How the Mighty North American Elk Made its Return to West Virginia
Image courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Tourism
Measuring in at roughly 1.5 meters at the shoulder and equipped with a massive rack of antlers during the warmer months, the bull elk is certainly one of North America’s most remarkable animals, yet their current range is just a tiny fraction of what it was two centuries ago. While destinations like Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone National Park harbor massive herds of the ungulates today, populations once stretched from Southern California to New England—but as with much of North America's native megafauna, the westward expansion of European settlers was a major factor in their decline.
“The extirpation of elk in West Virginia was a story very similar to many other game species of that era,” says Randy Kelley, Elk Project Leader for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Given the large size of the animals, habitat loss brought untold devastation to the region’s native elk, while uncontrolled hunting drove numbers down to dangerously low levels, with Kelley noting that the Civil War may have finally spelled doom for the Mountain State's population in particular.
Decades passed without a single bugle booming out across the wilderness of West Virginia, but in the early years of the 21st century, a pivotal study by the WVDNR and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation brought renewed interest to a reintroduction campaign. Kelley notes that one major obstacle was the potential for human-elk conflict, with the southwestern reaches of the state considered most viable due to their lack of agricultural land. In spite of the many issues encountered along the way—one particular instance being the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease in the Panhandle, which drew attention away from the project—new developments in the West Virginia political sphere paved the way for successful reintroduction by the mid-2010s.
Image courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Tourism
“When Logan County native Earl Ray Tomblin became Governor, a renewed interest took wing (or hoof, in this case),” says Kelley. 2015 spelled major success for the campaign, with the West Virginia legislature voting to introduce an Elk Management Area (EMA) across several southwestern counties. After extensive deliberation with the US Forest Service, the WVDNR was able to procure a population of 24 elk from western Kentucky's Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, and in December 2016, these glorious ungulates made their welcome return to Mountain State soil.
Since then, the elk have successfully integrated into the EMA, and while there are no plans to expand it beyond its current borders, the WVDNR is still working hard in the region to ensure the wellbeing of the animals—and fortunately, they have a dedicated ally to aid in the process. Operating in tandem with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the WVDNR has been able to enact ambitious invasive species removal campaigns, while controlled burns are held to reinstitute the early successional habitats that were once common across the region. In addition to these efforts, the West Virginia State Parks department has also introduced Elk Management Tours, providing visitors with an opportunity to marvel at these once-extirpated animals thriving in the flesh.
Humanity has wreaked untold devastation on North America's native elk populations, but not all hope is lost for these mighty beasts. All across the United States, conservation organizations are working in tandem to restore fauna to their ancestral homes, providing an opportunity for Americans to observe the continent’s most majestic creatures as they’ve existed for eons. Though there’s still a long way to go before elk populate each individual state across their former range, West Virginia has taken one of many crucial steps in the right direction.
Image courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Tourism