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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 16:37:19 GMT -5
This topic has been discussed before. Many people laugh at the idea and say "Indiana simply does not have enough habitat for an Elk population". And many people love the idea.
Kentucky has over 12,000 wild Elk, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, MN, PA, Maryland, VA, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Oklahoma all have reintroduced Elk in the last 10 to 20 years. And many other eastern states are studying possible Elk reintroduction.
Yes, most of those states all have more forest, and wilderness than Indiana.
But couldn't Elk be reintroduced into the 200,000 acre Hoosier National Forest ? Perhaps a few dozen could be reintroduced, and closely monitored. And there population would be kept at perhaps 800 or less. If their numbers exceeded 800 than they would need to be controlled, perhaps by Hunting.
Certainly a small Elk population of 800 or less could live on over 200,000 acres of preserved Land, without causing much harm to crops surrounding the Hoosier National Forest.
Several other Midwest States have done similar things, several states in this part of America have reintroduced wild Elk, but only let their population get up to around 800.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 16:47:47 GMT -5
I don't think that 200,000 acres is anywhere near contiguous or unbroken.
Personally, I'd love to see it, but it will never happen.
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Post by beermaker on Sept 18, 2013 17:10:08 GMT -5
I don't think it will ever happen. The auto-insurance and farm lobbies already have the DNR guys by the short and curlys. I was just looking at the new hunting guide today and damn near all of the counties have an individual quota of at least four antlerless deer. Does anyone honestly think they will allow a much larger animal to be introduced into a marginal amount of habitat? While I would love to see it, I think not. There are some good tracts of reclaimed coal ground in the southwest part of the state, but just too much human population and vehicle traffic.
Like the other fellow said, the 200k acres of the national forest are not anywhere close to being contiguous and are full of highways and even interstates. Not to mention scatterings of private crop fields.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 17:30:25 GMT -5
Some good points. This is probably the only way Elk could ever be Reintroduced back into Indiana.
Southern Indiana has tens of thousands of Deer, Tens of thousands of Coyotes, Tens of thousands of Turkeys, so surly the HNF could support a few hundred Elk as long as their numbers were kept low LOL.
The Elk would be fine living in the Hoosier National Forest, but the problem many think is they would get out and cause traffic problems, and crop damage, which is possible.
But probably not as likely or nearly as big of a problem as you may think.
In eastern Kentucky there are over 12,000 Elk. Many live near houses, cities, towns, roads, and their population is very close to Interstate 75. Even with all that, the Elk are not really causing problems at all like many people said they would before they were reintroduced.
Out west huge Elk populations live close to large Cities and near big Interstates.
In many eastern states Elk have been reintroduced within 1 to 2 hours of large cities. In Missouri Elk now live within 2 hours of ST Louis, and fairly close to Interstates 55 and 44. In Tennessee Elk live just east of Nashville in the Cumberland Plateau, close to Interstate 40 and 75. Also Elk live in the TN and NC just outside of Knoxville, Tn close to Interstate 40.
I still think rural parts of the Hoosier National Forest, the 65,000 acre Crane Base, or places like the Charles Deam Wilderness Area could support a small number of wild Elk, as long as they were closely monitored by Biologist and Hunters.
I am not sure if this will ever happen in Indiana, but it would be great if it did.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 18:01:25 GMT -5
I agree that a small herd could work in Indiana. It's just not going to happen.
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Post by featherduster on Sept 18, 2013 18:11:03 GMT -5
Lets try and restore other native animals such as pheasant and quail. The first time someone hits one with a car the Insurance industry will be up in arms. The ranchers in Northern Nebraska were very unhappy when Elk were transplanted in their area because the don't know how to jump fences and they love to spar with the round hay bales.
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Post by GS1 on Sept 18, 2013 20:14:26 GMT -5
I guess HNF would also support a few bears, a small pack of wolves and a couple of mountain lions along with the elk. If we're dreaming, we might as well dream big.
Or we could invest in the animals that we should already have throughout the state, such as rabbit, quail and grouse.
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Post by firstwd on Sept 19, 2013 6:10:02 GMT -5
It has been tried. It didn't work. It didn't work in an almost secure high fence area, it won't work in a completely open area.
I'm with GS1, let's do black bear. That would be fun. By the way, how did the black bear reintroduction efforts go in Tennessee and Kentucky
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2013 7:16:32 GMT -5
Black bear did good, there is now a hunting season in Ky. for them.
You can not "stock" grouse or quail, all you can do is provide habitat. Not easy to do with tree huggers in the world.
But you could reintroduce elk. Virginia is doing it now. Several other states have recieved Ky. elk to make it happen.
But it takes vast smounts of land void of row crops and golf courses and large grassey areas such as airports or parks. All things with Ky. elk are not peaches andcream. Some people simply hate living with them while other love being around them.
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Post by freedomhunter on Sept 19, 2013 11:37:41 GMT -5
Elk are doing well in Eastern Kentucky because the coal country habitat is perfect for them and the black bear, Indiana doesn't have that expansive contiguous habitat
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Sept 20, 2013 8:55:53 GMT -5
I say bring 'em on. They wouldn't do nearly as much damage as hogs, which are already expanding closer to the HNF in Lawrence and Jackson Counties and simply cannot be adequately managed. At least there would be some tourist revenue and eventually several thousand $$$ tags to help pay for it.
I do spend some time every year in the HNF, and even if I never got to shoot one, it would still be pretty cool to have big bull elk bugling so close to home every September.
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Post by josephwrealty on Sept 20, 2013 18:00:10 GMT -5
Ecologically, hunting opportunity wise, and for tourism reasons having a small herd reintroduced into hoosier national forest would be awesome. A well managed small herd is definitely possible. Though politically I definitely think it'd be an uphill battle and getting some to accept the idea would not be easy either. If a herd was established and hunting season was opened up I would apply for a tag every year.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2013 14:10:37 GMT -5
Thanks for the Responses.
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imbguide
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Post by imbguide on Sept 22, 2013 22:14:11 GMT -5
i think having a small herd would ne great. But it is sad day when insurance companies and politics dictate our lives. I feel increasing the bounty on coyotes high enough people start hunting and trapping them in much larger numbers would be a better start. I can't kill them all! in turn increasing the numbers of pheasants, quail, and rabbits. maybe incentives to farmers and landowners not to burn and clear fence lines or drain small wetlands. lets face it, the DNR just started making progress with new whitetail regulations instead of basing it off of vehicle collisions. we have a quality deer herd here and if it was properly managed, it could bring a lot of revenue into our state like it has our surrounding states. maybe we should bring our animal quality and populations up to par before we try and manage a complex big game animal like elk.
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