A Collaborative Elk Restoration Is in the Works for Minnesota

Specifically, the restoration effort would move 100 to 150 elk over multiple years from two herds in the northwestern part of the state to a large chunk of Fond du Lac (FDL) Band reservation lands and the Fond du Lac State Forest. The collaborative effort behind this restoration is the first known instance of the Minnesota DNR and a tribal entity working together to co-write a species management plan, officials pointed out in a public meeting on Feb. 10.

Minnesota’s history with elk is complex. Various native subspecies of elk roamed freely across the state through the first half of the 19th century, but the herds were almost extirpated by the early 1900s. (Elk hunting was even banned statewide from 1893 to 1987.)

In 1913, the Minnesota Legislature earmarked $5,000 for the state’s first elk reintroduction. Fifty-six Rocky Mountain elk from Jackson, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park — plus another 14 Yellowstone descendents from a farm in Ramsey County, Minnesota — entered an enclosure in Itasca State Park. But the process was hard on the elk, and only 13 survived the first year. Twenty-seven more elk were released in 1935 and established a breeding herd, but the first elk management plan didn’t surface until 1976. Then, another herd migrated into Minnesota from Canada in the early 1980s, and elk were listed as a special concern species in 1984.

Since then, Minnesota’s elk population has grown and shrunk by handfuls of animals at a time. When crop depredation became a problem near Grygla in the 1980s, MDNR tried to relocate the elk through a series of roundups that resulted in injuries, deaths, and even one darted elk drowning. These issues pushed the Sierra Club to file for an injunction against any further roundup efforts. So, the state turned to elk hunting in the area instead.

Fast-forward four decades, and the Grygla, Kittson County, and Caribou/Vita herds of northwestern Minnesota remain at extremely low populations. The numbers are so low that, as MDNR elk biologist Kelsie LaSharr detailed in the public hearing, elk behavior is radically different among these herds than elsewhere in the species’ current range, where they number in the hundreds or thousands at a time.

Conflict mitigation will be a large component of the northeast management plan, FDL Band elk biologist Makenzie Henk told MeatEater, as MDNR and the FDL Band continue to hear from ranchers, agricultural producers, and other landowners about their concerns.

“We’ll need more meetings with stakeholders in the area to hear more specifically from them what they are concerned about,” Henk said. “We have an array of tools available to help reduce conflict, so we need to know what of those they are interested in trying.”

Feasibility studies for the restoration began in 2016 after FDL Band wildlife biologist Mike Schrage drummed up support for the idea, followed by a formal proposal. Then, in the spring of 2023, the Minnesota state legislature appropriated $2.3 million to the FDL Band and MDNR to “expand Minnesota’s wild elk population and range,” according to MDNR. This mandate stemmed from concerns about how Minnesota’s only wild elk are clustered in one area, leaving the resident population of roughly 130 individuals susceptible to catastrophic events that could wipe out much of that population all at once.

Minnesota’s elk exist in three small herds that currently roam the northwestern part of the state on lands that are mostly privately owned and almost entirely in agricultural production. These habitat conditions pose challenges for elk and landowners alike, officials explained in the public meeting. The herds are limited in how much they can grow before they become a crop nuisance, which creates concerns about genetic health.

But on FDL Band reservation lands and the Fond du Lac State Forest, elk could be more helpful than harmful, biologists say. By restoring native habitat around forest edges and understories currently overrun by woody encroachment, the presence of elk would also benefit deer, grouse, and other native species that rely on dynamic, diverse forests, Henk told MeatEater.

“Once elk are on the landscape, they will help maintain openings in the forest canopy,” Henk said. “They are certainly a prairie species, and they like grasses and forbs. They love to be out in the open where they can browse and graze. But they also like to be close to the forest where they can find cover from predators. So those forest edge habitats are really great.”

In preparation for the return of elk to the landscape, DNR and the FDL Band have already begun conducting some of this habitat restoration work themselves.

“We’ve been working with the DNR to look at locations both within the reservation and in the Fond du Lac State Forest where there used to be a break in the canopy, usually between a quarter of an acre up to maybe four acres, that over time have filled in with alders and other shrubs,” Henk said. “Our foresters are mowing in those areas to open them up again, to promote grasses, forbs, and young aspen. These breaks in the canopy add to a more diverse forest.”

The FDL Band, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa all have reservation lands within the 1854 Ceded Territory. These 5.5 million acres of northeastern Minnesota, from Duluth to the Canadian border, were ceded to the U.S. government in 1854 under the Treaty of La Pointe. Part of that treaty retained hunting, fishing, and gathering rights for area tribes and bands on off-reservation lands. The 1854 Treaty Authority, an inter-tribal organization that implements those rights for the Bois Forte and Grand Portage bands, is also coordinating with the restoration.

Other members of the interagency elk coordination team include Carlton County, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the U.S. Forest Service, and Bemidji State University.

Part of the public’s support for this restoration revolved around increased elk hunting opportunities for both tribal and non-tribal hunters. In 2024, just eight $288 lottery tags were available, and only Minnesota residents could apply. A separate landowner draw also issued just two landowner elk tags. While an elk hunt in northeastern Minnesota is still many years away, it does stir excitement, according to Henk.

“There’s no one answer for the cultural significance or importance of this project for band members,” she said. “Of course, no band is a monolith and everyone views this a little differently. But historically, elk would have been part of the band’s diet, and potentially also used for clothing. So lots of band members are excited about additional hunting opportunities. They will help to promote food sovereignty for the band … And then there’s the recognition of the ecological significance of elk, since they maintain forest health, and there’s an intrinsic importance to elk. They are a native species that was once here, and that alone makes this an important conservation project.”

The legislative mandate calls for officials to use elk from the northwestern herds to restore the northeastern herd. But MDNR and the FDL Band can’t risk the long-term viability of the northwestern herd just for the sake of this restoration. Last year’s elk survey didn’t show the population growth biologists were hoping for, Henk said, so elk wouldn’t be transported from that population until 2027 at the earliest.

“But in the meantime, we’re still improving habitat in the restoration area, constructing our acclimation pen, getting the other equipment we might need, working on conflict mitigation, and working on this elk management plan … which will help inform us, once elk get here, how we’re going to monitor them and how we will determine whether the population is healthy enough to support harvest,” Henk said. “There’s still plenty to do.”

Minnesota residents can fill out a public questionnaire through Feb. 28, and more details about the plan are available on the MDNR website.