Trailhead
New Boots • Gathering • Grapevine • Springer Fever
A.T. Companion • Headlamp Material • Work Trips • Side Trails
CATALOOCHEE, N.C. – The first group of elk released in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park didn’t waste any time in catching up on their old stomping grounds. The 500-pound animals bolted out of a trailer into a wooden pen like they had been missing Western North Carolina for a lifetime. Actually it’s been several lifetimes – more than 150 years, in fact, since the largest animal in the mountains roamed the woods. "It’s nice to see them back," said Gene Johnson, whose wife Francis Woody Johnson is related to the families that settled the Cataloochee area. "Maybe we will see them at the annual reunion." Park rangers on Friday released 26 elk into an acclimation pen with 10-foot tall fencing covered with black mesh. The elk will be penned for 12 to 14 weeks and then released into the park. Park rangers plan to release 50 more animals by 2003 for a total herd of 76. Rangers will use radio collars to track and evaluate the elk heard. Elk are large members of the deer family that can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. They once thrived in the Southern Appalachians, but fell victim to indiscriminate hunting and habitat loss. Cataloochee was chosen for the reintroduction because it provides relatively good access for biologists to monitor the herd. Park Superintendent Michael Tollefson thanked the many groups and individuals who help bring the elk back to WNC. "We are pleased to see that all this hard work has come to fruition," he told the more than 800 visitors who gather for Friday’s release. The park’s elk will come from a herd at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. The reintroduction will cost $1 million. "None of that is federal funding," Tollefson said. "And that is incredibly exciting to me." Recently, elk have been reintroduced in several Eastern and Midwestern states. The largest herds are still found in the West. The park has considered bringing elk back to the Smokies for more than a decade. Smokies leaders, financially backed by the Friends of the Smokies and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, opted for an experimental release to study whether the park can sustain and hold a population of elk. Project supporters believe returning elk to the Smokies will help restore the region's natural balance. Elk thrived in the Southern Appalachians until falling victim to indiscriminate hunting and increasing human development. There are now about 1 million left in North America. Park leaders have had mixed success with reintroducing species into the Smokies. Efforts to re-establish red wolves failed, mainly because pups died from disease or were killed by predators. But other projects have succeeded: peregrine falcons were successfully reintroduced during the 1990s; river otters in the late 1980s; and three species of fish also have been reintroduced. As he walked down the trail after Friday’s release, Linton Palmer, who was the second-to-last Palmer born in the Cataloochee area before it was part of the park, said he welcomed the newest addition to his family’s home. "It’s great," he said. "This will be another species we can look for out here."