Is It Time to Cull the Cannon Beach Elk Herd? 🕵️‍♂️

As we continue to slowly but surely inch back towards the weekend, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get into what this beautiful Tuesday has to offer.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

IT MIGHT BE TIME
IS LETHAL MANAGEMENT BECOMING THE ONLY OTPION FOR THE CANNON BEACH ELK HERD?

The Roosevelt elk, a species meant to embody a majestic symbol of the wilderness, have instead been transformed into 1,000-pound panhandlers, at least in one coastal Oregon town. Rather than coexisting with the town and its surroundings; these large ungulates are occupying it, all while blurring the lines between nature and civilization. This overlap has since developed into a public safety hazard, driven by explosive herd growth and the dangerous habituation of animals to human presence.

Veering away from passive photography, the problem on Cannon Beach has somehow morphed into tourists hand-feeding carrots to bulls that could flip a Tesla, parents trying to mount their toddlers onto wild animals for the ‘gram (seriously), and a local government paralyzed by the fear of upsetting people who believe that we can all live in a harmonious symbiosis with these very large and very wild animals.

Just last week, someone finally snapped and an elk was shot and left to rot—an act that could be seen as a predictable, albeit illegal, byproduct of a community that has been abandoned by actual management policy…

🐻 Two Soldiers Survive Brutal Bear Encounter During Remote Land Navigation Training. A pair of soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Alaska are in hospital after a bear encounter last Thursday. According to a release by Alaska Fish and Game, the soldiers were participating in a land navigation training exercise in a remote, restricted area of the base when they encountered a bear that had likely just emerged from its den. Both soldiers sustained injuries and were hospitalized, though officials have remained tight-lipped about their specific conditions, citing privacy and the ongoing investigation.

Alaskan officials believe the soldiers’ lives were likely saved because they were carrying and successfully deployed bear spray during the encounter. While the bear was originally reported as a brown bear, ADFG is currently using DNA samples collected from the scene to confirm the species and gender, as there were no other witnesses to the attack.

✌️ California Approves Two-Bear Limit as Black Bear Population Surges. Late last week, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to significantly expand bear hunting opportunities for the first time in over a decade. The most notable change allows hunters to purchase two bear tags per season instead of one, doubling the individual possession limit. In addition to the extra tag, the commission approved a major expansion of hunting territory, opening up the Northeastern California Bear Conservation Region to bear hunting for the first time. Supporters have since praised the move as a shift toward "science-based management," noting that California’s black bear population has surged to over 60,000 while annual harvests have consistently fallen short of the state's 1,700-bear quota.

Despite the expanded access and tag limits, the commission maintained the statewide harvest cap of 1,700 bears, meaning the season will still close immediately once that number is reached.

🥸 Stiff Penalties Handed Down to Hunter Who Mistakenly Shot Moose During Deer Season. In a case of mistaken identity, 37-year-old Dane Nelson of Duluth, who was convicted for illegally killing a moose, has been sentenced. The incident occurred during the 2025 firearms deer season when Nelson shot a young bull moose, later claiming he had mistaken the animal for a deer. Because moose are a "species of special concern" in Minnesota and have not been legally hunted in the state since 2012, the incident naturally sparked a significant investigation by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

On Monday, a judge sentenced Nelson to a combination of heavy fines, the loss of his hunting privileges for three years, and the forfeiture of the firearm used in the incident. During the proceedings, the prosecution leaned heavily on the fact that responsible wildlife management relies on hunters' ability to positively identify their targets, especially in areas where endangered or protected species overlap with game animals. The judge noted that while the shooting may not have been malicious, the "mistaken identity" defense does not absolve a hunter of the responsibility to protect Minnesota’s struggling moose population.

🦃 When your calling brings in a lot more than just birds. This is becoming a more common occurrence, or at least it seems to be now that we’ve got cell phones strapped to us in the woods.

He was fine…

Oh, and one more thing…