It happened for the first time in 2022. Nearly four dozen Kentucky elk hit the ground in the Beaver Creek Wildlife Management Area, within the Daniel Boone National Forest, thanks to a joint effort by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, or KDFWR.
The goal of the relocation effort was to expand the animals’ geographic range and habitat availability within Kentucky, plus create both new economic benefit for the region and future hunting opportunities. With elk on the ground in this new corner of the state for them, the work did not stop there.
RMEF again supplied funding to help KDFWR staff to plant forage across 10 acres of wildlife openings as a pilot project to see if and how elk would use it.
It worked. Elk took advantage of the forage as did the local whitetail deer population, so the effort expanded. Biologists identified 26 new wildlife openings within the management area and scheduled them for similar forage plantings.
Crews used a disk harrow to break up the ground followed by the seeding and then herbicide to knock down grass and weeds. And another planting several months later. Chalk it up as a wildlife win because GPS technology shows elk heavily use the openings and expanded habitat offerings.
Restoring elk country is core to RMEF’s mission of ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat and our hunting heritage. Since 1984, RMEF helped conserve or enhance more than 9.1 million acres of wildlife habitat.