Grouse in exchange for Elk
In Wisconsin, the first attempt occurred in 1913. The Wisconsin Conservation Commission brought in a traincar load of elk that had been starving in Yellowstone National Park. Only two elk from that first load survived and a second carload of 32 elk was shipped in 1917. These animals were placed in a 300-acre enclosure at Trout Lake some 10 miles north of Minocqua. Pneumonia killed half the group that first winter. According to accounts in a 1988 centennial edition of the Lakeland Times newspaper, the herd barely held on. By December 1928, only 19 bulls, 17 cows and nine calves survived. Sustaining a herd that was not growing appreciably was deemed too costly by the Conservation Commission, and in 1931 some of the animals were sent to parks and zoos or given to private individuals. The remaining 15 or so elk were unpenned and set free. They soon drifted down to the Arbor Vitae and Woodruff area.
Newspaper reports note the elk became a bit of a nuisance – eating haystacks and garden produce, running through barbed wire fences and, during the rut, challenging humans. Art Oehmcke, a retired DNR District director was then supervisor at Woodruff. He remembered the phone call he received from a distressed woman that a bull elk had her husband cornered and corralled in a barn. Oehmcke went to the farm with a shotgun, fired two shots in the air and the bull ran off.
One by one, the released elk were shot as nuisances or mistaken for deer. One of the last, a 600-pound bull, was shot south of the village of Sayner during the 1943 deer season. When contacted, Oehmcke sent two men out with a Caterpillar tractor to drag the animal out of the woods. They loaded it on a truck, took it to the Woodruff Ranger Station and hung it in a tree.
Without adequate predator control, we're just adding another dinner item to the buffet for the wolves.
I wonder how much they will cause problems with agriculture in that area or with traffic on the roads. Lots more cars in Jackson and Monroe counties