Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Minnesota
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

This research will determine areas of suitable habitat and levels of public support for restoring elk to Northeastern Minnesota. Research will be conducted in an area already identified as having local public interest and abundant public forest land (i.e., southern St Louis, Carlton, and northern Pine counties; Figure 1). The research team will build upon existing eastern elk restoration research to address two research goals:

1) Identify the amount of public support for a restored elk population by surveying citizens in and around the prospective restoration sites.

2) Determine where suitable habitat exists and how many elk it could sustain. Combine the public support and habitat suitability maps to identify areas likely to support a restored elk population.