Virginia Encouraging Elk Hunting in Western Part of State

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is encouraging hunters to harvest elk in the western part of the state this fall.

Free-roaming elk have immigrated across the boarder of Kentucky into the hills of Western Virginia -- and the VDGIF is trying to stop the elk from settling inside the state.

From 1998-2002, the state of Kentucky released 1,500 elk into the wildlife as part of an elk restoration project. Today, there are more than 6,500 free-roaming elk in the state of Kentucky, and more-and-more are wondering into Virginia.

One of the primary reasons that the VDGIF has been opposed to elk restoration is the potential for transmission of diseases to the valuable white-tailed deer herd. A serious disease that could be introduced by elk is Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

To date, the disease has only been found in cervids (members of the deer family) in North America. CWD is a contagious neurological disease affecting deer and elk. It causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death.

The Kentucky elk restoration area borders Virginia in Buchanan, Dickenson, Wise, and Lee counties. Over the past several years, many of these elk have moved into Virginia. As a proactive management option designed to keep these elk from becoming established in Virginia at this time, the VDGIF has established a full season either-sex elk hunt to run concurrent with all open deer seasons.

Low elk density, coupled with rugged terrain and large blocks of dense forest cover, make it very difficult to even find elk in Virginia, much less harvest one, but the VDGIF encourages hunters to try to harvest these much sought after prizes this fall.

Over the past seven years, 27 elk have been killed in Virginia, 17 of them taken in Wise County.

The best public places to hunt these elk are at the Clinch Ranger District of the Jefferson National Forest in Wise County and the Flanagan Resevoir in Dickenson County.