The 24 elk stocked in West Virginia late in 2016 came from the Land Between the Lakes Elk and Bison Prairie in western Kentucky. Seventeen more elk will be shipped from there in early March. JOHN McCOY | Gazette-Mail
By: John McCoy, Staff Writer | Posted: Jan. 19, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
West Virginia’s fledgling elk herd will receive a surprise gift sometime in February.
Late Friday afternoon, Gov. Jim Justice announced that 17 elk from Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes Elk and Bison Prairie would be shipped to the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan and Mingo counties.
Paul Johansen, wildlife chief for the state Division of Natural Resources, said the arrangement has been in the works for about two months.
“The folks at [Land Between the Lakes] reached out and notified us that they had some surplus animals they were seeking a home for,” he explained. “Of course we were interested.”
Johansen said the offer couldn’t have come at a much better time.
“There’s some serendipity here,” he explained. “This is a year in which the folks at LBL capture their animals and test them for disease. Since they’re going to be handling the animals anyway, processing them for transport to West Virginia won’t require much additional expense.”
The DNR will pay the U.S. Forest Service $500 for each elk, Johansen said.
DNR personnel will travel to western Kentucky in early February to help with the processing. The 17 elk earmarked for West Virginia will be radio-collared, implanted with microchips, tested for diseases and quarantined for 30 days while the test results are analyzed. At the end of the quarantine period, DNR workers will transport the animals to the Mountain State.
Johansen said the DNR is particularly interested in getting a few more breeding-age cows to more rapidly expand the state’s elk population.
“I figure we’ll get a mix of bulls and cows of various ages, but we’re hoping to get more cows than bulls,” he said.
The previous shipment from Land Between the Lakes, released in December 2016, consisted of 12 cows and 12 bulls. Of those 12 cows, three were pregnant and bore calves in June 2017.
The DNR also has an arrangement in place to receive 70 elk from Arizona. DNR personnel will travel there on Jan. 21 to assist with the capture and processing of those animals as well. Agency officials expect the Arizona animals to be shipped to West Virginia early this spring.
Arrangements for the Arizona elk had been well publicized. The first hint of the supplemental animals from Kentucky came when Justice made his announcement.
“As a lifelong sportsman, I am proud to work with our state and federal partners to make elk restoration in West Virginia a success story,” Justice said. “This is great news for all West Virginians as we continue to restore this magnificent native species to our state.”
Reach John McCoy at johnmccoy@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1231 or follow @GazMailOutdoors on Twitter.
