Appalachia’s Greatest Conservation Story
Appalachia’s Greatest Conservation Success Story – Restoring a Native Species?
By: Jackie Rosenberger, VA DWR Elk Project Leader
As the 2023 fall elk tour season is upon us, it is a good time to reflect on Appalachia’s greatest conservation success story and how Virginia fits into the narrative. Many folks do not realize elk are native to North America and were, in fact, thought to be more numerous than white-tailed deer historically. When Europeans arrived on the continent, elk occurred throughout the eastern U.S., except along the coastal plain.
To the new settlers, North America had seemingly endless natural resources and no rules. And just like many of our common species of today (e.g. wild turkey, white-tailed deer), elk were hunted to the point of significant extirpation throughout their range. Drastic changes in land use also played a significant role in the elk’s demise. It is hard for us to imagine, but the eastern U.S. was once home to prairie-like ecosystems and oak savannas, which also supported the American bison.
Elk were eliminated from Virginia before the Civil War. Early attempts in the 1900s to restore elk to the Commonwealth using stock from Yellowstone were ultimately unsuccessful and elk were gone again by 1970. Virginia started to see elk coming across the border as soon as Kentucky started their massive elk restoration from 1997 to 2002, where 1500+ elk were translocated from 6 western states. However, Virginia’s elk population didn’t take off until elk hunting in Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties was prohibited in 2011 and 75 elk were translocated to Buchanan County from Kentucky during 2012– 2014. Now, there are over 250 elk in southwest Virginia. The population is growing and has even reached an abundance level where limited hunting opportunities were offered in fall of 2022 and will be offered again in fall of 2023.
It is important to understand that Virginia, along with all other eastern states with current elk populations, restored a native species. Many informational resources about elk in North America focus too much on subspecies and the fact that two of the six elk subspecies are extinct (Eastern and Merriam’s). As a biologist who has fielded questions and insinuations that Virginia restored non-native elk, I want to take some time to put minds at ease. By definition, a species is a group of organisms that can breed and produce viable, fertile offspring. It is the basic taxonomic unit. Subspecies further divides a species into groups based on physical or genetic differences that arise from inhabiting different geographic areas. Differences among subspecies are relatively minor. In terms of elk, differences have been described in antler and body size among the subspecies, but it is important to consider that environmental factors could play just as much of a role in explaining these differences. Ultimately, all four subspecies of elk that exist today (Rocky Mountain, Roosevelt, Tule, Manitoban) can interbreed and produce viable, fertile offspring. Therefore, they are all the same species, North American elk (Cervus canadensis). Things change as time moves on. And as elk expand and intermingle throughout the Appalachians, the concept of subspecies will become even less important. Already, there are both Rocky Mountain (Kentucky and Virginia) and Manitoban (Tennessee and North Carolina) elk in the southeastern U.S. and West Virginia has already translocated individuals from both subspecies into the same area for their elk restoration. Furthermore, consider that there are 30-40 subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America divvied up by geography. Generally, we don’t consider these subspecies different; we consider them all white-tailed deer. Deer have been translocated around the eastern half of the U.S. at an astronomically higher degree than elk. From 1926 to 1952, Virginia received deer from 11 other states. Deer were still being restocked in Buchanan and Dickenson counties as recently as the 1980s and 1990s. We would never consider our deer a non-native species and neither should we consider our elk.
So when you come to see these massive, charismatic animals for yourself this fall, take a moment to appreciate the elk’s history over the last few hundred years that led to the precise, breath-taking moment that you get to experience in Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. And be reminded that although humans may have a way of messing things up, we sometimes do well at learning from and fixing those mistakes!
