Passion and perseverance go a long way. Just ask Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation volunteers from the state of Missouri. They know it because they live it.
Fifteen volunteers from two chapters recently gathered on the expansive Peck Ranch Conservation Area in the heart of Missouri’s elk range to close out a project that dates back more than a decade. They removed 2,300 yards of fencing, posts and disassembled gates, wood structures and metal barriers associated with the original holding pen from the successful restoration of elk to their state in 2011.
“This marks the end of a multi-year project,” said Eric Brown, RMEF Kansas-Missouri regional director. “The volunteers battled ticks, poison ivy and humidity, all in the name of conservation and service to RMEF’s mission. As we wrap up one longstanding project, we look forward to other positive impacts our team of volunteers can make for Missouri’s elk herd.”
It is most fitting that volunteers helped close that chapter because they were there to open it at the beginning. In 2000, RMEF helped pay for a feasibility study to determine the positives and negatives of returning elk to Missouri. The Missouri Department of Conservation originally decided against a restoration but regrouped a decade later, reached out to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and developed a plan. RMEF kicked in $300,000, including $50,000 for a three-acre holding facility in Kentucky, which local RMEF volunteers helped build.
Those transplanted elk, 34 of them, needed a landing spot once they arrived in the Midwest, so Missouri RMEF volunteers stepped up to help construct the holding pen. On May 5, 2011, the Kentucky elk, along with five newborn calves, made their way from the carriers, through the unloading chute and stepped onto Missouri soil for the first time. They remained in the holding pen for about a month until the gates were opened and they trickled their way out.
“RMEF is in this for the long haul. There is no higher calling in conservation than restoring a native game species to sustainable, huntable, balanced populations. Missourians have held to that dream and worked tirelessly for more than a decade to bring elk back,” Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer, said at the time.
Missouri instituted a successful elk hunt in 2020 and announced earlier in 2024 that it is now considering adding a limited antlerless elk hunting season.
Today’s RMEF volunteers help fulfill Henning’s words. They gathered at the same elk release location for years to deconstruct the original holding pen as part of their annual rendezvous. And now, it is done.
“When I saw those animals come off the trailer, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” RMEF Missouri State Chairman Dave Pace said in 2011. “Seeing these animals come back, so generations and generations of Missourians will get to see them, is a very momentous occasion. This is a great day for wildlife, it’s a great day for conservation and it’s a great day for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and all our volunteers. This is what we work for.”
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation/Paul Meyers)
