The 2015 Tennessee Elk Hunt will be held Oct. 19-23 at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Areas while the Young Sportsman Hunt will follow on Oct. 24-25.
This marks the seventh year for the managed elk hunt in Tennessee. It is the fourth year for the Young Sportsman Elk Hunt.
The five persons who will participate in the Tennessee Elk Hunt and the youth participant were announced during the August meeting of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission held in Morristown.
Four of the sportsmen were winners selected in a computer drawing conducted by the TWRA. The four Tennessee residents selected were Trevor Childs (Knoxville), Roy Bivens (Tellico Plains), Andrew Coffey (Crossville), and Forest Landers (Afton).
Those selected will participate in Tennessee’s seventh ever managed elk hunt to be held Oct. 19-23 at the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. A total of 9,285 persons applied for this year’s hunt.
The fifth permit was donated to a Non-Governmental Organization which was the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation. The permit was auctioned on eBay. Nicholas Nelson, from Fayetteville, N.C., had the high bid of $11,101, an increase from the 2014 successful bid of $9,788. Fund-raising proceeds raised from the bid are designated for the TWRA Elk Program.
Jacob Parker, a 15-year old from Sparta, was selected for the youth hunt. All three of the participants in the youth hunt have harvests since that hunt was established.
Last year, four of the five participants in the regular hunt had harvests. There have been a total of 27 elk harvested since the annual hunt began in 2009. Tennessee residents have harvested all but one elk.