Twenty-five years after elk were reintroduced to North Carolina, the state has legalized a limited two-tag hunting season. Earlier this month, Gov. Josh Stein signed H.B. 747 into law, authorizing a bull-only Fall 2027 hunt.
One permit will be issued through a $20-per-ticket raffle — 30 tickets maximum may be purchased per person — partially benefitting the Wildlife Resources Fund for elk conservation. The other permit will be auctioned, with proceeds directed toward the WRF and an elk restoration nonprofit.
Wildlife researchers and advocates see the legislation as a much-needed win amid federal cuts to environmental protections largely because it indicates a finally stable elk population.
“Our goal for elk is to have a hunt-able, sustainable population, and at this point we are at that level,” said Justin McVey, who works as a biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Research Commission’s westernmost district.
Permit holders are only authorized to shoot a single bull because conservation is the top priority and, as McVey explained, the harvest of bulls “doesn’t really hinder the population.” “There’s other bulls that can handle that job,” he said.
Elk, native to Southern Appalachia, had disappeared from Western North Carolina, due to settler overhunting and deforestation, by the late 18th Century.
In 2001, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park led a multi-organization initiative to bring 52 elk to the state after more than 200 years since the species’ extirpation. The project, aimed at restoration, followed in the footsteps of elk reintroductions to several Southeastern states. Throughout the past quarter-century, the elk population in North Carolina has increased five-fold, a metric achieved with the help of extensive monitoring and data collection.
This research, which conservationists said has been intentional and comprehensive, also informed the decision to institute a hunting season.
“We have all these processes in place … to determine if a species can be hunted and should be hunted, and then to make sure that they’re not hunted too much and that the hunting contributes to the conservation of the species,” explained Defenders of Wildlife Vice President of Government Relations Mike Leahy, adding that federal- and state- employed scientists often work together.
Throughout a three-year, University of Tennessee-funded study to determine if elk hunting was a viable option, McVey collaborated with biologists from GSMNP and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“So, we’ve done all that legwork, and we found out that it looks like we could have a very limited hunt of bulls only,” McVey recounted.
Cooperation across the aisle — and between policymakers and state agencies — was also vital to the process.
“We feel like H.B. 747 really embraces the science-based wildlife management that has been developed over many centuries. It leaves the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in charge so that they can adjust the hunt down if there’s a problem,” said Leahy.
That wasn’t always the case with previous legislation. H.B. 460 passed a House first reading in the 2021-2022 Session as “An Act to Direct the Wildlife Resources Commission to Issue Two Elk Conservation Licenses by Auction and Raffle.”
But according to conservation nonprofits, even the title was problematic.
“Directing the NCWRC to take actions that are not based on science is an alarming precedent, especially given the extensive studies underway,” wrote the North Carolina Wildlife Foundation in a letter opposing the legislation.
The issue, said wildlife advocates, was the absence of evidence to show hunting wouldn’t harm the still fledgling herd.
“They didn’t have the data, and the population sounds like wasn’t quite recovered,” Leahy noted.
NCWF emphasized a favorable position to elk hunting when supported by locally gathered evidence.
Now that biologists have conducted necessary research, the hunt will be tightly regulated — even by location. Hunters will be naturally restricted to a specific zone of privately owned or mixed-use acreage, as one may not harvest within GSMNP land or the Qualla Boundary. As a result, prime hunting territory will likely be in and around Maggie Valley, and in places like the Silver Game Lands, McVey theorized.
“We kind of have these sub-herds, and so that Oconaluftee herd goes back and forth between Cherokee and then the National Park Service there in Oconaluftee, and so yes, that herd, you can’t hunt,” said McVey.
But this sub-herd orientation is less than ideal, according to NCWF CEO Tim Gestwicki. “Part of the work to build more wildlife crossings and get habitat less fragmented is so you can have herds commingling, which would increase populations of our elk herd even further,” he said.
Gestwicki chairs the safe passage coalition, which works to prevent wildlife-motorist collisions for the sake of wildlife and motorists. The job consists of implementing green infrastructure alongside development, protecting natural landscapes, replacing deteriorating bridges and culverts with crossings and wildlife fencing. It also involves expanding early successional habitat — open pastureland with quickly growing grasses and shrubs.
Western North Carolina, like many areas with a history of and/or ongoing development and extraction, lacks in diverse ecosystems like old-growth forest and early-stage habitat.
“We have a lot of even-stage, even-aged forest, and we need openings, and we need more prescribed burnings to create [different ecosystems] not only for elk but for golden wing warblers and a suite of these species,” said Gestwicki.
The state has — rightly so, claim conservationists — banned white-tailed deer and elk importation because of chronic wasting disease. But restoring optimal habitat takes on a greater importance when the survival of North Carolina’s elk hinges on a population of about 250.
“What [elk] we have is what we have,” he said, “and so making sure there is the opportunity to increase the herd size means ensuring that we build out and create enough habitat for them to actually have the carrying capacity and build out.”
As someone who prioritizes elk survival above all else, Gestwicki is grateful this bill does not authorize a recurring hunt and mandates a population analysis after next year’s season.
“The state wildlife agency is not doing this in perpetuity,” he said. “Like they manage all wildlife species, they will reexamine and reevaluate and check herd status.”