Wisconsin elk...

[Pinecricker]

I wonder how long it will be before Western hunters start taking trips "back east" to buy NR elk tags ;-)

It seems like at least a few Eastern states are starting to build herds, but you never hear much about elk hunting there. From what I have read, the original Eastern subspecies was the biggest. With mild weather, and easy terrain, seems like they have the potential to grow really big elk.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outd...y-transfer-150-elk-wisconsin-help-build-herd/

 

[MThuntr]

Yes, I've heard the eastern subspecies was quite a bit larger but the rumor is that Teddy Roosevelt gifted a few to New Zealand that have Eastern elk in their bloodline.

I think Steve Rinella did a hunt somewhere over in the east. Looked like an interesting hunt.

 

[jryoung]

I wonder how long it will be before Western hunters start taking trips "back east" to buy NR elk tags ;-)

It seems like at least a few Eastern states are starting to build herds, but you never hear much about elk hunting there. From what I have read, the original Eastern subspecies was the biggest. With mild weather, and easy terrain, seems like they have the potential to grow really big elk.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outd...y-transfer-150-elk-wisconsin-help-build-herd/

There's hunting but the draws are limited, though increasing. I'm no biologist, but I'd be curious as to the driving factors behind their size. Winters aren't really that mild, and if it was mild winters and easy terrain, the Tule's here in CA should be far larger than they are.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

There's hunting but the draws are limited, though increasing. I'm no biologist, but I'd be curious as to the driving factors behind their size. Winters aren't really that mild, and if it was mild winters and easy terrain, the Tule's here in CA should be far larger than they are.

Could be the food. I think on average the eastern elk are probably gorging themselves in the fields.

 

[hank4elk]

I've seen some nice ones out of east.I think it's mainly feed & lack of pressure.
Merriams were the largest,but are now extinct. The Rockies that got planted to replace them have gotten almost as big.

 

[Don K]

Interesting........ We own property in the county they are supposed to bring them to and this is the first I heard of it.

 

[Trigger50]

They say that the next world record will come out of the east. Especially Kentucky. Lotsa food, mild winters & no wolves. Non-residents can apply in Kentcuky. The upper midwest herds struggle w wolves, long winters & farmers that hate them. Although MN has put out a few giants recently. The MN elk are the Manitoba sub-species. Big-bodied for the winters & tremedous mass in the antlers. The #6 overall B & C typical was found dead, tangled in a fence, on public land in northern MN, a few yrs back.

 

[schmalts]

The Indian Res wanted to release some just before CDW was discovered and that shut it down. My guess is that they will do it now on the res land between Hatfield and the Casino

 

[Trigger50]

The WI DNR has again started planning on releasing more elk down by Tomah again. There's a very informative write-up on the WI DNR website.

 

[Pinecricker]

Is there much public land in WI?

 

[tarheel]

From what I've read, the now extinct Eastern subspecies was considerably larger than the others and it wasn't their feed or conditions, but their genes. The conditions in the Appalachians can get pretty severe too and the terrain is pretty much on a par with a great deal of the Rockies You don't find any great areas of craggy open rock, but then you don't find the elk up climbing with the sheep and goats either.
It would be nice if the Great Smokies herd would multiply as quickly as has the Kentucky herd but they don't seem to be doing so. There is a tremendous amount of former coal mining area in Eastern KY which has been reclaimed and provides a lot of good grazing land, whereas the higher and more unmolested mountains in the Smokies are mostly forested, so they're beginning to move out of the park and into corn fields and pastures of some of the valleys. Maybe my grandson will get to hunt one before he gets as old as I am.

 

[Sapper.dawg]

I read a part of a pretty good study recently that intimated the TN herd is not growing as fast at the KY herd did due to the larger number of black bears in the TN reintroduction region. I did see, however, that KY is starting to increase the black bear population and some predictions say that will begin to affect herd size there too.

 

[schmalts]

Is there much public land in WI?

Wisconsin consists of approximately 34.8 million acres of land. Over 5.7 million acres of this land, or 16.5 percent, is publicly owned and used for parks, forests, trails, and natural resource protection. Note: these statistics do not include the public land used for roads, government buildings, military bases, and college/school campuses.) This 5.7 million acres of public land is owned as follows:
•Federal government owns approximately 1.5 million acres (4.4 percent of the state’s land area). Almost all of the federal forest land in Wisconsin is located in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
•State government owns approximately 1.6 million acres (4.6 percent of the state’s land area). The land is managed by two agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Land (who manages lands granted by federal government) and the DNR (managing land owned by the state).
•County government owns approximately 2.6 million acres (7.5 percent of the state’s land area).

 

[Trigger50]

The existing elk herd in WI & the soon to be new herd are both in areas of large tracts of public land. This is to minimize problems w people. The clam lake WI elk herd is holding its own but not growing alot. Bears, wolves & cars are the majority of deaths. Although my buddy that lives in the area says that there's a fair amount of poaching too !!! The DNR has clearcut & brushed out some new areas for the elk because there isnt alot of grass in this heavily forested area of the state.

 

[troydave]

About 25 years ago Wisconsin brought 25 head of elk in from Michigan. They now estimate the herd to be around 150. To me that is pretty slow progress. Now they are bringing in these elk at about $5000.00 apiece that have never seen or heard a wolf in their life. That is real expensive wolf bait. I don't think we will live long enough to see a viable hunting population of elk in Wisconsin. You can't even let a dog run loose with out it getting killed by wolves in northern Wisconsin and now the wolves have been put back on the protected list.