The day opponents of the importation of elk into Kentucky predicted 15 years ago has arrived: The elk have become so plentiful in southeastern Kentucky that some residents consider them to be more of a nuisance and a hazard than an asset that will draw more hunters to the state.
Complaints about the elk have become so frequent that Bell County Judge-Executive Albey Brock asked the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to meet with local officials and residents to hear their concerns. Two Fish and Wildlife officials traveled to Pineville this month and heard several complaints about the increasing numbers of animals, their size and their frequency on roadways.
Fish and Wildlife Resources Commissioner Taylor Orr and Wildlife Division Director Karen Wahlberg said they are working on solutions.
In the time of Daniel Boone, elk were common in Kentucky, but they disappeared from the state for more than a century until the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources began importing them in 1997. The large animals have adjusted well to life in Kentucky, and the state’s elk herd has continued to grow to the point that several limited elk hunts have been authorized.
The restoration of animals native to Kentucky was only one of the reasons the Fish and Wildlife Resources Department began returning elk to Kentucky. The state also hoped the elk herd soon would be so large as to attract new hunters to this region’s hills and valleys. But to every positive there is a negative.
The elk certainly have not become the pests that deer are in Kentucky, and fortunately the larger, slower moving elk do not dart quickly into the paths of vehicles like deer do. On the other hand, a collision with a 900-pound elk can cause much more damage to a vehicle than hitting a deer weighing less than 200 pounds.
When elk were first brought to Kentucky from the western U.S., a former member of our editorial board, now retired, predicted they would become a dangerous nuisance and opposed their importation. The elk problem is yet to be as bad as he predicted, but the state would be wise to take steps now to prevent the problem from getting worse.
