Between 1982 and 2002, the United States lost 34.5 million acres of rural lands—almost 5,000 acres a day—to poorly planned growth, rapid subdivision and development. Much of this land was valuable wildlife habitat, working farms, ranches and forests.
Healthy elk herds are a sign of healthy ecosystems. They are part of an interconnected natural and human community that includes thriving hunting and ranching traditions and a rich diversity of wildlife.
Even before 1982, elk had lost more than 80 percent of their once expansive range and what remains is increasingly fragmented and degraded.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation envisions a future in which elk and other wildlife roam free in wild places across North America, providing inspiration and wonder to hunters and other conservationists—challenging them to pass this legacy on to future generations.
The Elk Foundation is setting national priorities and developing conservation strategies by focusing on a series of landscape-scale initiatives. Drawing from the best ideas and methods of the scientific and conservation community—and from the best traditions of hunters, conservationists and philanthropists—the Elk Foundation is protecting and stewarding the most important and threatened wildlife habitat in elk country.
- Science-based conservation: They apply advanced mapping technology and the best available data to develop the best conservation strategies possible
- Partnerships: Hunters, local communities, agencies, land owners, conservation organizations and corporations all put their shoulders to the wheel to find solutions for elk country.
Ensuring a future for elk and other wildlife means both securing and recreating healthy, sustainable habitat. The Elk Foundation accomplishes this through a clearly delineated approach that is both broad-minded and sharply focused. On-the-ground action includes:
- Permanent Land Protection: Through conservation easements and acquisitions, the Elk Foundation can forever protect crucial elk winter and summer ranges, migration corridors, calving grounds and other vital areas where habitat and wildlife are threatened by fragmentation and encroaching development. See lands the Elk Foundation has protected
- Habitat Stewardship: Since healthy habitat is essential for healthy elk and other wildlife, the Elk Foundation helps fund and conduct a variety of projects to improve the essential forage, water, cover and space components of wildlife habitat. Restoring aspen communities, fighting the spread of noxious weed, and boosting rangeland productivity are just a few of the activities that they fund. More on elk habitat
- Elk Restoration: The Elk Foundation is working to re-establish elk herds in historic ranges where the habitat and human cultural tolerance create a high potential for self-sustaining herds. More on elk restoration
- Conservation Education: Through outreach to young and old alike, the Elk Foundation is working to nurture a better understanding of the role people play in conserving elk, other wildlife and their habitat. More on education
Unique conservation opportunities regularly emerge across elk country. The Elk Foundation continues to respond to, assess and capitalize on unforeseen opportunities that directly benefit elk, other wildlife and human communities outside of our strategic portfolio of initiatives.
For the Elk Foundation to achieve it's conservation goals and objectives, they must evaluate the effectiveness of their actions. Ongoing, consistent monitoring and evaluation is critical to efficient allocation of human and financial resources.
They measure progress toward accomplishing their conservation goals and objectives by how well they do the following:
- Reduce habitat fragmentation
- Restore and enhance key native vegetation communities
- Reestablish elk herds in historic ranges
- Sustain the ability of elk herds to move freely between winter range, summer range and calving areas
- Enrich people's understanding of the value of elk and nurture respect for wildlife and wild places.
- Maintain a quality of life in which we can hunt and otherwise enjoy strong connections with elk, other wildlife and our natural world.
Since 1984, the Elk Foundation has permanently protected more than 1,000 square miles of critical elk habitat and improved another 5.1 million acres of elk country. The great majority of this land is now open to the public to hunt, fish and otherwise enjoy. In addition, the Elk Foundation has funded more than 1,000 projects to promote conservation education and North America’s hunting heritage.
In addition, they have opened nearly 500,000 acres of previously off-limits land to public hunting and other recreation.
Elk country is immense–with a diversity of social and political communities that create tremendous opportunities and stimulating challenges.
*Conservation information courtesy of the Elk Foundation
