LOGAN, W.Va. — If there was any doubt about the support for a reintroduction of elk in southern West Virginia is was removed during the recent public hearing on the subject in Logan County. The DNR staged the public hearing at Chief Logan State Park November 13. Other than going over the rules of the meeting, the state stood silent and the public did the talking.
“This meeting was to show the land holding companies there is public support,” said West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Chief of Wildlife Curtis Taylor. “We had about 170 people show up and that shows there’s 170 people who are interested in what goes on around them and that was refreshing.”
A survey of the crowd revealed residents of 16 West Virginia counties attended the meeting. Taylor asked for a show of hands for those who favored or opposed elk reintroduction. Only three raised a hand in opposition.
Each speaker who signed up was allowed two minutes at the podium. The remarks were universally positive about the idea of bringing elk back to the region.
“I would give anything to hear an elk bugle in these mountains,” said one speaker.
“I’m not a hunter, but why not have elk here,” said another. “Let’s do it now.”
“I doubt I’ll live long enough to hunt them here, but at least my children and grandchildren might,” said one supporter. “I think this state deserves to have something like this.”
David White of Logan County told the panel about taking an elk viewing tour at Kentucky’s Jenny Wiley State Park. The tours, which are operated by the private sector, are booked solid.
“I never thought I’d live to seen an elk, but we saw at least 100 and heard them bugle,” White said. “It was the same habitat we have in West Virginia. Somebody in Kentucky went through the red tape. We need to talk to that person and get that job done here.”
The red tape in West Virginia is centered on whether the public will have access to the elk, when and if they are reestablished, from now on.
“We didn’t have any agreement with landowners when we did the wild boar reintroduction in the 1970’s,” Taylor said. “I think that’s why everybody is so cautious. We want to insure to the best of our ability and conform with the U.S. and state Constitutions what we can do with private land. Hopefully the companies will be cognizant of that and they have an interest in what the public wants.”
Taylor stressed the only area being considered for the reintroduction at the present time was the southern coalfields. The “Elk Management Zone” is identified as all or parts of seven counties in southern West Virginia. The state also acknowledged in many cases elk are already here. There were verified sightings of elk which have wandered into West Virginia from Kentucky and from Buchannan County, Virginia where they were reintroduced.
Taylor and others envisioned the southern West Virginia area as the completion of the Appalachian Elk Herd.
“A study indicated this area, the southwest portion of the state, would be the best both with regard to habitat suitability and human conflict,” said Bill Carman, Regional Representative of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. “If an elk reintroduction is done in West Virginia in the zone identified in the elk management plan those three zones would be contiguous and it would be really neat. It would be a regional elk herd.”
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has committed to aid in financing the reintroduction when and if it moves forward in the southern coalfields. Taylor said the state has already had some talks with the state of Kentucky to procure the elk, although they are being sought by many other states interested in their own elk reintroduction.
The Division of Natural Resources expects to have another public meeting in the Gilbert area in December or January to gauge public interest there as well.