Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

What does an elk eat? With footage captured by a tiny video camera placed on a Pennsylvania elk this week, researchers soon will find out. The research initiative is a product of a partnership between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Keystone Elk Country Alliance, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization headquartered at the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette, Pa. The Game Commission actively manages wildlife habitat throughout Pennsylvania, and within the state’s 3,500-square-mile elk-management area. Habitat quality directly influences elk pregnancy rates, survival, calf recruitment and the distribution of elk. Projects to improve or create high-quality habitat also are used to mitigate elk-human conflicts and hunter-related elk mortality. By making lands more inviting to elk, elk aren’t as likely to turn up in less ideal areas. Traditional studies on the types of habitat elk prefer have provided both biologists and land managers with information needed to cr...

Governor Tom Corbett visited the Elk Country Visitor Center in Elk County last night to highlight the Pennsylvania Wilds as a top destination for travelers and mark 100 years since elk were reintroduced into the region. “Unique tourist destinations like the Elk Country Visitor Center support Pennsylvania’s tourism industry and help create and sustain local jobs,” Corbett said. “Attendance at the center has grown to 200,000 tourists annually, each spending money and supporting local small businesses.” The Elk Country Visitor Center is nestled on 245-acres owned by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) in Benezette. The non-profit Keystone Elk Country Alliance (KECA), a Pennsylvania based wildlife conservation organization, operates the center using money raised from the private sector. Elk were hunted to extinction in the late 1800s; in 1913, the Pennsylvania Game Commission began an effort to improve habitat and reintroduce them. Pennsylvania’s elk herd now c...