Speaking of elk (songs), we stumbled upon this cool clip of a beast of a bull elk bellowing out autumn love songs. Pretty impressive, huh?

While we’re on the subject…let us recommend a neat article about the elk reintroduction efforts in Tennessee and Kentucky. After decimating their respective herds in the late 19th century, both states can now boast healthy, self-sustaining populations. Healthy enough, in fact, to offer a limited hunting opportunity to a lucky few. Furthermore, the revenue generated from the license lottery is no small chunk of change – individual tags have sold for as much as $17,000! Most of this money is used to fund the reintroduction effort, as well as assist other conservation related programs.

[Actually, Tennessee’s 5th and final elk hunting license of the season is actually being auctioned off on ebay right now. At “publishing time,” the pricetag was still under ten grand. Better hurry up and make moves…]

Also interesting are the areas where these elk have naturally gravitated: large tracts of abandoned strip mines. So, these elk are essentially brought in to turn an otherwise underutilized and unproductive landscape into a financially viable and attractive piece of land. Hmm, sounds a lot like adaptive reuse and alternative programming to us. We’re not so different after all, are we, Elk?

One more thing, because you only get so many chances to segue with elk: the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is teaming up with four other of the biggest land and wildlife conservation agencies to host the Land & Wildlife Expo in Nashville, TN early next month. We’ll be there. If you’re attending as well, feel free to drop us a line. We’d love to meet you.