Below is a news release from the Missouri Department of Conservation. Since 1991, RMEF and its partners completed 133 conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in Missouri with a combined value of more than $2.9 million. These projects have enhanced 11,004 acres of habitat. RMEF also provided funding and volunteer manpower to help successfully restore wild, free-ranging elk to their historic Missouri range in 2011.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) congratulates the five Missourians drawn for the state’s 2021 elk hunting season this coming fall and winter. MDC will issue one permit each to the five lucky Missourians randomly drawn from 9,714 permit applications, including one drawn from 84 resident-landowners who applied and 9,630 from other Missourians.
The five applicants drawn for a permit to harvest one antlered elk in Missouri this season are:
- Michael Duncan of Lesterville, who was drawn from among the resident-landowner applications for an antlered-elk hunting permit;
- Michael Ellison of Gainesville, who was drawn for an antlered-elk hunting permit;
- Tyson Wall of Iberia, who was drawn for an antlered-elk hunting permit;
- Robert Rothermich of Pomona, who was drawn for an antlered-elk hunting permit; and
- Chris Irick of Pleasant Hope, who was drawn for an antlered-elk hunting permit.
Each of the five can purchase their elk-hunting permit starting July 1 for a cost of $50. The five hunters can then each harvest one bull elk that has at least one antler being a minimum of six inches long. The five hunters may hunt using archery methods Oct. 16-24 and firearms methods Dec. 11-19. Each permit is valid for both the archery and firearms portions of the elk-hunting season.
The five permits may be used within Carter, Reynolds, or Shannon counties excluding the refuge portion of Peck Ranch.
For more information on elk hunting in Missouri, including MDC’s online Elk Hunting Digest, visit mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/elk.
Missouri’s second elk season comes after years of restoration efforts of the native species by MDC, numerous partners including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and many supporters including local communities and landowners. Learn more about elk restoration in Missouri at mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/ElkInMissouri.pdf.
During last year’s inaugural elk season for Missouri, all five hunters that were drawn harvested an elk.
(Photo source: Missouri Department of Conservation)