Application Period for Tennessee’s Fourth Elk Hunt to be Held April 1-May 31, 2012
April 1, 2012
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will accept applications from April 1 through May 31, 2012 for participation in Tennessee’s fourth managed elk hunt. (Persons can begin applying after 8 a.m. (CDT) on Sunday, April 1).New Pennsylvania Elk Record Set – Pittsburgh Hunting | Examiner.com
February 9, 2012
William Zee of Doylestown, PA (Bucks Co.) harvested a 9×8 bull elk that has been officially scored by the Boone and Crockett Club (following the 60 day drying period) at 442-6/8. The massive elk will soon claim the top spot in the PA record books supplanting the 2006 elk taken by John Shirk that scored 441-6/8. Mr. Zee was one of only 18 hunters to be awarded antlered elk tags for the 6 day season and he took the record setting elk on November 1, 2011. The current world record non-typical elk is scored at 478-5/8. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via New Pennsylvania Elk Record Set – Pittsburgh Hunting | Examiner.com.
Wildlife Restoration, Unusual Animal Sightings Top 2011 Conservation News | freshare.net
January 5, 2012
By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation
First posted on 01-04-2012
Conservation has a place in Missouri’s news mix every year, but 2011 will go down in history for more than the fact that the Missouri Department of Conservation began its 75th anniversary celebration in November. Forests, fish and wildlife had a particularly prominent place in 2011 news.
WILDLIFE RESTORATION
2011 began on an exciting note, as MDC employees and workers from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources captured the first elk for Missouri’s infant elk-restoration program. The juvenile bull soon had company, as dozens of yearling bulls and cows arrived at the holding pen in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky. Thirty-four elk made the trip to Missouri, arriving at Peck Ranch Conservation Area (CA) May 5. By June, elk were roaming Peck Ranch, and newborn calves were taking their first wobbly steps. GPS technology has enabled biologists to track individual animals’ movements and learn more about their habitat preferences. The return of elk to Peck Ranch led to a significant increase in visitation to Peck Ranch CA, bringing added tourism business to area towns. As the year ended, MDC workers were preparing for the second round of trapping in Kentucky.
In another endangered-species restoration story, MDC biologists brought 78 prairie chickens from Kansas to Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie CA in west-central Missouri last spring. Thanks to four years of reintroduction work and habitat management that includes tree removal and prescribed burning, male prairie chickens once again are booming on Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie. Like the elk, Missouri’s newest feathered residents carried radio transmitters to aid in tracking their movements. Prairie chickens once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in western Missouri. Today the Show-Me State’s population of the birds have dwindled to 100 or so, due to habitat changes. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Wildlife Restoration, Unusual Animal Sightings Top 2011 Conservation News | freshare.net.
The early birds catch a look at elk on state parks’ tours | Kentucky.com
October 11, 2011
By Bruce Schreiner — Associated Press
HAZARD — Sleepy sightseers piled into vans at a state resort park for a nearly hourlong drive in the dark to an Appalachian coal-mining site that’s become home to another valuable natural resource in Eastern Kentucky.
The group gave up some sleeping time for a chance to get a close look at a majestic animal that has made a strong comeback after disappearing from these Kentucky mountains for more than a century.
That first glimpse of an elk at daybreak, as the sun peeked over the crest of hillsides, was worth the early wake-up call.
At that point, the hunt was on for visitors armed with cameras and binoculars.
“We’re in chase mode now,” said tour guide Trinity Shepherd, the park naturalist at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonsburg.
Everyone had caught elk fever. The visitors peered out the van windows looking for antlers or patches of brown nestled in the green vegetation. It didn’t take long to find more elk and to hear a bull elk bugle — a foghorn-like bellow heard during fall mating season. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via The early birds catch a look at elk on state parks’ tours | Travel | Kentucky.com.
This September, Archers Post New Deer Harvest Record And 50 Percent Success Rate During Early Bull Elk Season
October 4, 2011
| Oct 04, 2011 |
FRANKFORT, Ky. – It’s a September to remember.
Kentucky archers bagged a record number of deer and had better than a 50 percent success rate during the new 14-day early bull elk season.
A total of 4,947 deer were checked in for the month of September, the first 28 days of archery season, surpassing the record harvest of 4,407 taken last year.
The sex ratio of deer harvested was 34.0 percent bucks and 66.0 percent female deer (does).
“It’s encouraging that our archery hunters were so successful and took such a high percentage of does, especially in the Zone 1 counties, where we are trying to reduce the herds,” said Tina Brunjes, deer and elk program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The percentage of does in the harvest was as high as 70 percent in some counties.”
Last season Kentucky bow hunters checked in a record 16,650 deer, including record harvests for the months at the beginning and end of the season. In the last decade, the archery deer harvest has been steadily climbing, up about 33 percent since the 2000-01 season, when archers checked in 12,478 deer.
The 2011-12 Kentucky archery season for deer is 136 days long. It opened Sept. 3 and continues through Jan. 16, 2012.
The hunter success rate for the new 14-day archery bull elk season was higher than anticipated.
“I would have never predicted that the success rate would be above 50 percent,” said Brunjes. “Unseasonably cool weather and a poor crop of white oak acorns across the region may have been contributing factors to the excellent success rate for archers.”
Eighty permits were awarded to archers for the new bull elk season which began Sept. 17 and ended last Friday, Sept. 30.
PA Game Commission Awards 56 Elk Licenses /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
September 14, 2011
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — After a five-day delay prompted by Tropical Storm Lee flooding that forced the closure of state offices in the Harrisburg area last week, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today held a public drawing to award 56 elk licenses for the 2011 season. The event also was webcast via the agency’s website, drew 599 viewers, and served as a means to enable more people to view the public drawing. All 56 hunters selected to receive a license will be mailed a confirmation letter within about a week.
“Over the past two years, we have been pleased to enable the tens of thousands of individuals who apply for an elk license to find out via our webcast if they had been drawn,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “We recognize everyone who applies is unable to attend and, given our financial limitations, we can’t afford to send everyone who applied for an elk license a letter letting them know whether they were drawn; we only notify those who were selected.
“By webcasting the public drawing, we reached far more than the two dozen people who attended the event at the agency’s Harrisburg headquarters. In fact, according to the webcasting service we used for today’s broadcast, we saw there were 599 people tuned in at one time.”
Roe noted there were 18,253 individuals who applied for the drawing. An additional 487 applicants only purchased a preference point for this year, and were not included in the drawing.
“While state law prevents the agency from publishing a list of today’s winners, thanks to another of the agency’s technological leaps forward, those who were in today’s drawings can check on the status of their applications, by Sept. 23, thanks to the new Pennsylvania Automated License System (PALS),” Roe said. Click Link Below For Full Story!
Kentucky’s 2011-12 Elk Season Opens With Archery Bull Hunt
September 1, 2011
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Elk season in Kentucky will open this year on Saturday, Sept. 17, with a new 14-day hunt for the 80 archers who were awarded bull permits.
“The early archery season will open during the peak of the rut,” said Tina Brunjes, deer and elk program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “We expect bulls to be bugling and rounding up harems of cows. It will be interesting to see what the success for this hunt will be.”
The total of 800 permits awarded by lottery drawing for this year’s quota elk hunts also includes 240 archery cow permits, 120 firearms bull permits and 360 firearms cow permits. This season hunters were able to apply for up to two of the four tag types, but not twice for one tag type.
Also new this year, hunters with bull permits may take any elk with visible antlers. Hunters with archery/crossbow permits may not hunt during the four weeks of firearms elk seasons. Those awarded permits to hunt elk with firearms may not hunt during archery/crossbow elk seasons.
The 2011-12 quota elk hunt dates in Kentucky are: Firearms (Bull) Week 1, Oct. 1-7, and Week 2, Oct. 8-14; Archery (Bull) Sept. 17-30, Oct. 15–Dec. 9, Dec. 24-31, and Jan. 1-16, 2012; Crossbow (Bull) Oct. 15-16, Nov. 12-Dec. 9, and Dec. 24-31; Firearms (Cow) Week 1, Dec. 10-16, and Week 2, Dec. 17-23; Archery (Cow) Oct. 15-Dec. 9, Dec. 24-31, and Jan. 1-16, 2012, and Crossbow (Cow) Oct. 15-16, Nov. 12-Dec. 9, and Dec. 24-31.
Hunters are reminded that anyone hunting any species inside the elk zone during a firearms quota hunt for elk must comply with Kentucky’s hunter orange law.
Kentucky’s elk herd, first hunted on Oct. 6, 2001, was restored by a six-year stocking program which began in 1997. The 2011-12 season will be the 11th year that an elk hunt has been held in Kentucky.
Hunters bagged a total of 540 elk (198 bulls and 342 cows) last season. Of that total, archers took 28 elk and hunters using crossbows harvested just nine elk.
Initially, the lottery drawing for elk permits was open to residents only. Kentuckians hunted elk for the first three seasons, but, beginning in 2004, non-residents could apply for permits. No more than 10 percent of the permits are awarded to non-residents.
Because such a low percentage of permits are allocated for non-residents, Kentucky residents have always had a much better chance of being drawn to hunt.
Consider what happened this year when about 61,500 applications were submitted by 35,359 hunters for 800 elk permits. The odds of a non-resident being drawn for a bull firearms permit were 1 in 742, and 1 in 568 for a bull archery permit.
By contrast, Kentucky residents had much better odds of being drawn for a permit: 1 in 185 for a bull firearms permit and 1 in 91 for a bull archery permit.
Kentucky’s 16-county elk zone is 4.1 million acres, and is divided into 10 Elk Hunting Units (EHUs) with a total of 567,714 acres open to public hunting. The EHUs have been established to manage the elk herd, spread out hunting pressure, and provide hunters with a high chance of success.
Hunters are required to possess an annual Kentucky hunting license and out-of-zone elk permit to take elk outside the 16-county elk zone, unless license exempt. The season bag limit on elk is one per hunter per season, regardless of the permit type.
For more information on elk hunting in Kentucky visit the department’s website: fw.ky.gov.
Kentucky Elk Shirts
May 2, 2011
The Kentucky Elk Restoration project conducted by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Department and supported by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is considered one of the most successful wildlife reintroduction efforts ever conducted. In December of 1997 seven elk were released at the Cyprus Amax Wildlife Management Area in Eastern Kentucky. Through 2002 a total of 1500 elk were released at 8 different sites in a 16 county restoration zone. To date the thriving elk herd of Kentucky has grown to over 10,000 animals and is the largest elk herd east of the Mississippi River. In celebration of this great conservation effort MyHuntingandFishing.Com is pleased to introduce Kentucky Elk apparel. We offer Elk T-Shirts in both short and long sleeve and a hooded sweatshirt. Most designs are available from Small to XXXL and are printed on the highest quality of garments. Check out the designs below. All orders are shipped USPS Priority mail for just $4.99 per order regardless of the number of items. Thanks for visiting. If you are unable to see items below click here!
Questions raised about handling of charitable elk hunting permits | Kentucky.com
February 9, 2011
By Beth Musgrave — bmusgrave@herald-leader.com
FRANKFORT — Lawmakers peppered staff of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Thursday about a potential ethics violation involving lucrative elk hunting permits that are used as fund-raisers for non-profit groups.
Legislators also raised questions about an agreement that calls for Kentucky to give Missouri 150 elk over the next three years in exchange for crappie to restock Kentucky lakes. The Government Contract Review Committee has never seen a contract between the two states allowing the wildlife exchange.
Marcheta Sparrow, secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, confirmed after Tuesday’s meeting that there is a complaint before the Executive Branch Ethics Commission regarding the awarding of charitable elk hunting licenses.
Lawmakers had questioned why the nine-member commission that oversees Fish and Wildlife decided to award three elk hunting permits to a non-profit group with ties to current and former commissioners when state regulations appear to say a non-profit may receive only one elk hunting permit.
The elk hunting permits can generate as much as $100,000 in raffles and auctions. Click Link Below for Full Story!
Elk management plan moving forward in Va. – BusinessWeek
May 24, 2010
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.
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