Stepping away from politics a bit to celebrate a success story

In 1997 1540 head of Rocky Mountain Elk were relocated from Arizona, Kansas, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah to Kentucky in one of the most ambitious relocation restoration projects in our Nation’s history.

No one at the time knew how successful the effort would be. The elk were moved from meadows of the Rocky Mountains to reclaimed mining sites across Southeastern Kentucky.

In 25 years the relocation effort has proven so successful the Kentucky herd has grown from the original 1500 head to nearly 16,000. The largest elk herd east of the Rocky Mountains. The Kentucky herd is now being used to help restore elk to Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia. The natural relocation of the Kentucky herd to Virginia went so well on its own that Virginia decided to help it along by accepting 75 head from Kentucky relocated to Buchanan County, Va.

Back in January of this year we started moving started moving some our herd from Southeastern Kentucky to the Daniel Boone Forest in McCreary County in Central Kentucky in an effort to expand the herd westward. Recently Kentucky elk have immigrated naturally into Pendleton County in Northern Kentucky. Pendleton is part of the Cincinnati Metro Area.

I’ve been a member of the RMEF for over 20 years now. I joined because I wanted my son and I to be part of restoring a native species back into Kentucky. In the last few years its not uncommon to hear elk bulls bugling on my property near Staffordsville in Johnson County, Ky. An amazing sound if you have never heard it.

This video documents the RMEF helping KDFWR relocate cows and bulls to McCreary County back in January of this year





This video is a recording of elk bull bugling. This is a common sound again in the mountains of East Ky. Its especially loud this time of year during elk mating season.