In 2022, the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Department and U.S. Forest Service teamed up to bring 40 elk to the southern portion of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
Last week, a member of that herd was poached, and two elk-related groups are offering a total of $5,500 for information leading to the conviction in the case.
Steven Dobey is with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
“There was an opportunity to bolster those numbers and try to more permanently establish a herd on that southern end of the Daniel Boone. It was a great opportunity, the project was a success, and this was one of those bulls.”
Dobey said elk are a public resource and the loss of one of them also carries an economic impact. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped pay to relocate the herd.
"We funded, last year, the restoration process that moved elk to the Daniel Boone Stearns Ranger District. The Elk Foundation committed, gosh, 130-thousand dollars to that project, so it’s a big deal for us, and it should be for the public as well.”
Bull elk can only be harvested in Kentucky during the September and October archery and crossbow season and September and December firearms season. The carcass of the elk was discovered in the Stearns Ranger District last Friday.
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