{"id":53972,"date":"2026-11-12T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=53972"},"modified":"2026-11-09T10:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:39:12","slug":"kentucky-released-1541-elk-onto-old-coal-mines-and-the-herd-is-now-put-at-10000-to-13000-while-federal-guidance-says-the-grass-that-fed-them-can-hold-back-the-forests-that-were-supposed-to-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/kentucky-released-1541-elk-onto-old-coal-mines-and-the-herd-is-now-put-at-10000-to-13000-while-federal-guidance-says-the-grass-that-fed-them-can-hold-back-the-forests-that-were-supposed-to-return\/53972\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky released 1,541 elk onto old coal mines and the herd is now put at 10,000 to 13,000, while federal guidance says the grass that fed them can hold back the forests that were supposed to return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kentucky released 1,541 elk from six western states onto eight reclaimed coal mine sites between December 1997 and March 2002. A Virginia state management plan<\/a> put the resulting herd at 10,000 to 15,000 animals in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal mine reclamation guidance adds a complication to that success. It describes the kind of grassy reclaimed slopes that feed elk as places where native forest often struggles to return, though it does not measure Kentucky’s elk range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traps, plywood and 26-hour drives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the Virginia plan’s review of neighboring states, elk had been gone from Kentucky since the mid-1800s. The replacements came from Arizona, Kansas, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation<\/a> says that spread was meant to widen genetic diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the winters of 2001 and 2002, Kentucky biologists Dan Crank and Charlie Logsdon worked near the Utah-Wyoming border. They drove three hours each way to check corral traps built from 10-foot plywood panels. Crank told the foundation’s magazine in 2024 that “it was a pretty hard job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each load of about 70 animals filled one trailer and was tested for disease before the trip. The drive to Kentucky took 26 hours, and drivers went day and night to limit stress on the elk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving them carried a real cost. The Virginia plan, citing a 2003 study, says 49 percent of known deaths among the translocated elk were related to capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grass on reclaimed mine land<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Southeastern Kentucky offered few people, few row crops and few cities. It also had 12,000 acres (about 4,900 hectares) of surface-mined land with reclaimed vegetation, the Virginia plan reports. From the late 1970s on, the common recipe on such land was smooth grading followed by fast-growing grasses and legumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those openings suited an animal that grazes close to tree cover. Virginia’s planners call reclaimed Appalachian mines an “abundance of open, early successional habitats that are ideal for elk.” The term describes young, low vegetation in the first stages of regrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heavy
Heavy equipment works a cleared slope at a mining site being repurposed as elk habitat in Virginia (Photo: Meghan Marchetti\/Virginia DWR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kentucky’s restoration zone covers 16 counties and 4.1 million acres (about 1.7 million hectares). Its stated goal was 8,000 elk. Estimates rose from 5,700 animals in 2007 to 9,000 in 2009, already past that target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kentucky elk restocked other states<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Missouri became one of the first customers for the growing herd. The state brought in Kentucky elk from 2011 to 2013, and the foundation counts 108 animals in all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia then released 75 Kentucky elk in Buchanan County between 2012 and 2014. State records cite the program’s biological success and the absence of detected disease in its animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Biologists
Biologists check the health of a blindfolded Kentucky elk bound for release in Virginia (Photo: John Brunjes Photography, via Virginia DWR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some Kentucky elk had already crossed the line on their own by 2000. Virginia found that capturing and returning them was impractical. In 2001 the state allowed elk to be taken during any open deer season, hoping to stop herds from settling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compacted soil holds back trees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Federal reclamation advisories read reclaimed grassland very differently. A 2007 advisory from the federal Office of Surface Mining warns that “compacted mine soils and competitive grasses hinder tree establishment and growth.” Some sites stay in a grass and shrub stage for decades, a condition called arrested succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavy machinery lies behind much of the damage, and loaded haul trucks can exceed 200 tons. A separate agency advisory<\/a> recommends ripping compacted ground at least 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep. That job generally takes a bulldozer the size of a Cat D-9 or larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open grass also has limits as elk habitat. A 2013 federal advisory on wildlife<\/a> says elk rarely use open areas more than about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from a forest edge. Planting native trees and shrubs inside large grasslands can therefore help the animals too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other repair projects have produced their own side effects, including Iceland’s Alaskan lupin, introduced as ecological repair<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Browsing can cost mining companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mine cleanup itself can suffer when the herd moves in. Citing Kentucky’s deer and elk project leader, the Virginia plan names browsing and “horning,” damage done to woody plants with antlers. Companies that miss their required vegetation cover may fail to recover their bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunting permits expanded quickly as the herd grew. Kentucky offered 41 public tags in 2004, 400 in 2008 and 1,000 in 2009. Hunting accounts for most elk deaths in the state, the plan says, though harvests had not yet limited growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large animals in a new landscape often bring this kind of trade-off, as Newfoundland’s introduced moose<\/a> have shown. Chernobyl’s exclusion zone<\/a> offers another case of large mammals on damaged ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody has counted every elk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every population figure in this story is an estimate. The foundation reported more than 10,000 elk by 2015 and “around 13,000” in February 2024. Virginia’s plan gave a range of 10,000 to 15,000 for 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a range that wide, comparing two of these figures cannot show whether the herd has grown or shrunk. The sources reviewed here also do not measure how much of today’s herd depends on mine land. Kentucky’s wildlife agency, fw.ky.gov, could not be read, so its own current counts are not used here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation’s account appeared in its magazine Bugle on February 28, 2024. The Virginia Elk Management Plan 2019-2028 is published by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Meghan Marchetti\/Virginia DWR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky released 1,541 elk from six western states onto eight reclaimed coal mine sites between December 1997 and March 2002. … <\/p>\n

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