Elk hunt lottery draws over 30,000 applications

Elk numbers in Southwest Virginia are growing since their reintroduction. (Meaghan Thomas/ Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources)

Over 30,000 applications were submitted for Virginia’s first elk hunt lottery, generating more than half a million dollars, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

Gray Anderson, director of the agency’s Wildlife Resources Division, said the department received 31,951 applications to participate in the inaugural Elk Management Zone hunt between Oct. 8 and 14.

Application fees, which cost $15 for Virginia residents and $20 for nonresidents for five available tags, produced about $513,000. A sixth tag was given to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which auctioned it off for more than $100,000 that will be returned to conservation efforts within the management zone.

The zone comprises the entirety of Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties. Between 2012 and 2014, Virginia introduced 75 Rocky Mountain elk from Kentucky to the area.

This elk species is not the same as the region’s previously prominent eastern elk, which was hunted to extinction in the 1800s. However, since restoration efforts began, Anderson said the population has grown to almost 300 in the state. About 200 elk are in Buchanan County, with about 45 in Wise County and another 50 scattered across Southwestern Virginia.

The Nature Conservancy purchased 1,100 acres in 2021 within the zone to maintain restoration efforts.

Anderson said that Elk can be hunted year-round outside of the management zone, but only a handful is taken in those areas because of limited numbers there.

This year, Virginia awarded five tags to lottery winners to hunt the animal in the more densely populated management zone. Eighteen private landowners offered over 17,000 acres of land for use for the hunt, mostly in Buchanan and Dickenson counties, in exchange for points toward receiving a license in the future. All the elk were taken in Buchanan County.

Anderson said the elk population in Virginia is “doing well,” with the department beginning to see some natural migration, including one elk from Tennessee. He added that communities in Southwest Virginia have created a tourism draw by embracing growing public interest in elk.

While there have been concerns that the increased numbers of the animal could cause a problem for drivers, fewer than ten minor accidents have occurred, said Jackie Rosenberger, DWR elk projects leader. There have also been a minimal number of nuisance reports of elk walking onto properties and leaving hoofprints or getting their antlers entangled with a child’s playset.

Anderson said that entangled elk were given a sedative to allow officials to free and return them to the wild, and property owners were compensated for any damage. No people have been injured as a result of these interactions with elk.

Despite some instances of brainworm, a disease that can disorient the animal and lead to its death, DWR isn’t worried about sustaining the population, Anderson said. The reintroduction of the animals involved a rigorous disease test and quarantine period. Instead, he said the concern is more centered around the population getting too big, at which point mitigation efforts, such as hunting, could be increased.

The creation of habitats for the elk within the zone has kept the animal within its boundaries, Rosenberger said, but also attracted previously scarce deer, turkeys, and ducks to the region.

“It has been nothing but positive,” she said.

The department follows a 10-year Elk Management Plan adopted in 2018. Any changes to the zone will require public input when the next 10-year-plan is adopted in 2029.