It was a day many thought they would never see. But witness it they did! Capping Missouri’s first-ever Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Rendezvous, RMEF volunteers saw close to 50 elk on their native Missouri range.
“Amazing! Being able to watch the faces of our Missouri volunteers as they got to see some of our Missouri elk was priceless, some for them seeing the elk herd for the very first time,” said Mason Cooper, RMEF regional director.
The two-day rendezvous included 21 RMEF volunteers and was the first to ever take place in Missouri. Volunteers removed trees, saplings and did general upkeep and maintenance on a Peck Ranch Conservation Area holding corral. They also shared smiles and sweat as they cut down and removed old netting and cleaned out pallets and other debris.
The gathering included an on-site lunch, time well spent at Rocky Falls on a hot afternoon, dinner, giveaways and a tour on food plots funded by dollars previously raised by RMEF volunteers.
To put it simply, it was a family atmosphere.
“Sitting around the camp fire and talking to our volunteers it gave me goose bumps listening to them talk about the elk herd. Many of them saying they would have never thought they would have seen the day that Missouri would have a wild elk herd again,” added Cooper.
The Missouri Department of Conservation estimates there are 140 elk in Missouri.