Wildlife Commission: January elk killings were legal

WAYNESVILLE - The N.C. Wildlife Commission has completed its investigation into the Jan. 29 killing of three elk on a Haywood County farm, finding the killings were legal.

"The report provides clear justification for the taking of the elk due to depredation," said Lt. Sam Craft with the wildlife commission in Raleigh. "There was damage to the farmer’s winter wheat crop and evidence of continuous grazing, and trampling of the plants due to the weight of the elk."

The elk killed were a bull and two cows. They had not been equipped with a radio collar by the Great Smoky Mountains wildlife biologists.

Elk were wiped off the Western North Carolina landscape due to overhunting in the past two centuries before being experimentally reintroduced in the Smokies in 2001. Twenty-five were released in the Cataloochee area. An additional 27 were reintroduced the following year.

Since then, biologists put a very rough estimate on the number of elk at 140 to 160. As the elk herd has grown, the animals have traveled outside the park, sometimes causing traffic accidents and damaging property. Elk in North Carolina are now protected from hunting, but that could soon change.

The wildlife commission has proposed taking elk off the list of species of special concern, and opening a limited elk hunting season. The commission will meet Thursday to vote on the proposal.

"Landowners are allowed by law to protect their property from these wildlife – not just elk, but any wildlife," Craft said. "We encourage them to call us first so we can attempt to find resolutions without having to take these animals. In order to possess edible portions of animals that are depredating, landowners must obtain a permit."

Craft said that though several depredation permits have been issued, no elk have been taken under those permits. The landowner in this case did not have a permit but was in the right to shoot the elk, Craft said.

"Biologist Justin McVey took samples from all three elk, and now the landowner will dispose of the elk, He cannot possess any portion of those elk because he did not have a depredation permit," Craft said.

Tom Ensley, of Candler, was very disappointed with the ruling.

"I’m a hunter and I promote clean hunting," said Ensley, who spoke during a recent wildlife commission hearing on the proposal to open an elk hunting season. "I have animals myself. Horses and cattle tear up fences just as much as elk do. I’m just really upset, and then thinking abut the ones on Mount Sterling and thinking about the pain they went though before they died."

In May 2012, three elk were killed near the Smokies in the Mount Sterling area of Haywood County. One bull was killed with a .22-caliber firearm, a cow was shot with birdshot from a shotgun, and a pregnant cow with undetermined gunshot.

The N.C. Wildlife Federation, a wildlife conservation organization, offered a reward of $20,000 for information about the killings that directly leads to an arrest, criminal conviction, civil penalty assessment or forfeiture of property by the subject or subjects responsible.

Ensley is also opposed to opening an elk hunting season.

"I grew up here, and I never thought there would ever be elk in that area. I enjoy taking my grandchildren to see the elk. I’m so disappointed in the state in what they’ve done. They’ve not said how they will promote this hunt, how it will happen," he said. "We spend money to preserve the species and broaden the species, not take them away."