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That's right, we could be elk hunting in Wisconsin very soon. How soon? Depends upon the battle between the WI Dept of Agriculture and WI. DNR. Either way this battle goes, we'll be hunting elk in WI. sooner than you may think.

Let me explain. We have 150 elk in the Clam Lake area expecting to become about 170 give or take a few by this time next year. Wisconsin's first elk hunt will be triggered when the herd reaches 200 which at the current rate would be around 2012. At that time, 10 tags will be issued. They break down as 5 tags go to the Native Indian Tribes, 4 tags will be on Lottery by the WI. DNR and 1 tag will go on lottery from Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The DNR and RMEF tags will all be available to Wisconsin hunters. This will be the elk hunting structure for the first 5 years.

OK, this isn't going to give many elk hunting opportunities for quite some time but you have to crawl before you walk, walk before you run, but there's more.

Back to the battle. WI DNR and RMEF have been working hard to get more elk. DNR scrapped the original plan in 2002 because of the Dept. of Ag.'s fear of CWD so they banned all transportation of elk and deer in Wisconsin. That transportation ban is what the fight is about. WI DNR and RMEF have found a safe herd of elk to help supplement our herd, everything is paid for and ready to go, except for the transportation ban.

The elk that are in Question are from Elk Island National Park, Canada. A huge fenced in natural paradise. Wisconsin and Tennessee are both in line for elk from this herd, 100 for Tenn and 50 for WI. of which 25, mostly cows will go to Clam Lake area, ( bull count is real good in CL) and the other 25 will start a brand new herd in the Black River Falls area.

Do the math, 50+150= ELK HUNTING! Once the door is open and the first 50 come through, it opens the door for every year to come. Adding more elk in the future in small numbers so we don't overload the habitat and identify where habitat needs improving as our hunting numbers grow. YOU CAN HELP! Join RMEF and take the $35 off your taxes. Call your state reps and law makers and tell them to help the DNR get our elk.

I've got more promising news also. For the past couple years scientists have been working on a LIVE CWD TEST. A test that can be performed on elk and deer that are still alive! About 2 years ago there was a domestic herd in Portage county that was depopulated.Scientists in CO. asked for tissue samples from these deer for there research and WI DNR helped them out. Now these scientists have developed a tonsil biopsy for deer, and a tonsil and rectal biopsy for elk. As printed in RMEF's Bugle May-June 2009 issue, scientist in Rocky Mountain National Park "Since Jan. 2008 have darted 136 elk resulting in 117 usable samples. Of those 13 have tested positive for CWD and were confirmed with post-mortem examinations." What they're doing is darting an elk, taking the biopsies, and releasing the elk with a GPS radio collar. When the tests come back positive, they track down the elk, dart it again, remove it from the herd and do the "not live" test. This testing will go on for 3 years as part of the RMNP's elk culling program.

Once this research is tested and perfected, there is no reason that every domestic deer and elk can not be tested and it can be a usefull tool with managing wild herds.

My question that I've asked our DNR and have yet to recieve a ligit answer, is why are we not doing more to help with this research? I've also passed on the thought that testing the 50 elk from EINP, and the 100 going to Tenn. should also be done and may help open the door sooner. If a bone head like me can figure that out, I'd hope they are way ahead of me.

As research, I can't think of a better place to dart tag and test deer than in the CWD Zone right here in Wisconsin. No, we can't dart every deer, it's not the perfect answer, but it's a tool that has it's uses. For example, Oshkosh couldn't catch and move deer out of the city for the same reason the DNR can't transport elk. They tried culling, didn't work. This test should make it feasable to capture the city deer, test them so they can be moved.

As we are talking about both deer and elk in Wisconsin, I want to make clear to the deer hunters that elk doesn't mean fewer deer. They eat different things, the habitat can support a healthy number of each much better than an over population of either. If we want bear hunting to be more than 1 tag every 9 years, and we have to maintain a population of wolve and want to keep hunting deer, we are going to need elk. It's a matter of 5th grade biology on how the food chain works. It simply takes too many deer to support bears wolves and humans for the habitat to handle. The deer up north are in trouble partially because the elk reintroduction plan is 7 years behind.

The original "big game" food chain in Wisconsin was deer, elk, bison, caribou, moose, wolves, bears and cougars to name the big players. Wi DNR did a study back in the 90's that determined elk to be the best choice for reintroduction, bison the 2nd feasable species and after that, caribou and moose are probably not feasable. As cougars have been showing up much like wolves in the 80's, maybe we should be starting a bison test herd? Like the herd the DNR has behind fences in Sandhill Wildlife area? A test herd that just like the test herd of 9 elk Michigan started with that provided Wisconsin with 25 elk in 1995. DNR owns the herd of bison already. They sell off bison to farmers when they get too many for the pasture....

Wisconsin is looking for ways to break out of this resession. Our paper industry is on the decline as we get further into the paperless age. Our forests are being attacked by insects and disease made vulnerable by the forestry industry that's now in decline and will no longer be the most profitable natural renewable resource the land can produce. If converted into more natural habitat, we get a ballance of renewable resources that include lumber, all the big game mentioned, all the small game that goes with, everything our economy needs in a less vulnerable disease and insect resistant environment. Can you imagine what elk and bison would do for tourism and hunting industries in Wisconsin? Think of Black River Falls when the first 25 elk show up.