Growing up on the Elk River, just outside of a little town named Elkview, I was often curious as to why rivers and towns were named after an animal not found there. The fact is, elk used to roam our hills and hollers in abundance long ago. But by the late 1800s, elk were completely eliminated from West Virginia. The last native elk records were reported from the headwaters of the Cheat River in Pocahontas County in 1873, and the Webster Springs area of Webster County in 1875.
Thanks to the elk restoration efforts of our neighboring states and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, elk are again taking hold in the Appalachian Mountains. In fact, Kentucky’s elk herd, the largest herd east of the Rockies, was restored with financial and technical support from RMEF in the 1990s. That herd now numbers more than 10,000 animals, is a major tourism draw, offers ever-increasing hunting opportunities and is now serving as a source herd for restoration efforts in other states.
With Virginia recently changing its stance on elk restoration, our southern counties border elk country even more so. Not all the elk understand borders, though. In the southern coalfield counties of West Virginia, reports of elk are not unusual and it’s commonly believed that we now have elk moving across our borders.
In 2005, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources’ wildlife resources section contracted with the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry to evaluate elk habitat suitability in West Virginia. Funding for the feasibility study was provided by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and a report titled “Biological Assessment of Potential Habitat for Elk in West Virginia” was prepared. In addition, an elk management plan was recently drafted with a primary goal to passively establish and manage a healthy elk population within a seven-county region of southwestern West Virginia that is compatible with biological and sociological conditions and provides recreational opportunities and other benefits for the citizens of West Virginia.
That is where we sit today — a passive approach to elk establishment in southern West Virginia. Having said that, at a recent sportsman’s event I attended this past week, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced during his speech that he felt it was time to restore elk in West Virginia. Using Kentucky as a reference, the governor talked of the economic benefits and recreational opportunities an elk herd in southern West Virginia would provide.
Elk are big business. People travel to see restored elk in their natural environment, and watchable wildlife programs have a proven track record. Hunters pay money to have their name in a lottery drawing for a slim chance to hunt elk in the Appalachian Mountains and the money is used for wildlife projects. Southern West Virginia is blessed with large tracts of land for the elk to roam, and perhaps the governor is spot-on — it is time to talk elk restoration.
As for me, I sure would like to stand high on a ridge top on a crisp, autumn morning and hear the bugle of an elk as it echoes across our great West Virginia mountains. With talks of elk restoration and a proactive approach, it might just happen.
Outdoors
Governor announces it’s time to restore elk in W.Va.
- Outdoors
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Hunting has become more mainstream
As sportsmen, we live by an ethical code of conduct. We are taught by our mentors not to take our way of life for granted and to be aware of our actions as not to cause offense to others. In short, we are taught to behave in a manner as to not make a non-hunter into an anti-hunter.
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Birding among outdoor passions
If you love the outdoors, there are probably some activities you like better than others. Maybe it’s trout fishing or deer hunting. My passion is birds. I love the spring migration when new species return almost daily.
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Setting the record straight on rabbits
Thanks to cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, the rabbits we see in our backyards, eastern cottontails, are familiar to almost everyone. And yet I suspect that most people think they are rodents. They are not. Rabbits and hares are lagomorphs, members of the mammalian order Lagomorpha.
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Fickle weather can wreck plans
Well, it’s officially spring. We have “sprung forward” into daylight saving time in hopes of long, sunny evenings to play and work outdoors in the glorious, warm rays of the sun. In return for our daily routines being altered by the time change, we are awarded with unpredictable weather and mud season — gee, thanks!
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Black deer among nature’s rarities
A few weeks ago, Joan Robinson contacted me after she noticed something out of the usual while driving along a Hampshire County backroad in the Eastern Panhandle. It was so unusual she even questioned herself at what her eyes were actually seeing.
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Male half of nesting eagle pair feared dead
One of southern West Virginia’s much-loved and only confirmed pair of nesting American Bald Eagles is suspected dead and the pair’s eggs located at the tip of Brooks Island off W.Va. 20 are in jeopardy.
Wendy Perrone, executive director of Three River Avian Center, said National Park Service Law Enforcement was notified that an Amtrak train hit the eagle Sunday around 10:30 a.m.
Since Sunday, the Park Service, Three Rivers and dedicated volunteers have scouted the track and surrounding area from Brooks Island to Sandstone Falls, but no one has recovered the bird. The male bird, affectionately called Whitey, has also not returned to the nest, leading experts to believe he was killed. -
There is help for anglers getting started
According to statistics from the National Surveys of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, which are published every five years, the number of anglers in the U.S. is in a steady decline. Over the last 20 years the number of anglers has dropped from 35.6 million in 1991 to 33.1 million in 2011.
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Beckley among places to ‘talk turkey’
This past week brought us snow and rain. Like my kids are fond of saying in a very sarcastic tone, “Really?” For the sportsmen in our area, the last couple of days of winter can be a downtime in the action. For those needing to scratch the hunting and fishing itch, I have a little news that might just do the trick.
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‘How do robins survive winter conditions?’
Winter must be winding down because I’m getting letters and e-mails about winter robins.
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Sequester impacting hunting, fishing industries
A news release from Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) Communications came across my desk this week, and I felt the information was worth sharing.
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