From about 2000 to 2012, Colorado's elk herds were growing and it was in every hunting magazine that it had the largest elk herd statewide in the Union. DOW increased tags year after year, increased cow tags, started having late season hunts, depredation hunts and all were singing Kumbaya around the campfire. About 2014 was when I remember telling my son that somethings wrong. The sign, summer and fall, was decreasing. This is just in the southern third of the state. The northern two thirds weren't seeing this decrease, or as drastic of a decrease. And it got worse with every year until we started rattling cages about it. You have to remember. It all starts with the Cpw herd counts, which I flew around in a plane one winter about 1998 helping them count. If we spotted a herd that looked like close to 100 head, the biologist would add 50 head to it to make up for the ones we didn see and count. I told them thats not right, and if they were over counting year after year, one day it would catch up to them.