in the wildlife profession believe we can maintain elk numbers in the Rocky Mountain West, but none think it will be certain, simple or cheap. Some herds will increase, but others will decrease; and in some areas hard decisions will require tradeoffs between elk and other resource values. Continued substantial research and increasingly intensive management will be essential -- and continued Pittman-Robertson funding will be important in both functions, as it has been for the past 50 years.

In looking back on the effort that returned the species from the brink of oblivion, there is every reason to believe that the continuation of a magic combination of public support, dedicated wildlife managers, adequate knowledge, and adequate resources will assure a future for the Rocky Mountain elk.