All five hunters in last fall’s third annual Wisconsin elk hunt successfully harvested a bull, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which will be holding another elk hunt in fall 2021.
The DNR selected four hunters at random from a pool of about 28,000 applicants in 2020. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation awarded the fifth state-issued elk tag through its fundraising raffle from almost 1,600 applicants.
For each elk license $10 application fee, $7 is earmarked for elk management, habitat and research in Wisconsin.
The 2021 elk hunt application period is expected to take place March 1 through May 31 and is open only to Wisconsin residents.
Elk were native to Wisconsin but were extirpated by the late 1800s. A reintroduction program that started in the 1990s has led to a wild population of about 300 elk around the Clam Lake area of southern Ashland County. A second herd of about 100 elk roam in Jackson County in central Wisconsin.
The Clam Lake elk range covers 1,620 square miles and reaches into portions of Ashland, Bayfield, Price, Rusk and Sawyer counties. The original herd began with 25 Michigan elk, released in 1995, with additional elk from other states added in in recent years.
The DNR said that, for various reasons, members of the state's Ojibwe tribes did not harvest any elk during the 2020 season, with the five tags allocated to tribal members.
For more information on elk in Wisconsin, go to dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/elk
