FLORENCE — Mike Howard dreams of the day when large elk herds will once again roam many parts of Kentucky as they did 150 years ago. When that happens, he'll be able to hunt the big animals closer to home than the Colorado mountains he now visits each year.

        Mr. Howard, a retired Boone County police officer, is a member of the Bluegrass Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, one of the groups involved in fund-raising and other efforts to reintroduce elk to the Commonwealth.

        Since the elk reintroduction program began in 1997, when small herds were moved from Colorado and Wyoming to a 14-county area of 2.6 million acres from Prestonsburg to Pineville in eastern Kentucky, the overall Kentucky elk herd has grown to nearly 1,500.

        “Frankly, I didn't think the elk would do as well here as in their western habitat, like Colorado,” Mr. Howard said. “But I'm really pleased with how the program is going. The elk have really settled in.

        “One of my concerns was that the extreme rural areas where the elk have been released would result in a lot of poaching because people would think they could get away with it. There have been a few instances of elk poaching, but people have been arrested and it really hasn't hurt the program.”

        Elk can weigh as much as 800 pounds. The antlers of a mature herd bull are massive, measuring 4 to 6 feet in length and weighing as much as 50 pounds. The animal is prized by hunters both for its meat and antlers and because it lives in remote areas that make hunting difficult.

        He said he believes the day will come when Kentucky will establish an open hunting season for elk.

        Kentucky held its first elk hunt in 150 years from Oct. 6-12, with 10 people awarded special permits through a lottery.

        “One day, we'll all be able to hunt elk in Kentucky just as we do white-tailed deer,” Mr. Howard said.

        Mr. Howard was not one of the 10 elk hunt lottery winners. And he'd be hard-pressed to duplicate his elk hunting luck in Colorado.

        Hunting near Craig, Colo., with a group of friends from the Rabbit Hash Sportsman Association that included Boone County Jailer John Schickel, Mr. Howard has taken trophy-size bull elk in 2000 and 2001, both on the first day of the hunt.

        “That's really remarkable when you consider that the average success rate for elk hunters for the entire season is about 30 percent,” said Mr. Schickel, who shot a cow elk during the group's trip to Colorado two weeks ago.

        Another Rabbit Hash Sportsman Association member, Verona attorney Howe Baker, shot a bull elk at a distance of more than 600 yards.

        If Mr. Howard and other hunters

        and conservationists are correct and the elk herds continue to grow, elk would join white-tailed deer and wild turkey as native species that disappeared from Kentucky in the 19th century, but have been restored to abundant numbers.

        “Bringing elk back adds a missing piece to our ecological puzzle,” said Tom Bennett, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “It enhances Ken tucky's wildlife diversity, and that's a mission of the department.”

        Mr. Howard has the bull elk he took during last year's hunt mounted over the fireplace of his Florence home. The antler rack measures five feet across, similar to the one he shot this year.

        “This was a special trip for me this year, because my dad passed away in June,” he said. “He taught me to fish and hunt and love the outdoors. It was special to get an elk this year.”

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