I'm not a hunter but have nothing against it. I just never bought all the stuff. I have shot elk with my camera. I do find that these animals are very impressive, whether they are slowing traffic at the Hanford site or running around the hills in Rocky Mountain National Park. If I were a hunter, I'm not sure I would find much of a challenge taking them at Hanford. Contamination may be a problem. Ideally, I would like to see them rounded up and scattered around the state, but I would assume this would be too expensive.

When nature "culls" the herd, the sick and less desirable animals are thinned. When hunters cull the herd, they generally would be looking for the trophy bucks, of which there would seem to be many because of to past protections. The competition for statewide large rack measurements would be skewed a bit to this area. Maybe Ted Nugent could be brought in to shout obscenities at them before he takes his shot. That might give them a running start, at least.

-- Donn Schell, Kennewick