First, let's look at California, where the most widely known population of Roosevelt elk is on Santa Rosa Island. This population, you'll recall from previous reports, has to be removed soon on orders of the National Park Service, which has acquired Santa Rosa Island and made it part of Channel Islands National Park. Both the elk and the mule deer on the island will have to be removed by 2011. Despite recent proposals to allow legal hunting by military personnel, and subsequent political moves by several California politicians to prevent that from happening, it appears that for all practical purposes, hunting will cease there after 2011.
If you want to try to get a booking, contact Gordy Long of Multiple Use Managers. He has exclusive outfitting privileges on Santa Rosa. Last season, MUM averaged 298 SCI points on elk, and their largest bull scored 343 SCI points, giving you some idea of their trophy quality. It is common to see dozens of bulls a day on a Santa Rosa hunt. At this writing, MUM had one opening left for a three-day trophy elk hunt this season at a base cost of $9,000, plus a $1,000 to $2,000 trophy fee, depending on the SCI score. Although the rest of their trophy elk hunts are booked until 2011, you may want to get on their cancellation list. Just be aware of two points: First, bulls on Santa Rosa are not accepted by B & C; and second, SCI maintains a separate........(continued)
