Too often do we hear about wildlife populations hurting because of the spread of human civilization over the landscape. It seems like every week there is a story about a predator had to be put down because of its proximity to a neighborhood or hear how our waste is affecting the ecosystems of the animals that most of us appreciate. This story is not one of those stories. This story is a success story, although it is does include a bit of sad irony.
The irony is that we created as humans caused the problem that we are trying to fix. Since settlers came over the Atlantic ocean our wildlife resources have severely been depleted. Big game animals are the ones that took the biggest hit as settlers saw them as an endless resource until they almost did and for some ended completely. Elk have seen a huge comeback in the west over the last few decades, some say that some of the western states have elk populations restored to where they were before settlers arrived. However, the west is not where elk previously used to thrive, they thrived across the whole country, similar to whitetail deer today.
In Kentucky elk used to thrive according to journals by settlers. The elk however were completely gone within the state borders by the start of the civil war. The rocky mountain elk foundation (RMEF) strived to return elk to Kentucky and see that at least part of the population can be restored. This project was set to happen in an area of Kentucky that had been decimated by coal mining in the 1900’s. This is an area that few people want to live because of the threat of disease from the old mines. However, this area has the right conditions for elk to thrive. The RMEF brought, by air, over 1500 elk from the western states in 1997. Kentucky is now home to over 13,000 Elk and the population is rising.
I myself am an avid hunter and fisher, so naturally I'm a huge supporter of wildlife and wildlife habitat. I am also a member of the RMEF. Hearing stories like this really makes me happy because I do believe wildlife is an excellent resource that should not be taken for granted. Wildlife habitat continues to be encroached upon by developing towns and cities. In many areas the wildlife, particularly big game, are forced out of their habitats and forced to move to other areas. Elk used to be a prairie dwelling animal, however, with the continued pressure of humans, they have moved to the difficult landscape of the mountains to avoid human contact.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/science/kentucky-elk-wildlife-coal.html?searchResultPosition=1
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