Wisconsin had 143 elk as of mid-June, 14 of which were new calves, with somewhere between 10 and 20 more new calves expected to survive to the August count. That would put the herd at close to 160 animals heading into winter, with two more spring calving seasons to hit 200.

This year's calves looked good, according to biologist Laine Stowell.

“They were above average in terms of their weights, which indicates the cows were healthy and the calves were healthy,” he said.

But growing an elk herd can be a step-forward, step-backward proposition, especially in northern Wisconsin. Bears killed at least four of 20 elk calves counted this spring. Wolves take their share of elk too, but they typically target young males that travel alone. Disease and logging trucks are a greater concern because they are indiscriminant – they're just as likely to kill the adult cows that are crucial to the growth of the herd.

To say the 2011 Wisconsin elk season will be a small affair – if it happens at all – would be something of an understatement. A total of 10 tags will be available. Of those, half will go to native American tribes under the 1836 treaty agreement. One more will be raffled off to a lucky hunter. That leaves four tags available by drawing to the general public. But efforts to make it happen are ongoing and earnest. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have worked with landowners to improve elk habitat, taken steps to reduce elk-vehicle crashes and educated the public about ways to keep the elk herd growing. The ultimate goal for the Clam Lake herd is 1,400 animals, with another 350-400 in the Black River Falls area in Jackson County.

A collared elk calf. (Wisconsin DNR Photo)

“My thinking is that we're a long ways out from achieving that goal,” Warnke said.

This spring's count took an extra hit when three prime cows were killed by wolves right before the calving season began, Stowell said. Since those cows were of prime age, and Wisconsin's birth rate is about 75 calves per 100 cows, it's likely that at least two of those cows were pregnant. That wolf behavior has biologists concerned.

“We'll have to wait and see if this gets to be a habit with this pack of wolves, where they take cows right before the calving season,” Stowell said. “We're hoping that doesn't become an ingrained experience. It was looking good up to that point.”

A number of eastern states are working to restore elk populations. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Kentucky have established elk hunting seasons. Tennessee will let four hunters try for elk this fall. The animals are native to Wisconsin, but were extirpated in the late 1800s. The state tried to bring them back in the 1930s, but poachers had cleaned those elk out by 1948. In 1989 the Wisconsin DNR was asked to study the feasibility of restoring elk, moose and caribou to the state. Scientists concluded that elk had the best chance to succeed, mainly because moose and caribou are more susceptible to brainworm, a disease carried by white-tailed deer.

In 1995, 25 Michigan elk were trapped and quarantined for 90 days. After extensive testing they were moved to a holding pen near Clam Lake in the Chequamegon National Forest. After a two-week acclimation period, they were released in May 1995.

Where Wisconsin's elk team has really gained ground is areas where humans were affecting the health of the elk herd. Motorized vehicle trails have been closed in heavily used calving areas, and the recreational feeding of elk by residents has been sharply curtailed after a series of related deaths in the winter of 2004-05.

As they began seeing more elk in the area, people set up feeding stations to help the animals get through winter. What those well-meaning people didn't realize was that their efforts were actually harming the elk population. Feeding activity was drawing elk closer to the highways where logging trucks roar past. Because the elk were so close together, they passed around a deadly form of liver fluke. And then three bulls visiting a feeding station near a river fell through the ice and drowned.

Workers install a warning signal to alert drivers that elk are nearby. (Wisconsin DNR Photo)

“It was a matter of almost loving them to death,” George said. “We had a variety of mortality issues and almost went in a negative direction.” The DNR immediately went on the educational offensive, explaining the danger of feeding elk. That activity has virtually stopped, Stowell said. “We took pictures of a cow that had fallen through the ice, took pictures of elk livers that had high levels of liver fluke, and we have many pictures of elk that had been hit on the highway,” he said. “We showed them to people to show them what they were doing and we’ve resolved those issues.” Wisconsin also borrowed a page from the state of Washington and implemented a warning system that sets off roadside warning lights whenever a radio-collared elk gets near Highway 77. The system consists of three, two-mile stretches west of Clam Lake. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) paid half the cost of the system, and Wisconsin has now secured funding to double its coverage. RMEF has also been working with the DNR and private landowners to help create better forage areas for elk. Elk are grazers better adapted to open meadows and prairies rather than the big woods of northern Wisconsin. So the RMEF has been working to not only create forest openings at least a half-mile away from roads, but also to populate them with plants that help nourish elk during the spring green-up. “The forest openings not only benefit elk but also deer, which many of these landowners are focused on,” Stowell said.

Wisconsin’s elk are all descended from the same seven animals that started Michigan’s herd in 1917. The state had hoped to infuse some new blood into its Clam Lake herd – and establish the Black River Falls herd – by importing elk from the Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Canada. But the arrival of chronic wasting disease in 2002 put all plans to ship elk into Wisconsin on hold.

Last year federal officials went to Alberta to inspect the herd there, but Warnke said the administration change in Washington has delayed the matter. The Elk Island herd is disease-free, he added, making it the logical candidate for new animals. A second group of Kentucky elk has been prepared for a move to Wisconsin, but they must be quarantined for five years before they can enter Wisconsin. They are in a 640-acre enclosure.

Federal officials are expected to announce a new protocol in late July that will set rules for importation of elk. At that point, Wisconsin hopes to at least know what comes next. According to Stowell, the first step would be to establish the second herd, which was approved in 2001.

“Certainly the people in Jackson County have been waiting patiently for their herd,” he said.