Tomblin Wildlife Management Area Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Bobwhite Quail Return To West Virginia

Officials from the West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday that an extinct species native to West Virginia were restored.

Last week 48 bobwhite quail were reintroduced to southern West Virginia from Texas. They were released in the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan and Mingo Counties.

According to a press release, the species was wiped out during West Virginia’s harsh winters of 1977, 78 and 79. A team from the state’s Department of Natural Resources is using transmitters to monitor the quail’s survival and habitat use.

Logan Klingler, DNR wildlife manager, helps Gov. Jim Justice release the bobwhite quail into the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area.

The plan has been in the works for a couple years at Governor Jim Justice’s urging, according to the release.

Four years ago, a similar restoration program unfolded at the wildlife management area with the release of elk from Kentucky. The area is made up of mostly reclaimed strip mines in the state’s Southern Coalfields.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

West Virginia Officials to Show Off 50 Elk Caught in Arizona

Officials in West Virginia are set to introduce 50 elk that were captured in Arizona.

Gov. Jim Justice and the state Division of Natural Resources are scheduled to hold a ceremony Tuesday at the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area near Logan.

The governor’s office says in a news release the elk have been in a 5-acre holding pen since March to comply with federal disease testing guidelines. The pen is on reclaimed coal mine property, where grasslands have been cultivated and are considered key for sustaining elk.

They’ll join 35 other elk previously acquired from Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

The elk from Kentucky were first reintroduced in West Virginia in December 2016. Before that, elk herds hadn’t roamed the state since 1875.

Officials are touting the elk’s potential to help tourism.

Elk from Arizona Expected Next Year in West Virginia

West Virginia wildlife officials say 60 elk will come to the state next year through a partnership with their counterparts in Arizona.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has approved capture of five dozen elk to be transported east as part of West Virginia’s ongoing elk restoration project.

According to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, the elk will be caught sometime between January and March using helicopters and safe trapping techniques, held in quarantine then transported by livestock haulers and released at the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan County.

Nearly two dozen elk received from Kentucky in late 2016 are there.

Paul Johansen, chief of the division’s Wildlife Resources Section, says elk were once native to West Virginia but disappeared more than a century ago.