When you think of land that is used for coal mining, you may think such land is rather desolate and forever useless. That is not the case for areas that are reclaimed and transformed so they benefit elk, deer and other wildlife.
“It changed the whole scheme of wildlife habitat,” Leon Boyd, chair of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Southwestern Virginia Coal Fields Chapter, told realtree.com. “It went from food plots to wildlife farming. It’s maintaining open lands for deer and others. There’s such an abundance of everything out there. With mine reclamation property, you have it all. Deer will always have something to eat. Folks that choose to work with it and then hunt it, their success is unreal. It’s almost like hunting a clear-cut in the middle of a forest.”
RMEF provided funding in the eastern part of the United States to restore elk onto landscapes that were once mined for coal so they can thrive today.