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Abstract
This paper qualitatively investigates the Pennsylvania Game Commission's (POC) "Elk Trap and Transfer Project" as a tourism development initiative. Beginning in 1998, a three-year trap and transfer project was initiated by the POC to relocate 33 elk from Elk County to Clinton County. The ecological goals of this project included re-establishing an elk population that could once again support limited hunting opportunities and to address plausible negative repercussions of the significant annual growth the herd experienced in the 1990s in Elk County. The project has also led to an increase in the numbers of visitors to Western Clinton County interested in "elk viewing" experiences, and is reported to have stimulated local economies. The general consensus from recent research examining the economic impacts attributable to "elk viewing" in Elk and Cameron counties in Pennsylvania suggests that an escalated interest in Pennsylvania's elk herd has directly led to increased nonresident tourism in these two counties. These findings have supported the view that rural tourism development in northcentral Pennsylvania should be encouraged and expanded.
Parent Publication
Citation
Walsh, Jeffrey A.; Long, Leonard K. 2002. Competing values: a case study of Pennsylvania's elk herd as a tourism attraction. In: Todd, Sharon, comp., ed. 2002. Proceedings of the 2001 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-289. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 253-259.
