Elk Herds Set To Be Reintroduced Into Smokies National Park

Plan is intended to restore the Great Smoky Mountains to its setting before humans encroached.
By Lois Reagan Thomas - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gatlinburg, Tenn. --- After a 150-year absence, elk may soon again roam the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The first of an experimental herd of 75 to 90 radio-collared elk are to be released into the park next spring and evaluated for five years before a decision is made on whether to fully reintroduce the animals to the area, said Kim DeLozier, park biologist.

Park managers just ended a public comment period on the plan, and the response was "overwhelmingly positive," said DeLozier.

The main opposition came from the Tennessee state veterinarian, Ronald Wilson. He expressed fears that elk would transmit diseases to domestic cattle and cited what he called the U.S. Interior Department's "disregard for agricultural interests" in dealing with wildlife issues. He said elk and bison from Yellowstone National Park have caused problems for ranchers outside the park boundaries.

Elk roamed the Southern Appalachians until the mid-1800s when farming and timber cutting destroyed their habitat. A free-ranging elk herd was reintroduced four years ago into southeastern Kentucky by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources with a goal of having 2,001 elk by 2001. Another herd is located at TVA's Land Between the Lakes in Middle Tennessee.

Reintroducing elk is part of park policy of trying to restore the environment to the way it was before modern humans encroached. Elk also would help keep the forest floor clear of undergrowth and help maintain the grassy high mountain areas known as "balds," said DeLozier.

In addition, elk have been a popular tourist draw in other parks, such as Rocky Mountains National Park, especially during the annual fall rut, when the bugling call of the elk resounds over the park.

The Smokies park has had a mixed record at species reintroductions. The big success is river otters, reintroduced in 1986. The playful creatures are now back at home in streams throughout the park and surrounding areas. Peregrine falcons, after four years of successful reproduction, are considered another success.

An experimental release of red wolves, undertaken in 1991, was unsuccessful because the wolf pups did not survive, said DeLozier. The last red wolf was removed from the park in 1998.

DeLozier said the park is working to reintroduce barn owls.

In the fish category, efforts to bring back native species such as the smoky madtom, spotfin chub, yellowfin madtom and duskytail darter have been ongoing since the mid-1980s.

While nurturing native species, the park also is trying to control some invaders, such as the European wild hog, which was brought in for a private game preserve in the early 1900s, escaped and has thrived, rooting up endangered plants and competing with native species for habitat.

Rainbow and brown trout, introduced for sport fishing in the late 1800s and the 1920s, are crowding out the park's native brook trout. In October, biologists will begin a one-year pilot program using a toxic chemical to clear brown and rainbow trout from parts of certain streams in an effort to increase brook trout habitat. The chemical, antimycin, is said to be safe to species other than fish.