Elk NetworkHunting Is Conservation – Hunting Generates Funding for Elk Research

General | February 22, 2021

Biologists need reliable scientific information to make sound wildlife management decisions, thus ensuring the future of thriving populations.

Rigorous, peer-reviewed research checks that box.

And hunters provide funding to make wildlife research possible.

Take the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation as an example, which supports and works alongside respected scientists and biologists from state agencies, universities and other organizations.

About 98 percent of RMEF’s membership consists of hunters whose membership dues and volunteer efforts raise funding for RMEF’s mission.

In 2020, RMEF allocated more than $846,000 that leveraged an additional $4.7 million in partner funding to support 30 different research projects all around elk country…

…specifically in these states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and one project of national benefit in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Topics range from elk habitat use, demographics and elk calf survival to predation, disease surveillance and identifying migration corridors, range and other priority areas.

Continually accumulating accurate, scientific data is key to RMEF’s mission and helps ensure the future of elk and other wildlife.

Generating vital funding for research, providing food security, managing wildlife populations, promoting conservation and valuing wildlife species…all highlight how Hunting Is Conservation.