Robinson Forest is a research and education facility owned
by UK near Hazard. It adjoins Cyprus-Amax WMA, site of the original elk
release December 18, 1997. We stayed at the forest camp on Saturday evening
and enjoyed time viewing and learning about elk Saturday afternoon and Sunday
morning. Of the fifteen women that chose to come to the Elk Outing, I couldn’t
find a single volunteer to write the story of our weekend, so at the
suggestion of Wendy, I enlisted everyone to write it. It is apparent from the
comments that we all had a fabulous weekend…
Once upon a time in a land far away known as Hazard, KY, a group of women from KNOW gathered together to learn about and look for the elusive elk. They were met at Robinson Forest by Charlie Logsten, the wildlife biologist in charge of elk restoration, and Laurie Taylor, an instructor at UK. The cabins and accommodations at Robinson were great. They actually had bathrooms and heat!! And, the food was super.
Charlie and Laurie shared so much information on the area as well as the elk restoration that it was difficult for our finite brains to take it all in. Their willingness to share is phenomenal. Those of us that only saw the first elk release on TV or the newspaper were thrilled to see the area for ourselves. We witnessed a forest fire coming across the ridge not far from us.
The evening wouldn’t be complete without s’mores. But first, we had to get the fire started. It reminded me of a Chinese fire drill! Scotty was the official fire started with the help of Annie’s husband’s fire started. Teresa and Annie shopped for marshmallow sticks and everyone indulged!
This weekend has been a wonderful adventure and a time of
revival. There has been so many new experiences I can’t begin to express my
excitement and joy. Seeing the elk was so exciting and awesome. Charlie was so
knowledgeable and interesting that it was easy to learn. We saw elk rubs and
made some plaster of paris prints. This trip has been wonderful! (M.W.)
Sunday morning it was dark and cool as we all piled in the van. We arrived at our first stop. On the right, we saw a herd of elk and on the left, a beautiful sunrise. I watched as the sun came up and was a bright red fireball against a smoke filled sky.
Despite the smoke from the forest fires, the night trip to the fire tower was just beautiful. At the landing from the tower, we watched falling stars and the flicker of fires in the distance. What an exciting trip!
The weekend went so fast. The night activities from
Jeopardy to seeing Charlie, our Vanna, have fear in his eyes at the
competition to watching the meteorites at the fire tower were a special touch.
Then Sunday’s cap at hearing the bugling bull and seeing a herd on the move
made us want to stay longer.
We were presented with a wealth of information about elk habits and habitat, how the restoration program actually works, and forest ecology over the course of the weekend. Charlie was gracious to put together a few facts about the elk herd at Cyprus-Amax WMA:
There are approximately 330-340 animals in the population at this time.
Total 1999 calf production was about 70, including 30 that were born to cows bred in Kentucky.
Post release mortality for the 1999 release is only 2.5%.
Numerous opportunities existed in September-October 1999 to hear and see bugling bulls, particularly in Cyprus-Amax WMA. (This is the elk breeding season)
Most animals of the Cyprus release are within 3-5 miles of the release site and they appear to be returning to the site for the winter. This was also observed in the winter of 1998-1999.
During the winter of 1999-2000, approximately 500-700 elk will be released. Source states are Utah, Oregon, North Dakota, and possibly Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico.
A small token hunt is being planned for the fall of 2001.
For more information about the elk restoration project in Kentucky, choose "Elk in Kentucky" after going to the KDFWR Information Systems web pages. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation also provides information about the restoration projects in Kentucky and other states and about elk in general.
Enjoy the slide show of our weekend as you click on the arrows below the elk.
