WISCONSIN ELK STUDY

PROGRESS REPORT NO. 3

6 June 1994 - Appeal period for U.S. Forest Service decision to permit the elk study on Chequamegon National Forest passed without an appeal being filed. Therefore, the study is officially underway.

Michigan as a potential donor of elk for the project is still a very real possibility. WDNR personnel are preparing the 3rd draft of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for review; we should have it this week. A telephone conference was held with personnel from WDNR, MDNR, USFS, Wis. Dept. of Ag. and Cons. Protection, UWSP, and WESCO on 6 June 94 relative to the MOU. Many details about quarantine time and place, numbers of animals, sex ratios, timing of trapping and associated confinement period, calving, and shipment were discussed, some were agreed upon and incorporated into the 3rd draft. Trap and quarantine timing relative to calving and shipping is receiving additional study.

Completion of the detailed research plan awaits decisions discussed above relative to the MOU and associated timing.

A release site on the Chequamegon National Forest has been selected based on access, remoteness, and location and condition of existing openings and other USFS forest management activities as they relate to elk habitat.

Fund-raising activities are in a mode of "full speed ahead" with the termination of the appeal period. A copy of our fund-raising brochure is enclosed. We would welcome names and addresses of potential donors. An informational and fund-raising banquet, with potential creation of the Chequamegon Chapter of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), is scheduled for 13 August 1994 at Lakewoods Resort on Lake Namekagon. Sue Amman and Neil Paulson are co-chairing the banquet committee with able guidance from Bill Hunyati, field representative of RMEF.

FUTURE PLANS

Complete research plan following finalization of MOU.

Arrange for capture, quarantine, and shipment of experimental herd.

Prepare elk release site.

Continue fund-raising.