I was checking on our archer season for whitetails. And the had all the restrictions. Well i kept scrolling down and they had an elk season. They are coming in from Kentucky who is stocking them. 10 were taken in South West VA. I think that they are trying to keep them 0out w/b of fear of CWD. I thought it was interesting.

It isn't exactly an elk season. I think they treat them as one of the deer on your license. And, yes, they are escapees from Kentucky.

I just happenned to catch a segment on one of the saturday morning wildlife shows about PA. elk. Damn they had some good looking bulls!

They are strays from the reintroduced population in Kentucky.

Virginia lets you tag them as deer because the Virginia Game and Fish Commission has not decided for itself that elk should be reintroduced in the state. I believe this goes back before chronic wasting disease, and probably has more to do with crop damage fears.

John

John,

You know that back in the '60s (I think) the Commonwealth did reintroduce elk. They were not successful with that. I think that poaching was a significant contributor to that failure.

There is at any given time a group, formal or informal, who is lobbying to have elk "returned" to Virginia.

One of the problems they have is finding enough contiguous range for the elk. That is, an area unbroken by roads and/or private land over which these animals can roam and feed.

It is all very interesting. As an aside, does anyone know what has happened with the "buffalo commons" movement of a few years back?