Cherished by some, castigated by others, Sequim’s elk herd is quite literally under fire.
Or, it will be soon.
Eighty archery permits — specifically targeted at the herd — will be distributed to sport hunters for seasons beginning in September and running through the end of the year.
Another 60 modern firearm permits, also aimed at the herd, will be drawn for October through February hunts.
All those hunts — for any elk — are set to take place in what the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife defines as Elk Area No. 6071.
That thumbprint-shaped chunk of land sits between Jimmycomelately Creek and the Dungeness River (the state rules pamphlet is incorrect). It incorporates sections of Game Management Units 621 and 624, the Olympic and Coyle areas.
The 140 total permits is a dramatic increase over the 18 distributed last year, when hunts did not include sections of the Coyle Unit (north of U.S. Highway 101) and no archery-only permits were drawn.
“If you do the arithmetic, it could end up annihilating the herd,” Will Purser, commissioner for Clallam County Public Utility District No. 1 and a Sequim-area resident, told me Tuesday.
“We just think that it could eliminate the elk or make the elk less than a viable herd,” Valerie Holland, chairwoman of the Sequim Elk Habitat Committee, added Wednesday.
“That would be just a disaster.”
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The rest of Darrick Meneken’s outdoors column appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News.