For most Ohioans, elk are something you see on a hunting show filmed out West, or in an old painting, or in a story about the frontier that feels too distant to matter anymore, which is exactly why the sudden reappearance of the word “elk” in statehouse talk has been catching people off guard.
Dave Golowenski, writing for The Columbus Dispatch, and Ricky from the hunting-and-taxidermy YouTube channel Good Taxidermy, both describe the same basic reality from two different angles: a new push in Columbus could fund an official feasibility study, which is the first real step any state takes before it tries to put elk back on the ground.
That doesn’t mean elk are coming next season, and it doesn’t mean a hunt is around the corner, but it does mean Ohio is flirting with a question that hasn’t been practical for roughly two centuries – what would it take to bring elk back, and what would the state have to change to live with them if it actually worked.
How Ohio Lost Elk In The First Place
Golowenski begins by reminding readers that Ohio didn’t gently “phase out” elk as the state modernized, because the truth is harsher than that and a little embarrassing if you love the romance of the early American story…