A BANQUET SPREAD FOR ELK - IN ROANOKE'S BACKYARD

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993                   TAG: 9302230011
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
A BANQUET SPREAD FOR ELK - IN ROANOKE'S BACKYARD
A year ago, 300 people filled a banquet room rented by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and in a couple of hours raised $18,000 to enhance elk habitat.
We aren't talking about an event in Colorado, Idaho or Montana, where elk and elk range and elk hunting are as common as snow-capped peaks.
The banquet was right here in the Roanoke Valley.
So when the Blue Ridge Chapter of the foundation began to organize its second annual banquet - scheduled Saturday at the Tanglewood Holiday Inn - the challenge wasn't to get people to come. A sellout is assured. The trick was to make sure that members and supporters got a seat before all the tickets were gone.
Never mind that Big Lick is a long way from any wild, free-ranging elk herd. For many outdoorsmen, these majestic animals remain a symbol of wild places, open space and everything that is good and perfect with nature.
"There is a love affair, not just with the elk, but with the country they inhabit," said Mike Roberts of Forest, chairman of the 2-year-old Blue Ridge chapter.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, organized nine years ago in Troy, Mont., has enjoyed its most rapid growth in the East, said Ron White, the southeastern field director.
"Even people who have not seen an elk in the wild perceive them as being magnificent creatures," White said.
More than 800,000 elk inhabit the forests and mountains west of the Mississippi, about the same number as there are whitetail deer in Virginia. As elk have increased, they have become an attraction to growing numbers of people who photograph them in the national parks, who listen to them bugle, who hunt them on public and private lands.
The role of the foundation has been to increase the habitat available for elk, especially critical winter range where herds migrate into valleys over ancient routes only to find that the valleys now are filled with people.
Last year, the foundation, which has about 70,000 members, held 242 banquets and raised $3.95 million, White said.
"It just proves that outdoor sportsmen are the conservationists," said Roberts, who founded the Blue Ridge chapter. "It doesn't matter if it's a particular game animal in their backyard or not."
But as the foundation grows, it is beginning to look into the backyards of the East. It has committed $30,000 to study the potential of re-introducing elk to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Even closer to home, the foundation is considering a request by Explore Park to sponsor a live elk display on its Roanoke County property.
"We have just begun to scratch the surface of interest in elk," said White.
Roberts feels the same way about the future of the local chapter.
"We haven't touched the potential," he said. "The potential is to have the best chapter in the East Coast right here."
By the way, Wayne Gould, one of the chapter's committee members, may be able to squeeze a half-dozen or so additional people into the banquet. Call him at 985-0352.
Banquet speakers include Mike Logan, a cowboy poet from Helena, Mont., and Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB