Though winter is far from spent in the Rockies, the folks at Rocky Mountain National Park say they have accomplished their goals in terms of removing elk from the park's herds for this winter.

What doors will the culling of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park open? Is it possible that, in the wake of sharpshooters turning up shortly before sunrise in Rocky Mountain to shoot an elk or two, similar "management" actions will pop up in places like Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt, or Wind Cave national parks, or any other park where the natural balance of wildlife is skewed?

"Culling." It's a fairly innocuous word. Look it up in the dictionary and one of the definitions you'll find is "to remove rejected members or parts from (a herd, for example)." Use that word in the context of a national park and, well, that could spur some discussion, if not outright controversy since "natural processes" are supposed to rule in the National Park System.

A 55-year-old Colorado man out snowshoeing with his family Saturday in Rocky Mountain National Park collapsed and died on the Longs Peak Trail.