MAGGIE VALLEY – It’s not every day a noisy, hooved creature gets the royal treatment, in the form of a $9.9 million new home.
But in Western North Carolina, elk, once extirpated from the landscape, are considered wildlife majesty. The giant grazers - which can grow to 1,000 pounds - were honored with a 2,030-acre spread of their own to roam on the newly established William H. Silver Game Land in Haywood County.
Local residents gathered Tuesday with members of local, state and federal government as well as nonprofit partners to celebrate the private-public partnership that created new game land, which partly borders Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The game land was established last year by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to provide much-needed habitat for the state’s growing elk population and for other species such as black bear, deer, turkey and grouse, and to bring economic development opportunities to Haywood and surrounding counties.
Experimental elk herds were introduced to the Cataloochee area of the Smokies in 2001 and 2002 after an absence of elk of some 200 years due to over-hunting and habitat loss.
The herd has steadily grown to an estimated at 150 animals, which have long since wandered outside park boundaries, causing traffic jams and headaches for farmers and homeowners trying to keep the elk from eating their gardens and crops.
RELATED: NC Wildlife adopts new elk management rules
RELATED: NC elk, bear, alligator rule changes
The elk are also a huge tourist draw, especially in the next few weeks when they start their annual mating calls, known as bugling.
The wildlife commission has installed electric fencing around several farms and given fencing kits to many other farmers to install themselves.
There is no elk hunting season in North Carolina. However, the wildlife commission removed elk from the state species of special concern list in 2016, which paves the way for a future elk hunt.
Partnership led to new elk habitat, water quality protection
Providing more public land for the elk to graze has become a regional effort.
The Conservation Fund purchased nine properties from conservation-minded landowners, said North Carolina State Director Bill Holman, with $3.6 million in grants from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and $830,000 in grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pittman-Robertson/Wildlife Restoration Program, and conveyed to the Wildlife Resources Commission.
“Every property owner that sold land, solid it at a discount because they wanted to see it conserved,” Holman said.
Private funders included Duke Energy Water Resources Fund, the Pigeon River Fund, Fred and Alice Stanback, Brad and Shelli Stanback and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
“We used the event to celebrate the new game land and to tell the public, the game land is open and ready for their use,” Holman said. “I imagine people will be interested in going up to try to see elk and bear and other critters.”
While the group didn’t see any elk during the celebration tour, they did spot elk tracks, Holman said.
RELATED: Land bordering Smokies protected by SAHC for elk habitat
There is limited public access to the new game land, said Kip Hollifield, Wildlife Commission mountain eco-region supervisor. The main access is a small parking area on Black Camp Gap Road, off Highway 19 in Maggie Valley. The best bet for spotting elk this fall is still in Cataloochee, he said.
Holman said the new game land is very steep in sections, but also contains open meadows and mountain balds, which provide the type of grassy forage elk love.
Conserving these lands will also protect water quality for Maggie Valley and nearby communities, while increasing recreational opportunities — including hiking, wildlife viewing, and trout fishing — by connecting state and federally protected lands.
In addition to providing suitable habitat for elk roaming outside the national park, the William H. Silver Game Land protects the Smokies from adjacent development, and protects the Hemphill Bald Trail, which runs along the Cataloochee Divide on the border of the Great Smokies, including Buck Knob, Maggot Spring Gap, Chestnut Ridge, and Sheepback Knob.
It also helps protect the headwaters of Deep Gap Branch, Indian Branch and Carpenter Branch, tributaries of Jonathan Creek, which supplies drinking water to Maggie Valley.
The wildlife commission is exploring additional expansions to improve public access, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, N.C. Wildlife Federation, Maggie Valley Sanitary District and others, Holman said.
Not only the elk will benefit, local tourism leaders said. The new game land should offer a helping hand to the local economy.
“Outdoor recreation in North Carolina generates $28 billion in consumer spending and accounts for 260,000 jobs, $1.3 billion generated in state and local tax revenue for the state, and $8.3 billion is paid in wages and salaries,” Haywood County Tourism Development Authority Executive Director Lynn Collins said at the event, which was sponsored by the TDA and The Conservation Fund.
“The Silver Game Land is a welcome addition to the unique outdoor recreation offerings in Haywood County for our residents and visitors alike,” she said.
“Through the power of partnership, this project demonstrates how working together on land conservation and habitat management supports our shared values, including abundant and diverse wildlife species, while also achieving common and individual goals,” said Gordon Myers, Executive Director of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.