An Alberta Parks and Environment official says the province's elk reduction plan for CFB Suffield should be accomplished by early 2017. The elk population exploded after they were introduced to the military base in the 1990s, reaching about eight-thousand animals before aggressive hunts lowered the number to about 54-hundred. Regional Resource Manager Rob Simieritsch (SIM'-uh-ritch) says the current goal is to further shrink the herd by about another two-thousand animals. (The commander of CFB Suffield says he'd like the elk herd reduced to about a thousand. Local ranchers and farmers are also pushing for a major cull, complaining the elk are costing them thousands of dollars as they destroy fences to feast on crops.)

Date: 2016-08-01
Placeline: CALGARY.
Source: The Canadian Press
Length: 24 seconds

Transcript Prediction: << right now our goal is to get the herd down to about on 3500 and then we'll go to be developing a management plan with the base with key stakeholders and get their input as to what they think that number should be to wear specting to be in that ballpark next by the end of this current hunt so we have this hunting season we have 600 planned and we're hoping to get it down to a 3500 mark and it will re-evaluate where do we go from there >>

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