$35,000 grant for elk restoration approved

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation has approved a state agency's request for $35,000 to implement an elk restoration plan.

The Missouri Department of Conservation will use the grant to help pay for elk trapping, holding, disease testing, research, monitoring and transportation.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the conservation department has been working with the Kentucky Division of Fish & Wildlife Resources to trap and hold elk from eastern Kentucky.

The agencies are testing several dozen elk that will be the core of the restored elk herd. After they are quarantined, the elk will be taken in late April or early May to a 346-square-mile zone in southeast Missouri that includes parts of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties.