A decade of worthy work and planning to bring the majestic elk back home to the Northland — specifically, to the Fond du Lac Reservation and the surrounding 1854 Ceded Territory — is ready for our input.
Public comments on the effort are being taken by email, an online questionnaire is available, and virtual and in-person public meetings are scheduled starting next week, all coordinated by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa with support from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
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The opportunities to offer feedback demand to be seized.
“The Fond du Lac Band has been working patiently for the last 10 years to bring omashkooz (elk) home,” Fond du Lac Wildlife Program Manager Mike Schrage said in a statement distributed last week by the DNR. “This process has been about restoring a native species, providing future elk hunting and viewing opportunities, and reestablishing a species adaptable to a wide range of future climate scenarios.”
Imagine, elk back in Northeastern Minnesota, their sprawling tree-limb antlers, their haunting bugle cries, and their thick bodies the size of pickup trucks all a feast for our eyes and ears.
To pull it off, the Fond du Lac Band prepared a proposal in 2021 and conducted feasibility studies to move 100 to 150 elk from northwestern Minnesota to the Fond du Lac Reservation and surrounding region. The elk would be moved a few at a time over many years to ensure herds remain healthy in the northwest while being reestablished in the northeast.
Tens of thousands of elk historically lived throughout much of Minnesota, according to the DNR. The elk remaining in the northwest are owned and managed by private landowners, the DNR, the Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an area overlapping the Red Lake Nation’s 1863 Old Crossing Treaty boundary.
“There is exciting and important work underway to reestablish elk in northeast Minnesota,” Minnesota DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen stated last week. “We’re looking forward to working with Tribal partners to enhance the important ecological and cultural benefits that elk provide in Minnesota.”
To help “inform the scope,” as the DNR states it, of the plan for the elk restoration — called the Northeast Omashkooz (elk) Restoration and Management Plan — Minnesotans and others can submit comments by email to ne.elk.plan.dnr@state.mn.us by Feb. 28. We can also complete a questionnaire at mndnr.gov/elk/elk-northeast.html before the end of February. And we can attend either a virtual public meeting on Monday, Feb. 10, from 6-8 p.m. at mndnr.gov/elk or an in-person public meeting from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, in Room 195 of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, 2101 14th St., Cloquet.
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“This project is an important step toward restoring a species that is part of Minnesota’s natural heritage,” Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Kettle River, stated last week. “I encourage everyone to share their input to ensure the plan reflects the needs of the community.”
A draft of the elk-restoration plan is expected by this coming autumn, followed by another round of public comment before it’s finalized.
The first round of elk releases in Northeastern Minnesota then is expected by spring 2026 — and what a day that promises to be. Captures in northwestern Minnesota and releases in Northeastern Minnesota are then to continue until a self-sustaining herd is established in and around the Fond du Lac Reservation.
The exciting prospect of elk back in Northeastern Minnesota won’t happen without our input, though. And the time for that to begin is now.
The Trust Project
