DNR postpones elk research project in northwest Minnesota – Outdoor News

Grand Rapids, Minn. — Kicking off the new year in a new job with the Minnesota DNR, Amanda McGraw, the agency’s deer, moose, and elk scientist, has settled into a role that combines some of her greatest interests into a single job.

“It allows me to continue pursuing those passions for researching our large ungulate species like moose and deer and elk within the state. That’s what made it a once in a lifetime for me,” McGraw said.

McGraw took over as the DNR’s point person on all research-related work on deer, moose, and elk – and she joined the DNR at a time when many projects are in the works.

This month, McGraw and her team had planned to begin collaring elk in the northwestern corner of Minnesota to gather more data on the herd’s population dynamics.

However, that research project will be delayed from starting until next winter – 2025-26. The postponement is due to unfavorable conditions and safety concerns for the cows and calves if the team were to go into the field now.

McGraw said the decision wasn’t made lightly.

This year’s planned March capture was an already postponed schedule because the helicopter company the DNR had contracted had delays.

“At the moment, it’s a full-stop postponement in terms of being able to track elk,” McGraw said.

According to a DNR news release issued Monday, March 10, elk capture efforts were planned for January 2025, when temperature and snow conditions are typically optimal for spotting and capturing elk.

Scheduling delays by the contracted helicopter capture company pushed captures to mid-March and, currently, the project area has no or minimal snowpack. Both near- and long-term forecasts predict above average temperatures and inadequate snow accumulation.

“The decision to postpone the project was difficult and made out of an abundance of caution for the health and well-being of the elk,” McGraw said in the release. “Not only were we facing challenging conditions due to higher temperatures and lack of snow cover, but the delays had pushed the capture window into the late-term pregnancy period for cow elk, where capture and handling present the greatest risk to both cows and calves.”

While waiting, the team may begin exploring other elk-related research, such as habitat or vegetation work.

“Because this has been such a recent development, I would say that that’s in the very early stages of discussion, and so there’s no … set plan for that yet,” McGraw added.

Because the two-year study was funded by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Natural Resources with Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund dollars, McGraw said they are working through LCCMR’s extension process.

The research project will still set out to collar 25 adult cows and 15 adult bulls this year and next winter, with plans to collar calves the following spring.

“It’s the second (study) of its kind in Minnesota, where we’ll be trying to understand some of the survival rates and population dynamics in the northwest herd,” McGraw said.

Even though she isn’t the DNR’s point person on planned elk reintroduction in northeastern Minnesota, joining agency and tribal partners who are working toward re-establishing an elk herd there will be informative from the research side.

“If there’s any research that happens with the relocation effort, my role would be largely to be involved in some capacity with some of that research,” she said.

McGraw added that when there is a re-establishment of a species such as this elk plan, there is typically a lot to learn quickly once it begins. For example: How are elk using the new habitat? What are the population dynamics in a new environment? What are new challenges? Those are some of the questions McGraw said researchers would consider if that data is available.

She said the northwestern collaring effort and research that will go on there doesn’t prevent any of those animals to be relocated to the northeastern part of the state.

“We aren’t putting any restrictions on that movement, and it could be beneficial in that we would be able to track individuals for a year (if one of the animals were relocated),” McGraw said.

Already having northeastern elk collared, through the northwestern study, could offer information of how the reintroduced elk are moving across the new landscape.

Moose, too

Another project that McGraw is anticipating lending her expertise is a moose habitat study that’s happening in the northeastern part of the state.

“That’s one that I’m really, really excited about. Especially given my background. That kind of straddles the world of wildlife and forest ecology,” McGraw said.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, McGraw ventured across the St. Croix River to work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a wildlife research scientist for eight years. For the following four and a half years, she stepped into the forest ecology and management research scientist. 

Transitioning from wildlife researcher to forestry was an adjustment, but it allowed her to see how both forest and wildlife management intersect on many levels.

“That required me to kind of take a different perspective and approach to research, which I think helped broaden my skill set and give me a bit of a unique take on how we look at wildlife and forest … interactions,” McGraw said.

Her interest in large ungulate species began prior to her education in Duluth.

“I grew up hunting and fishing in northern Minnesota, and deer were always an animal I pursued during those hunting experiences, and I’ve always had a fascination with deer,” McGraw said.

She has spent the first few months of her employment with the Minnesota DNR by digging into the results of the DNR’s annual moose survey, which shows the moose population relatively has stabilized around 4,000 animals during the past decade.

“Moose are one of those species that just kind of hook you,” McGraw said. “They’re our largest deer species, and they are relatively rare on our landscape and more elusive than their size might make you think. … I’ve just been fascinated with them since I got the opportunity to work with them in graduate school.” 

Source: https://www.outdoornews.com/2025/03/12/dnr-postpones-elk-research-project-in-northwest-minnesota/