Elk management plan moving forward in Va. – BusinessWeek

By STEVE SZKOTAK

RICHMOND, Va.

An elk management plan for Virginia will offer wildlife regulators several options to manage its small population of the Rocky Mountain native that has wandered over from Kentucky.

The draft plan ranges from doing nothing to stocking elk for hunting and tourism in seven southwest counties. The plan is headed to a Game and Inland Fisheries committee on May 24 and to the full commission in June.

The director of the department's wildlife division said the plan is intended to offer several possibilities for commissioners to consider and the public to debate.

“We’re trying to make this whole thing more of a scoping document with options for restoration,” Bob Ellis said Friday of the report, which still needs some finishing touches. He said the final version could contain a preferred option.

Virginia’s native elk, a cousin of the bigger Rocky Mountain version, was hunted into extinction more than 150 years ago. A restoration plan involving the Rocky Mountain subspecies has been promoted by sportsmen’s groups and some officials in economically depressed southwest Virginia to encourage more tourism.

The farming community has spoken out against any additional elk in Virginia, which number 75-100. They fear crop damage and the spread of tuberculosis and brucellosis to domestic cattle.

In developing the management plan, Virginia wildlife biologists visited several states that have large numbers of elk, including Kentucky. More than 10,000 elk roam 16 counties in that state.

“Kentucky did it on the largest scale and they have seen some benefits after 12 years of having elk, not only for hunting but from viewing,” Ellis said.

The state, for instance, has developed viewing areas for visitors who want to look at the big, buff-colored deer. A lottery for a limited hunt attracts thousands of hunters. The lottery winners pay several hundred dollars each for a shot at an elk.

The management panel also looked at the experience of states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, which have smaller numbers of elk. Pennsylvania has approximately 600 to 700 of the animals and has had success with tourism and viewing areas.

“If you intend to have elk, you have to plan for that sort of thing,” Ellis said, citing traffic as an example.

The management group also talked to farm groups in southwest Virginia and coal interests, which own large tracts of land in the state’s southwest corner.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services took a stand against any expansion of the state's existing numbers when the proposal surfaced last year.

Virginia’s beef cattle industry, the state's No. 2 agricultural commodity by cash receipts, ships most of its animals to out-of-state feed lots. Infected herds must be quarantined.

Virginia has previously rejected moves to re-establish elk, with disease transmission a key concern.

Ellis expects the commission to take final action on a management plan in August.

via Elk management plan moving forward in Va. – BusinessWeek.