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A RESTORATION STORY COMES FULL CIRCLENORTH CAROLINA ELK

RMEF helped bring elk back to North Carolina after a roughly 200-year absence. Decades of conservation helped turn that effort into a historic hunting opportunity—earning RMEF one of the state’s two inaugural elk hunting permits. Follow the story. Sign up to receive updates on RMEF’s spring 2027 conservation permit auction.

THE NEXT CHAPTER IN ELK CONSERVATIONA HISTORIC HUNT WITH A CONTINUING COMMITMENT

North Carolina is preparing for its first elk hunt in modern history. In recognition of RMEF’s longstanding support of elk restoration and management, the state awarded us one of its two inaugural elk hunting permits for the 2027 season.

RMEF’s conservation permit will be auctioned in spring 2027, with bidding open to residents and non-residents. 100% of proceeds will return to North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Fund to benefit elk and other big game.

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WATCH HOW WE GOT HEREBRINGING BACK ELK WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING

Watch the conservation story behind North Carolina’s next historic milestone.

TWO CENTURIES GONEHISTORY OF ELK IN THE SMOKIES

Today, elk draw visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But for roughly two centuries, their calls were absent from North Carolina’s mountains.

Elk once roamed the southern Appalachians and much of the eastern United States. Unregulated and commercial harvest, along with habitat loss, drove them from the region. North Carolina’s last elk is believed to have been killed in the late 1700s, and Tennessee’s followed in the mid-1800s. By 1900, elk populations had declined sharply across North America.

In the 1990s, North Carolina sportsmen and sportswomen began asking what it would take to bring them back. Hunters, other conservationists and wildlife professionals turned that question into a determined effort to rebuild a herd.

In 2001, that effort brought 25 elk from Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area along the Tennessee-Kentucky border to Cataloochee Valley. RMEF helped support the National Park Service’s reintroduction alongside the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other partners. Another 27 elk followed in 2002.

Bringing elk back was only the beginning. As the herd grew and expanded beyond park boundaries, RMEF continued investing in habitat improvements, research and land conservation. That longstanding commitment helped lay the groundwork for North Carolina’s first elk hunt in modern history—and earned RMEF one of the state’s two inaugural hunting permits.