What is our legacy?

Will it be a landscape of open skies and rolling hills or one of strip malls and box stores? Will our children inherit the opportunity to pursue the animal of their dreams or only faded photos of what once was? These are the questions we ask today, questions not unlike those that led hunters and anglers to establish game laws, fair-chase ethics and conservation goals in the early 1900s. At the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, we carry on that hunter-conservationist tradition. In fact, we’ve protected and enhanced five million acres of critical wildlife habitat since 1984.

But more must be done. Today, like every day, 2,500 acres of wildlife habitat will disappear — replaced by sprawl and concrete. That intense level of development, along with threats such as noxious weeds, makes now a critical time for the future of elk country.

We invite you to join the Elk Foundation, support our mission programs — habitat stewardship, permanent land protection, conservation education and elk restoration —and help build our endowment. Together we can be the future of elk country. And that future can be as strong, alive and vital as a bugling bull.

Strategically Important Landscapes

Drawing from the best ideas and methods of the scientific and conservation community - and from the best traditions of hunters, conservationists and philanthropists - the Elk Foundation protects and stewards the most important and threatened wildlife habitat in elk country.

Between 1982 and 2002, the United States lost 34.5 million acres of rural lands—almost 5,000 acres a day—to poorly planned growth, rapid subdivision and development. Much of this land was valuable wildlife habitat, working farms, ranches and forests. Even before 1982, elk had lost more than 80 percent of their once-expansive range, and what remains is increasingly fragmented and degraded.

Healthy elk herds are a sign of healthy ecosystems. They are part of an interconnected natural and human community that includes thriving hunting and ranching traditions and a rich diversity of wildlife.

Conservation Initiatives

The Elk Foundation has the vision, discipline and focus required to strategically use our resources to secure the future of elk and other wildlife. We are setting national priorities and developing conservation strategies by focusing on a series of landscape-scale initiatives. Drawing from the best ideas and methods of the scientific and conservation community—and from the best traditions of hunters, conservationists and philanthropists—we are protecting and stewarding the most important and threatened wildlife habitat in elk country.

A Clearly Defined Approach

We accomplish this through a clearly delineated approach that is both broad-minded and sharply focused. On-the-ground action includes permanently protecting lands, stewarding habitat and supporting research, restoring elk to their historic ranges, and educating people about the role humans play in conserving wildlife. For us to achieve our conservation goals and objectives, we must evaluate the effectiveness of our actions. Ongoing, consistent monitoring and evaluation is critical to efficient allocation of human and financial resources.

We envision a future in which elk and other wildlife roam free in wild places across North America, providing inspiration and wonder to hunters and other conservationists—challenging them to pass this legacy on to future generations.

Land Protection

The Elk Foundation permanently protects crucial elk winter and summer ranges, migration corridors, calving grounds and other vital areas where habitat and wildlife are threatened by fragmentation and encroaching development.

Since 1984, the Elk Foundation has permanently protected more than 1,000 square miles of prime habitat for elk and other wildlife across North America.

Habitat at Risk

But our work is just beginning. The conversion of rural areas to residential development, subdivision and other developed uses is even outpacing population growth. As land values skyrocket, farming and ranching families are pressured to sell what are often a region’s most beautiful and productive lands. When the health of these lands is compromised, wildlife habitat is at risk.

Prioritizing the Most Critical Habitat

Using advanced habitat mapping technology, we identify and prioritize the most crucial elk winter and summer ranges, migration corridors and calving areas. Working with our partners, including willing landowners, government agencies, corporations, foundations and other conservation groups to permanently protect the most critical habitat. Our land conservation tools include: acquisitions, conservation easements, land and real estate donations, contributions, land exchanges and associated acres.

Additional Benefits

In addition to protecting wildlife habitat, our lands program also:

• Increases access and recreational opportunities on public lands, including hunting and fishing.
• Increases opportunities for agricultural and ranchland families to continue working the land for generations to come.
• Supports resource-based economies of agriculture, forestry, recreation and tourism.
• Preserves important historic, archeological and cultural resources.
• Reduces tax-supported infrastructure and maintenance costs.

Our goal is to permanently protect the most critical elk habitat before it is lost forever.

Stewardship

Since healthy habitat is essential for healthy elk and other wildlife, the Elk Foundation helps fund and conduct a variety of projects to improve the essential forage, water, cover and space components of wildlife habitat, and supports research and management efforts to help maintain productive elk herds and habitat.

Permanently protecting habitat is key to ensuring the future of elk. But equally important is providing ample food, water and cover, and studying and managing elk in ways that guarantee productive herds and provide hunter opportunity.

Stewardship Program Elements

The Elk Foundation’s Stewardship Program is comprised of three elements: habitat enhancement, wildlife management and research. Financial support for the program comes from Elk Foundation volunteers who raise funds through local chapter events for project grants. The foundation then turns to biologists and land managers to determine which projects will give wildlife the best bang for the buck.

Ensuring a Future for Elk

The Elk Foundation helps ensure that North America’s elk will remain abundant and healthy and that they will always have wild country to roam.

• By working with federal, state, provincial and tribal land managers as well as private landowners to restore healthy habitat on public and private lands
• By supporting management and research efforts by state and provincial agencies, universities and private organizations

Habitat Enhancement

Fire suppression, invasive weeds, conifer encroachment, and drought all degrade elk habitat. Some, like drought, are just nature’s way. Others, like fire suppression and weeds, are a direct result of human actions. Using tools such as prescribed burning, thinning, fertilization, seeding, water developments, noxious weed treatments and fencing, we are reversing the effects of these enemies of elk country. Many projects enhance habitat on public and private lands where elk already exist; some are designed to encourage elk to move onto public lands and away from ranchers’ crops and haystacks. We get the job done by providing grants and offering Habitat Stewardship Services to agencies and private landowners.

Research

We understand that the future of our wild elk herds depends on good science. Funding projects that research critical factors such as habitat needs, predation and disease provides biologists with sound, scientific data for effective wildlife and habitat management. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is of particular interest to wildlife managers across elk country, and we are funding research and educating the public about the effects of CWD on elk populations and hunting.

Elk Restoration

The Elk Foundation works to reestablish elk herds in historic ranges where the habitat and human cultural tolerance create a high potential for self-sustaining herds. There is no higher calling for a wildlife biologist or conservation organization than to restore extirpated wildlife species back to their historic ranges.

Feasibility Studies

With that in mind, in 1990 the Elk Foundation began funding feasibility studies to determine if wild, free-ranging elk still had a place in some of their former eastern haunts. Partnering with state wildlife agencies and universities, we ask three important questions: Can the habitat support elk? How will restoring elk affect the local economy and hunting? And finally, will local citizens accept a restored elk herd?

Repopulating Historic Range

Once a feasibility study is completed and a restoration project is approved by the state wildlife agency and affected landowners, the Elk Foundation and its volunteers help trap and transfer wild elk from a source herd to their ancestral grounds. All elk trapped are tested for seven diseases, including brucellosis and bluetongue, before leaving the trap site. Healthy source herds have been used in Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Alberta’s Elk Island National Park.

Monitoring Ensures Success

Once elk reach their new destination, it’s up to the participating wildlife agency to decide whether they are held in acclimation pens for a few months or released directly into the wild. Regardless, after they hit the ground the elk are monitored for three to five years to study such things as movement patterns and calf survival to ensure proper management of the herd and their habitat.

Restoration Efforts So Far

We completed successful elk restorations in Wisconsin in 1995, Ontario in 2001, and Kentucky, Tennessee and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2002. In addition, we completed feasibility studies in Illinois, Virginia and New York, although these did not result in elk restorations. We funded a feasibility study in West Virginia in 2005, and the state wildlife agency will use the data to decide whether or not to restore elk to that state.

Eastern Elk Management Workshop

In places where we've restored elk herds, the focus has turned to protecting and enhancing habitat so that future generations of elk have a place in the eastern landscape. We also provide funds and volunteer power to help study the new herds. Since 1996, we have sponsored the annual Eastern Elk Management Workshop, which provides eastern elk managers with the opportunity to share research and ideas for managing elk herds east of the Mississippi.

A Benefit to Ecosystems and Economies

Today, wild, free-ranging elk are making tracks in places where they haven’t for more than a century. Local economies benefit from visitors who travel from all over to catch a glimpse of the wily wapiti. In 2001, Kentucky held its first elk hunt in 150 years, and Pennsylvania its first hunt in more than 70 years. As Eastern elk herds continue to prosper, the Elk Foundation, its volunteers and partners will be there to welcome calves born beneath the hardwoods, and hear bulls’ bugles echoing across mountains and through hollows.