Controversy arises over free-roaming elk

The Department of Natural Resources has its crosshairs on a small herd of free-roaming elk in southern Allamakee County.

DNR personnel have shot “some of them” and intend to shoot the rest of them, said Jim Jansen, the DNR's Northeast District wildlife supervisor.

Jansen said the animals, which are almost certainly escapees or the descendants of escapees from a captive elk facility, pose a serious threat to the health of wild whitetail deer in the area.

Several residents of the area think the DNR should put its eradication plans on hold at least long enough to study the prospects of re-establishing a population of wild elk in Iowa.

Elk, and especially captive elk, present a high risk of transmitting the always fatal chronic wasting disease to deer, said Jansen, who is coordinating the effort with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, which has jurisdiction over domestic animals such as elk.

The DNR, Jansen said, has a responsibility to protect the health of Iowa's deer. “We would be negligent not to test the elk for chronic wasting disease, which entails killing them,” he said.

Elk were native to Iowa before they were extirpated in the 19th century.

“Here we have a small herd finding its way back. They should be nurtured rather than eradicated,” said Tim Mason of rural McGregor.

Jansen estimated the herd at five to seven animals while Rodney Rolvang, the ranger at Effigy Mound National Monument, who has seen the elk four times in the past three years, said he thinks there may be as many as a dozen.

The herd favors an area along the Yellow River, which cuts through large tracts of forested public land owned by the state and federal governments.

“Oh my goodness, yes. Leave them alone,” said Donna Bright, who with her husband Howard operates the Ion Exchange native plant seed business in that area.

Bright said she first saw the elk, a bull and two cows, three years ago.

“The DNR later told us they shot them. It made me sick,” she said.

Bright said CWD-infected deer entering Iowa from Wisconsin by crossing the Mississippi River present a greater threat to Iowa deer than the small elk herd.

Jansen acknowledged that DNR personnel shot three elk in that area three years ago. One of them, he said, had an ear tag, indicating that it had been a captive animal.

Both Jansen and Rolvang agree that natural reproduction is occurring among the free-roaming elk.