GOLDEN POND, KY — Elk that were roaming the 750-acre Elk & Bison Prarie at Land Between the Lakes here as recently as a week ago will soon be en route to the mountains of Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau region, if all goes according to plan.

Several Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency employees and volunteers spent a span of days recently locating, darting and transporting elk at LBL, preparing to move the animals to Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area in Campbell County, near LaFollette.

TWRA biologist Steve Bennett, who coordinates the agency's elk restoration program, was doing the shooting with CO2-powered guns, after which the animals were blindfolded, hobbled, and carried to waiting flatbed trailers using a tarp. They were then transported to a nearby enclosure, where they are currently undergoing testing for brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis.

In all, more than 40 elk have been darted and transported by TWRA. Elk program volunteer Harvey Hammock said this morning that two bull elk remained as of today that needed to be trapped and moved to the enclosure.

By the time Bradford pears are blooming next month, many of those elk will be transported to Royal Blue WMA, where they will join about 200 other free-roaming elk on the Cumberland Plateau. Hammock said that about 35 elk will be targeted for the release.

TWRA officials have not set an exact date for the release — other than saying it will occur in March — but it will be open to the public. Previous releases have taken place near Montgomery Junction (near Smokey Junction in Scott County).

The release will mark the first in several years for the TWRA's elk program, which has been stalled by Chronic Wasting Disease concerns and government bureaucracy.

After the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted bans on importing cervids to the U.S. following a Mad Cow scare in Canada, TWRA was prepared to import 140 elk from Elk Island National Park in Alberta last February. However, a last-minute ruling by USDA officials crashed those plans, as USDA decided that Elk Island's herd could not longer be certified disease-free.

That decision had been lobbied for by Tennessee elk farmer David L. Autry, owner of H&A Farms near Lexington. Autry had threatened legal action against USDA if it permitted TWRA to import the elk, citing a threat of CWD disease being introduced to the state by those elk. Autry had also applied for elk from Elk Island in the past; however, his application had been rejected by USDA.

The USDA's action came about because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency — the Canucks' counterpart to the USDA — determined that Elk Island no longer met the specifications of a captive herd.

Elk Island had served as Tennessee's largest source of elk since TWRA began the elk restoration program in 2000, but the future for importations from Elk Island remains very much in jeopardy.

Barred from transporting elk from Elk Island, TWRA's only source for elk is the much smaller herd at LBL. Last winter, TWRA planned to import more than two dozen elk from LBL; however, those plans never came to fruition. With cervids farmers — including the Kentucky Alternative Livestock Association — battling that move as well, Kentucky ultimately determined that elk from LBL had to meet Kentucky's standards for captive elk herds before they can be transported.

LBL has since met those standards — and last October, TWRA agreed to meet federal tuberculosis testing requirements, allowing the planned importation to take place. There is no word yet over whether cervids farmers intend to renew their efforts to prevent new elk from reaching the Cumberland Plateau.