This Saturday, Feb. 15, will be one of the most fun nights of the year for Kalispell area hunters. That is the date of the annual Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s banquet in Kalispell. More than 600 elk hunters and elk foundation supporters will fill the county fairgrounds to celebrate elk, elk hunting and open public land. I will see a number of old friends that I see only once a year, at the annual elk banquet. After the standard hello and handshake, the first question will be, “Did you get your elk this year?” This seems to assume, that once you purchased your elk hunting license, Fish, Wildlife and Parks puts a tag on a wild elk with your name, “your elk.” 

This is about the 35th annual elk banquet in Kalispell. My wife and I have been attending these banquets for those 35 years. My wife was the co-chair of several of those early-day annual banquets. We are both life members of the foundation. One of my favorite momentos of my early days with the Elk Foundation is an old membership card that shows elk foundation headquarters as Troy, Montana. After headquartering in Troy in a double-wide trailer for several years, the foundation moved to Missoula to accommodate its increasingly larger national role in big game hunting and elk habitat. A really neat aspect of its headquarters near Missoula is that you can see elk grazing on the winter range that borders the foundation headquarters. 

The elk foundation has been remarkably successful and is now recognized as one of the premier hunter/conservation organizations in the world. Current membership is around 220,000 folks. Wow, quite an accomplishment for a made in Montana organization from sleepy Northwest Montana. Charlie Decker, one of the four foundation founders, still serves on the foundation’s board of directors.   

The elk foundation has worked hard for 40 years to preserve and enhance wild elk, elk habitat and elk hunting. Obviously, preserving elk habitat and wildland for elk also benefits hundreds of other non-game wildlife species, including many other game species. To date, the foundation has preserved or enhanced about 8.9 million acres of wildlife habitat over the past 40 years. They have played a major role in establishing new elk herds in several eastern states. Some of those states have sufficient size herds to now allow some limited elk hunts. Elk have been returned to states which have not seen wild elk for over 100 years. The elk foundation now has national recognition similar to older hunter/conservation organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and the Boone and Crocket Club.      

Over the years they have championed many hunting and conservation causes. One of their favorite slogans is, “Hunting is conservation.”  They have generally tried to stay out of the politics of wildlife management. But they have recently joined the political and courtroom battle to maintain state management of wolves.  

This annual Kalispell banquet will likely raise over $150,000 for elk and elk habitat. Preserving open spaces for wildlife and elk habitat is usually done in conjunction with state and federal wildlife agencies. Frequently, public agencies will seek the foundation’s assistance to acquire key tracts of land needed to preserve elk habitat. The foundation is much more nimble in land acquisition than public land management agencies which have many administrative rules to follow.  

A good example of a recent elk foundation action was in the Snowy Mountains in Eastern Montana, which is great elk habitat and mostly public land, but which had very limited public access. So, this important elk habitat was used primarily by professional outfitter and guides who leased access from surrounding ranches. Then, a 40-acre tract of ranch land became available. This 40-acre tract provided legal access from a county road to public Forest Service land in the Snowy Mountains. The foundation moved quickly to acquire these 40 acres, eventually turning the land over to a public land management agency to manage.  This small 40-acre acquisition opened and improved public elk hunting opportunities to thousands of acres of high-quality elk habitat and public elk hunting opportunities. The elk foundation has replicated this type of improved public land access dozens of times. While the main driving force is hunting access, these types of improved public accesses can be used for a wide range of public recreation uses on a year-long basis. 

The Saturday night banquet will include a great meal and dozens of raffles for guns and other hunting gear and artwork, a silent auction, a live auction and a host of other fun activities to raise money for elk and elk habitat. These fun activities will probably raise over $150,000 for elk projects. A fun time is guaranteed. See you there!