Reintroduced 26 years ago to the Ozarks, elk now roam the Arkansas mountains surrounding the 135 miles of the Buffalo National River—and into the surrounding farm fields and pastures.
Now numbering 450, elk eat hay awaiting harvest and tear down fences as they run through the fields, drawing criticism from landowners of the region the animals now call home.
“They move around,” said David Goad, a deputy director at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. “Political boundaries don’t mean a whole lot to them and they kind of go where they want to go.”
By 1985, the state agency had brought more than 100 elk from Colorado and Nebraska to Arkansas. The herds followed the winding path of the river across Marion, Newton and Searcy counties. Goad said radio trackers on the 600-700 pound animals showed the migration matched up with some complaints by farmers and landowners about damage done to their properties.
Arkansas allows limited hunting of the animals by permit each year, but some farmers say the elk are still too populous. In March, Searcy County farmers began circulating petitions to determine where elk runs intersected with private lands, trying to get a tally on how many times the elk destroyed fences or chased livestock.
Farmer Jeff Magness, who lives just outside of Marshall, said he and others didn’t “think we should have to feed the elk and fix the fence.” Instead, Magness said he wanted the commission to pay for the damages caused by the animals.
Goad said a new plan being discussed by the commission would address the concerns of private landowners over the elk. But he stressed that simply paying landowners wouldn’t be the solution. He suggested putting small pieces of PVC pipe atop barbed wire fencing, so elk could see them and know to clear the line when jumping over it. Goad also suggested farmers could shoot rubber buckshot at the elk, which he said has had some success on driving away bears.
Goad plans to present the state agency’s plan on the elk to Searcy County officials in July.
“We’re not denying it. We want to be fair with them and them to be fair with us,” Goad said of the complaints. “Biologically, we could probably put some more animals up there. Sociologically, we’ve got some work to do.”
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