Partnership between Minnesota DNR, Fond du Lac Band could bring elk to northeastern Minnesota

NINA MOINI: While historically, elk used to roam across the entire state of Minnesota, today, though, there are just a few hundred, and only northwestern Minnesota. But that could change soon. Tonight, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Fond du Lac band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have a public meeting to discuss the reintroduction of elk to the Fond du Lac Reservation and surrounding areas. That's in northeastern Minnesota. It's a project that started more than a decade ago, and now it's on its way to becoming reality. Joining us now to explain more is Makenzie Henk, the elk biologist with the Fond du Lac band. Thank you so much for your time today, Makenzie.

MAKENZIE HENK: Of course. Thanks for having me on.

NINA MOINI: Well, so a 10-year-long effort-- I bet. It feels really good to see this kind of moving forward in the momentum. Can you remind us how this effort got started?

MAKENZIE HENK: Of course. So this was first proposed, as you mentioned, in 2014, by the wildlife program manager here with the Fond du Lac band, Mike Schrage. And so after that initial proposal, there was feasibility studies conducted by the University of Minnesota that showed that this area of the Northeast has good habitat, there is local community support, and a relatively low risk of human-wildlife conflict. So that pushed to get support from the legislature and the creation of the interagency coordination team, which is now tasked with writing an elk management plan for the Northeast Herd.

NINA MOINI: And so, I guess, what happened, Makenzie, to the elk population that kind of made it dwindle over time here in Minnesota?

MAKENZIE HENK: Sure. It's similar to what happened to a lot of wildlife in the 1700 and 1800s. Elk were subject to overharvesting, and then lost habitat while the prairie was converted to agriculture. And so that led to a local extinction in Minnesota for a while.

NINA MOINI: OK, and I know there are probably, like you mentioned, other species or other animals that have dwindled in population over the time. Can you talk about why elk in particular is where you all chose to focus?

MAKENZIE HENK: Oh, of course. That's a great question. Elk are a great species for reintroduction because they're very hardy, and they're very adaptable. So even in the era of climate change, they're likely to continue to do well once they're established in the Northeast.

NINA MOINI: OK. Obviously, historically, there hasn't always been the greatest relationships-- tribal relationships with the state or with federal government or state government. So what has it been like and why is it important for this project to really be a partnership between the band and the DNR?

MAKENZIE HENK: Yeah, of course. So I will say, the Fond du Lac band does have a long history of working with the DNR, especially in the wildlife sphere. We've been collaborating on moose surveys for the last 30 years and collaborating on wolf monitoring. But what makes this project particularly unique and exciting is that this will be the first time that we write a management plan together for a species, where it will help outline how both of these entities will be costewards of this herd.

NINA MOINI: Can you describe a little bit about what a management plan looks like in practice? Is it people going out, teams going out to different areas and just doing some surveillance, or what does that look like in action, I wonder?

MAKENZIE HENK: Sure. So the management plan is going to cover an array of topics, including how to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. And we'll set out some parameters for when we'll start considering an elk hunt. And what we're doing now is we're really trying to get input from the community through our public meetings, like the one we're having tonight, as well as through a questionnaire that folks can find on the DNR website.

And we want to know what people are excited about, and we want to know what people are concerned about. And we'll make sure to address all of those topics within the management plan.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, tell me about that really quick, the public hearing tonight. Do you want to just give the details of how people can be involved?

MAKENZIE HENK: Oh, of course. So it's at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, but if folks aren't in the area or they're not able to make it, they can still go on the Elk page of the DNR website, and they'll find a link to a questionnaire. And that's where they can tell us what they're excited about, if they're concerned about roads or agriculture, or whatever other comments they'd like to give. And so that questionnaire will be available until the end of the month.

NINA MOINI: OK, and can you also describe, Makenzie, how the reintroduction process would begin? Do the elk come from elsewhere? How does that work?

MAKENZIE HENK: Yeah, of course. So the legislature directed us to look at the Northwest Herd of Minnesota as the source herd. So, of course, that population is very small and limited in range, so we would never want to move too many elk at once and negatively impact those populations. So we would move small numbers of elk, maybe 10 to 20 every year for 5 to 10 years until we see that the elk population in the Northeast is stabilizing, it's growing, and is healthy enough that we don't need to keep bringing additional elk to the area.

NINA MOINI: So if all goes as planned-- obviously, something like this would not happen overnight-- but when do you project or maybe hope that there would be a healthy elk herd in the state again?

MAKENZIE HENK: Oh my goodness, yeah, I mean, I think it'll take 5 to 10 years of moving elk. And it'll depend. I mean, we do expect some predation, especially of elk calves, from wolves and bears. And so, yeah, it'll take quite a number of years of bringing these small number of elk to this area. So yeah, it could be quite a while before we have a healthy herd, where we could open up a hunt for or be confident that it'll continue growing.

NINA MOINI: Is there a number that you hit to make something, I guess, to be a healthy herd?

MAKENZIE HENK: You know, it's a tricky question, and it'll really depend. It'll depend how much predation we see. The feasibility studies showed that this area could hold density similar to Wisconsin and Michigan, which is about one elk per square mile. So within the restoration area, we may get to that limit, which is around 200 to 300 elk. And that will be the healthy herd. But we might find there's a social carrying capacity that's a little bit lower. Maybe people want more or less elk. And so that will play a role into when we decide that herd is at a healthy limit.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, that's what I was-- I guess I was wondering that, too, that if you ever reintroduce an animal or a species that, for a long time, didn't have the numbers, are you ever concerned about how that might impact the ecosystem and other wildlife and animals?

MAKENZIE HENK: Sure. I mean, you want to consider all aspects when you're reintroducing a species. But this is an area that used to have elk, and we know that it has a lot of great habitat. There's a lot of active timber logging, and so that creates excellent forage and habitat for elk. And so we expect that the elk will integrate back into the ecosystem fairly seamlessly.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. This is really exciting, Makenzie. I really thank you for your work and for coming on and sharing it with us.

MAKENZIE HENK: Of course, it was a pleasure.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Makenzie Henk, elk biologist with the Fond du Lac band.