Pumatrax, I understand what your saying, however this is a "depredation hunt" it's not out in the wild or the high country, yet, it needs to be done.
You cant use a gun ( to close to town )so, why not use tradgear?
I'm not talking about shooting them in the front yard or on the street, how about on the outskirts of town.
As the bowdoc said:
The fact of the matter is....if the towns people whats to get rid of some of the elk they need to allow hunting on their land...nearly everyplace near that town is posted NO HUNTING and just outside town is also part of the Nat.Park boundary...The towns people are to blame for this one and in no way should our tax bucks help out those people getting rid of a problem they caused...If they would have had controlled hunts outside of town on all on their POSTED land they would not be having this problem they are having now..
I have been on a few depredation hunts and I have always used tradgear, let's not confuse this type of hunt with a back country hunt for wild elk.
It's not for everyone and no one is going to make you hunt them, however I will, I'll take an easy elk in the freezer, but again, it's not a real hunt, it's a depredation hunt.