I live real close to where they first placed the elk in arkansas and , the population is growing quite fast, they have started placing more elk all along the buffalo river , over this season we watched 3 heards of over 30 elk in each heard , and i have pics of over a dozen bulls on one spot of the river , we have even seen a bull on top of jasper mountain. so they have plenty of habbitat and what not!!!!!!!!! and ya ide say that one day you will not need to be in the drawing if you are a resident .