The National Forest Service has completed a move of 43 of LBL's elk to repopulate the species in the Mountain State. The West Virginia Department of Management Resources said that relocating elk was the safest way to bolster numbers there.
Wildlife biologists agree that the relocation is mutually beneficial for both locations.
“The 700-acre Elk and Bison Prairie can only support so many animals,” said Curtis Fowler, a Forest Service wildlife technician at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Golden Pond. “Reducing the number of animals increases the quality of our herd and makes them more resilient to stressors.”
The smaller Kentucky herd will benefit from the extra antler room, and for other animals who make their homes in the prairie, it ensures more quality natural materials available for nesting and cover.
This move also aligns with one of the original objectives of the project that brought the animals to LBL; that is to maintain a healthy population of elk for future wild reintroductions, wherever they are needed. In the past 25 years, a total of 168 elk from LBL have been transferred into the wild, including reintroduction of elk to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and other wildlife management areas in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Elk were first re-introduced to the lakes area under the Tennessee Valley Authority’s management in 1996. The prairie was created to help demonstrate to visitors what native prairie land looked like when settlers arrived in western Kentucky and Tennessee.
When the Forest Service assumed management of Land Between the Lakes in 1999, the herd consisted of approximately 35 elk. After the recent elk relocation to the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area, the herd now numbers 43.
(Photo by Deborah Kimes, Elk and Bison Prairie Bugle Corps Volunteers)
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