Bill Clark: An elk is truly a majestic animal. There is nothing like driving on to the Peck
Ranch on an elk tour and seeing one of the most majestic animals in North America.
Aaron Hildreth: It really is the first time in more than half a century that we
are having a new hunting opportunity here in the state with a brand new species.
Realizing we are always going to have a pretty small number of elk,
we wanted to make sure that Missourians had as much say in that process as possible.
In determining the five permits, basically we look at our three benchmarks, the population
around 200 individuals, bull to cow ratio of one bull for every four cows, and then a population
growth rate of at least ten percent a year. We met all of these, we estimated 207
as of June 1st before calving. Based on that we set it at five animals.
We recognized that landowners are the key to the future success of elk here in the state,
so we wanted to make sure that at least one of those permits went to a landowner.
Bill: I get a lot of local pressure. Let’s put it this way, phone calls,
like, don’t make us disown you, that kind of attitude.
Aaron: With this being the inaugural hunt, the first landowner that had the opportunity
to hunt elk here in Missouri was Bill Clark. And so that was a real cool opportunity for
a gentleman that kind of eats, sleeps and breathes conservation.
Bill: My wife and I regard ourselves as conservationists.
And we are not tree huggers by any stretch, but we believe in the variety of wildlife,
and so having these animals particularly, and wildlife in general is just great.
Aaron: You know, Mr. Clark, the odds were stacked against him.
That permit was only valid on your own property.
He had a pretty nice bull walk through with a cow the night before the season opened, and then he
didn’t see anything during archery season. Again, he is at a great crossroads,
but it really is kind of hit or miss. Then fast forward to the firearms season,
he hadn’t been seeing a whole lot, and then, second to last day of the season…
Bill: We had, what I’d say a dirth of bulls in the area.
None sighted in either of the two seasons. And then, on the next to the last day of gun
season, my wife happened to see some cows wandering in the woods below the house.
Dorothy Clark: And I just happened to come by and glance out the sliding glass door.
And I said to Bill, “ELK!” and he said “Elk, Really?”
And I said “REALLY” because it was the last opportunity with only one day left.
There were like twenty or thirty cows and sure enough,
there was one male elk down there. And so Bill sighted in on him,
and I’ve got to tell you I’m just really proud of Bill, because it was one opportunity
and if he missed or that elk saw us and decided to get trotting up the hill, it was over.
Bill: I Just responded and came out and looked and sure enough I did see the spike.
He was not moving, and I went ahead and made the decision to fire.
[Rifle Shot]
Aaron: You know, he had pretty narrow shot opportunities.
Yeah, his property has far more timbered ground than it does open.
So, it was just thread that needle and made a great quick kill shot on it.
You want those who are lucky enough to get these permits to have cool interactions with
these critters and have good shot opportunities.
And this year, all five of them did, and were able to harvest pretty magnificent animals.
Missourians are pretty phenomenal when it comes to nature and conservation.
It makes our jobs really easy
and really rewarding. It’s very easy to see
the value of what we are doing and what it is able to give back to the citizens of the state.