Hometown elk park

[BowEd]

A little local trivia.
While going to town to get a length of chain to mount another tree stand I stopped by the elk pen on the edge of my hometown.

Looks like they have 4 cows and 1 bull now.
It was a nice warm sunny day here.The elk were out staying cool in their pond.

A blue heron with one catching tiny fish.

A cow standing in the shade of an osage tree.You can see the hedge balls on the tree.

A couple years ago the old 6 by 6 bull got out during the fall deer season.Since then they have replaced the 8' wire.


It was shot by a local hunter.Reported and the meat distributed at the local food bank.The old bull was replaced by a younger bull.
A picture of him earlier this year.

There is a large herd of buffalo a few miles from me here too.An old picture I took years ago.Mr. Johnson has hundreds of buffalo.Owns large tracts of pasture that he rotates the herd on.

Love the area that I live in here with all the local deer and other wildlife all around me.

[bjrogg]

That’s interesting Ed.

I have a cousin who had a Elk Ranch.

And a neighbor right around the corner that had a few buffalos.

Neither of them have them anymore

I think it probably took me 36 years to really appreciate where I live to the point it deserves.

I just had to realize it’s a pretty special place and we are really lucky to call it home.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Very cool Ed, we have one of them at Land between the lakes, with elk and 1 with buffalo  love going and watching them. Guess we all think where we live is special as it should be. Love visiting other places but still no place like home. 
 Pappy

[chamookman]

Thanks for sharing ! Bob

[BowEd]

Guess it comes down to whether a person appreciates what's around them including the people living there.
Seen lots of this country through coon hunting in the past.
Making a living off the land makes a person appreciate it and everything else that lives off it also by investing back into it themselves to keep it that way.
I have business friend through buckskinning in Minnesota who has his own small herd of buffalo also.He's a former taxidermist who's expanded his horizons.A few privately owned herds in Iowa sell meat also.Awful expensive meat but people seem to buy it.It sure is tasty.
There's multiple other present day herds in Iowa also for the public to view.Some privately owned or privately owned organizations with the help of the government.Mr. Johnsons' is just the closest to me.
It's cool other states have reintroduced the elk and buffalo into their state.

[Will B]

Great pictures Ed!  Here in PA we were fortunate to have elk reintroduced years ago and we now have archery and gun hunts for cows and bulls in a draw. I haven’t been lucky enough to draw a tag yet but I’m hopeful it will happen one of these years. I used to take my dad an hour or so north of my hometown to view the elk every fall.

[Hawkdancer]

Elk are native plains animals, but got pushed west by people!  There is a herd northeast of us near Lake McConaughey that roams out a way.  When we were in Loveland, we saw them all the time, and Estes Park has an even bigger herd!  The Loveland herd manages to take down the fences on our shooting range property at least once a year - we got a great deal of experience rebuilding fences!
Hawkdancer   

[BowEd]

The deer here lossen up the top wire of fences around here too.Enough that they need to be repaired to keep cattle in properly.
Over time they will destroy the other wires also.
When repairing aged hedge row fencing the wire needs to be wired on instead of stapled.It's a neccessary thing to be done with row crop ground on the other side.Hedge posts get so hard over time that a staple will not go into them.
The wire marks on the back of brain tanned hides show this too.
Nice gesture of you for your dad.