Four young elk that were part of Southwest Virginia’s celebrated herd — three of them less than a year old — were struck and killed between Dec. 1 and Jan. 14 by vehicles on or near a newly opened highway in Buchanan County.
Three of the animals were hit between Jan. 10 and Jan. 14, and Jackie Rosenberger, elk project leader for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, believes it may have been connected to the impending snowstorm that ended up dumping up to 6 inches in Southwest Virginia on Jan. 15.
Prior to the storm, salt was used to pretreat area roads to make them safer for motorists. But elk are naturally attracted to salt, and Rosenberger said she has seen them licking it off the pavement. She believes that may have been a factor in their deaths.
The elk are also drawn to the new road, called Corridor Q, because they eat grasses and flowering plants that were planted there as a means of erosion mitigation, Rosenberger added. The animals can be seen regularly feeding right next to the road.
In November, an 8.7-mile section of Corridor Q opened to motorists in Buchanan County. It runs from the Breaks Park Road area to Southern Gap, with part of it overlapping U.S. 121, the Coalfields Expressway. Two elk were hit on Corridor Q and the other two collisions happened on Southern Gap Road.
All the crashes happened at night, and Rosenberger urged drivers traveling on Corridor Q to slow down — the speed limit is 55 mph — and use caution in the area, especially in the fall when it’s foggy.
“Our elk population is very small and so any mortality that happens is very important,” Rosenberger said. “Obviously, first and foremost, human injury risk is the main priority. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, to have a collision with an elk.
“Unfortunately, all of these accidents involved very young animals and obviously, from a demographic standpoint, losing very young animals for a population that we’re trying to grow is about the worst-case scenario.”
But steps are now being taken to try to prevent future elk collisions. In late January, two message boards were installed on Corridor Q that warn drivers to be alert because they are traveling through an elk crossing.
This spring, yellow elk crossing signs, like the deer crossing signs found on roads across Southwest Virginia, will be installed.
Efforts are also underway to try to stem the number of elk collisions on Corridor Q through a study that considers and recommends several safety measures, such as overpasses, warning systems and fencing, which have proven effective in other states, mostly out West.
And to help lessen the number of collisions involving elk, deer, bear and all wildlife across the state, legislation is making its way through the General Assembly that would create a wildlife corridor grant fund.
The decline and rebirth of the state’s elk population
Historically, elk were found throughout eastern North America, including Virginia. But by the late 1800s, unsustainable hunting and changes in land use resulted in the extirpation, or local extinction, of elk in the eastern portion of the United States, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. They were reintroduced in the 1920s, but eventually the program failed, and the elk were gone again.
Then, between 2012 and 2014, a restoration program began to bring elk back by capturing them in southeast Kentucky and transporting them to Southwest Virginia. During that period, more than 71 adult Rocky Mountain elk and four calves were brought to Southwest Virginia.
Currently, the state has more than 250 elk that live on reclaimed strip mine land in Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties, which were designated the Elk Management Zone of Virginia.
Most, about 200, are in Buchanan County, where there are two herds, one that lives around Corridor Q, and the other near where they were first released, according to Rosenberger.
And although Corridor Q is new to drivers, the corridor is not new to the elk herd — minus the vehicles.
“The thing about Corridor Q is that we actually have elk living along the corridor, so … they are used to literally walking on it,” Rosenberger said. “It’s just part of their range. The terrain in Buchanan County is very steep. But these elk are able to use that corridor as an easy means of travel, and they can cover a lot more distance with less effort.”
The wildlife department placed GPS collars on females in both herds and have tracked their range. The home range for the herd that has stayed near where the animals were released is about 2 to 4 square miles, according to Rosenberger. The Corridor Q herd, on the other hand, has an annual home range of about 28 square miles, she said.
“So that just illustrates to you how Corridor Q is helping them cover a vast area compared to our other outfit, which has to navigate kind of crazy terrain,” she said.
The elk are popular with residents, but they’ve also proven to be quite a draw for tourists. According to Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, the majestic animals have drawn thousands of people from across the country to Buchanan County, where they stay in hotels and eat at local restaurants.
So the elk have also helped diversify the county’s economy in an area severely affected by the downturn in the coal mining industry, he added.
Studying the problem
Rosenberger was involved in a study, “An Evaluation of Wildlife Crossing Design, Placement, Costs, and Funding Opportunities for Corridor Q,” that was completed last September. It was conducted by the Virginia Transportation Research Council, which is the Virginia Department of Transportation’s research division. A funding specialist from ARC Solutions also participated.
The study, which took about a year to complete, identified potential locations and designs for a series of wildlife crossing structures such as underpasses and overpasses, connected by fencing; evaluated the costs and savings of implementing the recommended countermeasures; and determined possible federal funding programs, according to VDOT.
The study also delved into why elk collisions are so costly, noting that elk are much larger than white-tailed deer, with a female weighing between 375 and 660 pounds and a bull weighing between 550 and 1,300 pounds.
Rosenberger said that even young elk are big, weighing in at 250 to 300 pounds.
By comparison, a white-tailed deer that is a mature buck weighs from 200 to 300 pounds, while a doe weighs 90 to 200 pounds, according to the National Park Service.
The study found that the cost of a crash involving an elk is $80,771, while a deer crash comes in just over half that amount, at $41,338.
The Transportation Research Council used a formula to calculate the average cost that considered vehicle damage, injuries, hospital bills and time off from work, Rosenberger explained.
Wildlife crossing structures, used by animals to cross above or beneath a road to avoid vehicles, and fencing on Corridor Q would cost an average of about $5.5 million to $5.7 million per structure, the study found. Contingency costs and inflation would increase those estimates to $8.2 million for a bid year of 2025, and to $9.8 million in 2028, the study states.
Another study is underway by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to determine the feasibility of animal detection/driver warning systems on Corridor Q to detect elk on the roadside and ultimately reduce driver speed and collision risk.
If the study finds that it is feasible, specific systems, locations and costs will be identified, according to VDOT.
The systems would be installed on the side of the road and would trigger a changeable message for drivers if an elk is detected on the shoulder, Rosenberger said.
“Basically, there’s no physical barrier for an animal entering the road, but what it will do is it will warn a driver, ‘Hey animal detected, caution.’ It does that with a laser beam, something breaks the beam,” Rosenberger said, adding that buried cables would detect a weight difference if an elk steps on the road.
Wildlife crossing structures have been used and evaluated for more than 30 years in the United States. When combined with fencing, they have consistently been found to be an effective measure to reduce animal-vehicle collisions, according to the study, which said that seven wildlife crossings with fencing in Colorado resulted in a wildlife crash reduction of 92%.
Creating safer crossings
Wildlife crashes are common in Virginia, which is considered a high-risk state. In 2023-24, the likelihood of an animal-involved insurance claim is 1 in 78, while the U.S. average is 1 in 127, according to State Farm data.
State Sen. David Marsden, D-Fairfax County, is an animal lover who said he’s concerned that Virginia ranks ninth in the nation for wildlife collisions.
He introduced a bill during the current General Assembly session that would establish a fund to provide grants for projects that conserve or enhance corridors prioritized by the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan.
That plan, approved in 2020, was the result of legislation Marsden worked on with Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax County. Its intent is to protect wildlife habitat corridors and reduce wildlife-vehicle crashes while promoting driver safety.
The plan is a collaboration between the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, VDOT, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Virginia Department of Forestry.
But the two lawmakers failed for a couple of years in their efforts to establish a corridor fund for grants, private contributions and state and federal money, which is why he’s trying again.
“The bill won’t cost the state any money,” Marsden said.
The senator said he got involved in the issue because he was asked to by U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents the 8th District, and he then got involved in a network of people who work on animal issues nationally.
So far, the current bill is faring well, though the senator said it has a long way to go. It was approved Feb. 2 by the full Senate in a unanimous vote. It will go to the House for consideration after crossover, which happens Feb. 14.
Meanwhile, Morefield has introduced a budget amendment of $5 million for VDOT to fund wildlife crossing projects, with priority to construct the Corridor Q elk crossings project to leverage any needed federal grant money. The money would come in 2025 from the general fund.
The delegate said he introduced the amendment because the state, localities and hundreds of volunteers have committed a “tremendous” amount of resources to promote the elk, which have proven to be popular.
“I introduced the amendment to help strengthen the program and promote safety for traveling drivers and elk in the area. The amendment is currently being considered and I am hopeful we will receive support for it,” he said.
However, he said he would not be surprised if the funding isn’t approved this year due to the state’s “fiscal situation.”
He added that he hopes the deaths of the young elk will strengthen the effort to get funding approved to make changes on Corridor Q.
“I will continue pursuing the fund until it’s approved,” Morefield said.