Tennessee Adds 1,322 Acres to North Cumberland WMA Elk Country

Tennessee just added more public elk country, and that is the kind of conservation win that matters long after the press release is gone.

The Laurel Fork project adds two tracts totaling 1,322 acres to the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation worked with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on the deal, with a $200,000 donation from the Mildred C. Edwards Foundation and another $100,000 from RMEF helping make it happen.

The ground links the Ed Carter and Highcliff units, giving wildlife managers a more connected block of country to manage for elk, whitetail deer, black bear, wild turkey, grouse, and everything else that lives in those Southern Appalachian ridges. That is not just a line on a map. Connected habitat lets managers do better work, and it gives regular hunters and outdoorsmen more room to move.

This is the same region where elk were restored to their historic Tennessee range in the early 2000s. Since then, conservation work in that country has helped create and protect tens of thousands of acres of public land. Additions like Laurel Fork keep that effort moving in the right direction.

Public access is not something we should take for granted. It gets built acre by acre, deal by deal, with license buyers, conservation groups, state agencies, and local partners all pulling in the same direction. More open ground for hunting, fishing, and wildlife management is a win worth calling what it is.