NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has appealed a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that prohibits the agency from importing Canadian elk to Tennessee.

The USDA ruled on February 12 that TWRA could not import 140 elk from Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Canada. TWRA had announced in December that it would be acquiring the elk from Elk Island to release at Royal Blue WMA. The elk, which were just days from being trucked to Tennessee when the USDA announced its decision to Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, would have nearly doubled Tennessee's current elk herd, which is somewhere around 200 animals.

In a letter to the USDA, TWRA Executive Director Gary Myers wrote, "There has never been a positive test for tuberculosis in elk from Elk Island, and elk from EINP have never been implicated in a disease outbreak in any of the areas where they have been restored."

Agency officials have expressed surprise at USDA's decision, which apparently was made after private elk breeders in Tennessee threatened legal action and promised to seek a legal injunction blocking the transportaton of the elk from Elk Island to Tennessee. Elk Island was the source of the original elk released in Tennessee in December 2000, and additional elk released at Royal Blue on later dates also came from Elk Island.

The Elk Island facility has been partially enclosed since the early 1900s and totally fenced since the 1960s.

In making its decision, the USDA cited compliance with regulations put into place by its Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and said that the Elk Island herd could not be certified disease-free by CFIA standards, apparently because some elk that die inside the Elk Island reserve are not discovered until the carcasses have deteriorated too far to test.

But TWRA has pointed out that the testing procedures in place at Elk Island actually exceed the testing requirements normally required by USDA.

Elk breeders, specifically the owner of a facility in West Tennessee, opposed the transport of elk from Canada to Tennessee, saying the elk would put their own herds at risk.

David Autry, owner of H&A Farms near Lexington, TN, denounced the Elk Island herd in a discussion on an online forum. However, Autry also admitted that he had applied for a permit to import elk from Elk Island in the past.

The elk program is expected to be a topic of discussion at today's Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission meeting, which begins at 2 p.m. at the Ellington Agricultural Center.