Welcome home to Missouri. Monday, May 6 RMEF volunteers and Missouri Department of conservation team members rolled out the red carpet, burlap that is for the arrival mid-May of the final installment of 35 elk from Kentucky. Our reward: a greeting by 21 of our current elk residents.

The most recent elk herd brought from Kentucky was split into two groups: the first of 33 was released on Peck Ranch. An additional 14 elk were released on part of The Nature Conservancy’s Lower Ozarks tract on June 21.
Missouri Conservation Commissioner Don Johnson got to do the honors of releasing the elk from [...]

This year’s crop of elk increased by 10 before even leaving the pen.
SUMMERSVILLE–Missouri’s free-ranging elk herd got a boost Tuesday, as the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) released 33 elk at Peck Ranch Conservation Area (CA) in Carter County. Another release of 13 elk is planned for Saturday on neighboring land in the elk-restoration zone.
In [...]

The Dexter Daily Statesman reports this morning that one of the radio-collared adult elk released on Peck Ranch last year was found near Poyner in Ripley County and shot and killed Wednesday afternoon.
Elk reintroduced in Arkansas now cover a 12-county area.
Although elk have roamed off the ranch before, most have stayed within a few miles [...]

(MDC news release)
By Jim Low
VAN BUREN, Mo – Missouri’s elk herd doubled in size today (May 19) with the arrival of the Show-Me State’s second batch of wild elk from Kentucky. A tractor-trailer truck carrying 22 mature cows, three one-year-old cows, three two-year-old bulls, six one-year-old bulls and one newborn bull arrived at the Missouri [...]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will soon add 35 wild elk to the Show-Me state’s recently restored herd at Peck Ranch Conservation Area. Peck Ranch is part of a 221,000-acre elk-restoration zone that covers parts of Shannon, Carter and Reynolds counties
The elk are scheduled to arrive at the refuge area [...]

SUMMERSVILLE—Hunters who customarily use the refuge area at Peck Ranch Conservation Area (CA) will need to make alternate plans again this year, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).
MDC closed the refuge portion of Peck Ranch CA to public access, including spring turkey hunting, in 2011. The closure was designed to prevent possible disturbance [...]

Elk restoration enters second year
Lessons learned in 2011 make this year’s work more productive.
JEFFERSON CITY–Missouri’s elk herd is growing on two fronts, and conservation officials express optimism that the second year of restoration work will benefit from experience gained in 2011.
Efforts to bring elk back to Missouri after a 150-year absence began in October 2010, [...]