OUTDOOR CORNER: ELK ONCE ROAMED THE GRASSLANDS OF MISSOURI

A bugling elk shrouded in early morning fog is certainly a pleasing image to stir the imagination. However, it is not an image most folks associate with Missouri.

Instead, we consider the Rocky Mountains or Canada as home to elk. That is where they live. Many of you may be surprised to find elk bugling used to break the frosty fall dawns of Missouri's past. That's right. Elk roamed Missouri for a long time!

On November 18, 1818, Henry Schoolcraft recorded this near Potosi; "This ridge appears to be a favorite haunt for elk and bear, which have been frequently seen in our path. The enormous size of the horns of the elk give that animal an appearance of singular disproportion, but it has a stately carriage, and in running, by throwing up its head, brings the horns upon its back, which would otherwise incommode, if not entirely stop, its passage through a thicket."

On July 14 of 1804, Merriwether Lewis had this to say about his first elk sighting: "We saw three large Elk, the first wild ones I ever saw. Capt Clark & Drewyer shot at them, but the distance was too long, they ran or trotted in to the river and Seamon (Lewis' dog) swam across after them."

Early settlers and natives utilized elk as a major food source. A 1,500-pound elk would provide a lot of meat to a hungry family. The enormous hide was used for leather. Clothes, shoes, blankets and even tarps were made from elk leather.

Plains Indians even used elk canines as decoration on dresses. Very little of an elk would be wasted!

Elk are well known for the huge stately antlers that males sport. Replaced annually, they help demonstrate a bull elk's fitness for mating and position in elk pecking orders. People made use of antlers even after they were shed, to make tools. Knife handles, splitting wedges, flint knapping hammers, toothbrush handles and much more were made of an elk antler. Today, belt buckles and knife handles still make use of an elk's most distinctive feature.

The most interesting thing about elk in Missouri is what it tells you about our state's historical landscape. These large deer relatives are more of a grazing animal when compared to the browsing whitetail. A grazer prefers grasslands for food. Woody vegetation is not a mainstay for them. Whitetail deer will eat any kind of plant, woody or not. Elk on the other hand prefer, easy to digest, grasses and wildflowers.

Elk have abundant food on prairies, savannahs and glades. Consider the expanses of open, grassy areas Missouri must have had to support these animals. Much of our state was open and full of grass.

The River Hills along the Mississippi River as well as the St. Francois mountains would have been open woodland habitat supporting a wide assortment of elk favorites to eat. Today elk are a novelty on some ranches across the state. Free roaming Missouri elk do not exist.

The reason lies in both a historical lack of conservation of the elk and serious alteration to elk habitat. Settlers killed elk faster than they could reproduce. Conservation did not seem necessary until they were almost gone. To make matters worse, the grassy plains and open woodlands were being replaced by cropland, towns, railroads, and scrubby second growth forests. The land that once provided everything the elk needed could no longer be found.

Present day Missouri has some remote Ozark areas that may be able to support an elk population. The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking closely at restoring this animal and its habitat that was once common across the state. Much has changed in Missouri since elk were removed. Perhaps they would not survive. However, some think that re-introducing elk helps right a wrong done to the land a hundred years ago.

Even if re-introduction would succeed, there are opponents to such an act. They feel the potential for property damage and possible transmission of disease to livestock is justification to leave them as an extirpated species.

Regardless of what Missourians decide about elk re-introduction, the fact remains that they once belonged here. Elk are a part of our past and a portion of our natural heritage that is now missing.

Aldo Leopold is famous for penning the phrase: "The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts." It is arrogant to think that a missing species poses no big loss. When the last elk died in Missouri we lost not only a keystone species and a wonderful game animal, but the quality habitat that elk represent.

Elk were removed from Missouri by people. The question for us today is: Are we willing to attempt a reversal?

A.J. Hendershott is an education consultant with the Missouri Department of Conservation.