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Elk in the East
Eastern elk hunting is no longer a novelty.

Most hunters think of elk hunts as an “Out West” proposition. But thanks to the efforts of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its partners, elk populations have been established in several areas east of the Mississippi with great success. In fact, four eastern states are now holding annual hunting seasons for their free-ranging wild elk.

At one time, elk were common in the East. The only states in which they did not occur are Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Florida. Elk numbers across the country may have totaled 10 million before Europeans arrived. But by the 1850s, the Eastern species of elk was extinct, decimated by market and subsistence hunting and the destruction of their habitat.

Programs to restore elk to their former habitats in the East started as early as 1913, when a few elk were brought to Pennsylvania from Yellowstone National Park. That state even had an elk season from 1923 to 1931, but then the population crashed and was largely ignored for decades. In recent years, efforts by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and RMEF built the elk herd to some 600 animals, and the state has been holding an elk season since 2001. Some huge bulls have been shot in the Keystone State, including a monster 9x7 and a 7x7 in 2002.

The most dramatic success story involving Eastern elk has occurred in Kentucky, which spent 150 years elk-less. Elk were returned to that state in 1997, when the Kentucky Department of  Fish and Wildlife Resources made its first release of free-ranging elk. In the nine years since, the state’s herd has grown to an astounding 6,000 elk, ranging mostly on reclaimed strip-mine lands. Elk hunting is now a viable option in Kentucky—last year, 50 bull tags and 50 cow tags were issued; this year, 200 hunters will get elk permits. Two bulls taken in 2005 stand as new state records, a 319 6/8 typical and a 320 2/8 nontypical. The hunter who took the typical elk said he is certain the record will be broken soon because he saw several elk that were larger than the one he shot.

In addition to Kentucky and Pennsylvania, elk have been especially successful in the Arkansas Ozarks, where a herd of about 450 elk live in the Buffalo National Scenic River area. This year, permits will be awarded to twenty lucky Arkansas hunters for a chance at an Arkansas elk. Elk have also done well in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains, and Tennessee will hold its first elk hunt this fall.

There’s a lot more to Eastern elk restoration efforts than just releasing elk and hoping they reproduce. While releases and hunting seasons are the glamorous part of elk restoration, the most important—and difficult—part is habitat acquisition and restoration. Elk need room to roam and plenty to eat, and since farmers in every state take a dim view of elk munching on their crops, a successful elk herd must have an abundance of high-quality public-land habitat rich with forage and cover. Sometimes this means purchasing new land as dedicated elk habitat, and sometimes it means planting the right mix of grass and forage on existing national forests or other lands. Efforts to acquire and enhance such acreage, of course, are good for not just elk, but for all species of wildlife, and by extension, all hunters.

That’s where RMEF comes in. Most states with elk have partnered with the group, which has special expertise in elk-centered habitat projects that have allowed both new and old elk herds to grow and thrive. For example, the organization has spent more than $3 million acquiring and improving elk habitat in Pennsylvania since 1990, doubling the size of the state’s elk range to 600 square miles throughout the northcentral region. In Kentucky, mining companies were planting reclaimed strip mines with grasses unpalatable to elk until RMEF stepped in and offered to purchase elk-friendly grass seed. The result is evident in the thriving Kentucky herd.