This is the second of two blog posts by Julie Dodd about the reintroduction of elk into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The first blog post focused on the 25th anniversary of the elk reintroduction. This post discusses the elk reintroduction in 2001.
by Julie Dodd
For Kim Delozier, seeing the first elk released into Cataloohee Valley in 2001 was the highlight of his 32-year career in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“When we released the elk, it hit me. This is the fruit of our labor,” Delozier said. “All those meetings. All those phone calls. It’s worth it.”
Delozier, who retired in 2010 as the park’s chief wildlife biologist, led the initiative to reintroduce elk into the park. In 2001, 25 elk were released into the park. In 2002, 27 more elk were released.
The elk reintroduction celebrates its 25th anniversary this year with an elk population of 250-260.
A previous blog post, based on an interview with park wildlife biologist Joe Yarkovich, covers the status of the current elk herd.
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation members start the process
Over the years, Great Smoky Mountains National Park successfully reintroduced several species, including peregrine falcons and northern river otters.
The story of the elk reintroduction started in the 1980s when members of the local chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) approached Delozier to encourage the park to reintroduce elk into the park.
Elk lived in the area that now is Great Smoky Mountains National Park until the 1800s when they were hunted to extinction by settlers. A National Park Service mission calls for restoring species that historically lived in a park but have been lost.
At the time the RMEF members met with Delozier, the park was involved in a program to reintroduce red wolf. So, Delozier told the RMEF members that consideration of reintroducing elk would have to wait.
After 10 years, the red wolf reintroduction “fizzled out,” Delozier said, because the wolf pups didn’t survive. In 1998, the park service moved the remaining red wolves in the park to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina.
Delozier then contacted the representatives of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to start the process that led to the elk being reintroduced into the park in February 2001.
Meetings, public input and research
That process included working with local communities, the general public, wildlife biologists, elk experts, state and local politicians, and funding sources.
“I thought this was going to be an elk project, but this was a people project,” Delozier said.
Delozier held group information sessions and met one-on-one with people in North Carolina and Tennessee. He met in Nashville with Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist. He met with farmers in North Carolina. He gave people his phone number to call him if they had questions.
As part of the process, the park collected public comment about the possibility of reintroducing elk into the park. Delozier recounted being nervous the night before the results of the public input were to be announced and then relieved when the results were released.
“Of the 2,400 comments, only three said, ‘Don’t do it,’” Delozier said. “Seven had concerns. All the rest said ‘Do it.’”
With that public support, Delozier and the park moved onto the next parts of the process.
Wildlife specialists from the University of Tennessee/Knoxville and national experts on elk evaluated the potential of any disease or parasite being introduced into the Smokies ecosystem by bringing in elk.
“You don’t want to do something to harm what you already have,” Delozier said.
Research and testing found that the elk would pose no health concern to the other wildlife. The resulting report was a key part of the process.
“That document was kind of our ticket with the project,” Delozier said.
Raising funds to support the project
The next critical part of the project was obtaining the funding. The initial cost of the elk reintroduction would be $1 million. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation agreed to donate $750,000 for the necessary research and park administration – leaving $250,000 to be funded.
Delozier recalled attending a meeting to give an update on the progress of the elk project. When he talked about the additional funding that was needed, both Friends of the Smokies President Charles Maynard and Great Smoky Mountains Association Executive Director Terry Maddox spoke up.
“’We want to be part of that,’” Delozier recounts Maynard saying. Maynard said Friends would donate $200,000.
Maddox said Great Smoky Mountains Association (now Smokies Life) also would make a significant financial contribution.
“Having the right people in the right places with a passion for the project was key,” Delozier said. “Relationships is why it worked.”
Selecting location for elk reintroduction
Elk experts from Olympia National Park and the Pennsylvania Game Commission visited the park to review four potential locations identified as having large grazing areas the elk required. The possible reintroduction locations were Cades Cove, Cataloochee, Kuwohi (formerly known as Clingsman Dome), and Bone Valley at Hazel Creek.
Cades Cove ranked number one, and Cataloochee ranked second.
When Delozier met with the park superintendent to share the results, the superintendent said Cades Cove should not be the choice because of how crowded the area already was. Cades Cove already had 2 million tourists a year. The addition of elk would add to the traffic congestion on the Cades Cove Loop Road, causing problems during medical emergencies.
Ultimately Cataloochee was selected, with its large pastures and much smaller visitor numbers.
The first year after the elk were reintroduced, the number of visitors in Cataloochee more than doubled. The high number of visitors who come to see the elk continues.
Releasing elk into Cataloochee
The decision was made to relocate 25 elk from Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky into Cataloochee Valley.
Delozier explained the elk’s release into the park was in two stages – a soft release and a hard release.
For the soft release, the elk were released into an acclimation pen where they stayed two months to become familiar with the sounds and smells of the area. After the acclimation period, the pen was opened, and the elk moved into the woods.
A major advantage of the soft release/hard release strategy, Delozier explained, was that the elk became familiar with the area during the acclimation period and would be more likely to stay nearby after the hard release.
Park staff and volunteers, including members of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, built the 3-acre enclosure pen. The pen had 10-foot wooden walls, with peepholes cut into the walls and topped with a walkway.
The soft release was on Feb. 2, 2001, drawing a crowd of almost 1,000 people. The event included speeches and recognition of those who contributed to the elk reintroduction.
With spectators viewing from the walkway atop the fence and from the peepholes, the gate to the pen was opened, and the elk charged out from trailers into the pen.
The elk stayed in the pen for two months, with the hard release into the woods in early April.
The same soft release/hard release strategy was used the following year when 27 elk from Elk Island National Park, Alberta, Canada, were added to the park’s herd in Cataloochee.
Documenting elk reintroduction
Ken Wilson met Delozier at one of Delozier’s community meetings. At the time, Wilson was retiring as co-publisher of The Mountaineer in Haywood County, North Carolina. An avid wildlife photographer and Friends of the Smokies board member, Wilson volunteered to document the elk reintroduction with his photography. Delozier accepted Wilson’s offer.
Wilson took hundreds of photographs of the elk project. He traveled to Land Between the Lakes and Elk Island to photograph the elk being captured. When the first elk were released into the enclosure pen in 2001, Ken was inside the pen, photographing the event.
“I spent a good two years very close to the program,” Wilson said. “After the elk were reintroduced, I was out there 2-3 times a week, out there before dawn. When the sun is coming up is when the elk move around.”
Wilson spent two weeks with University of Tennessee/Knoxville researchers Jennifer Murrow and Steven Dobey as they searched for the first elk born in the park.
“The best memory was finding the first elk born in the Smokies,” Wilson said. “That was most memorable. Without a doubt.”
Elk herd grew
The elk cows from Land Between the Lakes had no experience dealing with black bears. So the survival rate of the elk calves was low.
Over time, the elk cows discovered safe locations for birthing and also learned how to defend against the bears. In a previous blog post about the elk reintroduction, park wildlife biologist Joe Yarkovich tells the story of Cow Number 15 and how she learned to protect her calves.
Based on research conducted by Yarkovich and the work of other UT researchers, bears in the Cataloochee area were relocated to other areas in the park before the birthing season in 2006.
Most of the relocated bears returned to Cataloochee, but by the time they did the young elk were larger and agile enough to escape the bears.
The elk calves survived, and the herd grew.
Partners support elk program
Friends of the Smokies President and CEO Dana Soehn was a ranger in the park in 2001 and took the day off for the elk release so she could take her two young sons to see the elk. She and her sons looked through the peepholes in the wall of the enclosure pen as the elk ran by.
“Seeing elk in the Smokies is unforgettable,” Soehn said. “Elk brought people from across the country to places like Cataloochee and Oconaluftee and created a deeper connection to the park. In fact, visitation in Cataloochee nearly doubled the first year after elk were reintroduced, showing how conservation also strengthens local communities and tourism. What’s so special is that donors and supporters helped make that experience possible for millions of visitors.”
After working for the park for more than 30 years, Soehn now leads Friends of the Smokies in its efforts to raise funds for park projects. Over the years, Friends has contributed $300,000 for the elk program.
“This success story belongs to many partners — the National Park Service, Friends of the Smokies, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian, Haywood County, Smokies Life, and the University of Tennessee,” Soehn said. “It’s a powerful reminder that when people invest in national parks, they’re investing in wildlife, science, and experiences that inspire generations.”
About Friends of the Smokies
Friends of the Smokies is the official nonprofit partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Through private donations, fundraising events, and specialty license plates in North Carolina and Tennessee, Friends of the Smokies raises money to fund needed projects and programs in the national park that would otherwise go unfunded.
Learn more about how to get a Friends of the Smokies license plate at BearPlate.org. You can make a direct tax-deductible donation at our website. We also are grateful for those who make contributions at our donation boxes throughout the park. Every gift makes a significant difference for our beloved Smokies.
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