Quinte Elk Restoration Wrap

The Quinte Elk Restoration Committee (QERC) is winding down operations. On May 2, 2014, they hosted their last fund raising dinner at the Belleville Fish & Game Club. Their first Conservation Banquet and Auction, as the Quinte and District Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), was held in April 2001, spearheaded by the considerable energy of Murray Locke of Campbellford and Jack Caddick of Belleville. They successfully raised $15,000 which assisted with the cost of transporting elk from Elk Island National Park in Alberta to the Bancroft area. After the RMEF terminated operations in Canada in 2005, the Chapter rebranded itself as the QERC, became incorporated in Ontario and received status as a registered charity with Revenue Canada. During those 14 years they have raised nearly $200,000, “most of which has been spent in direct support of elk in the Bancroft area,” said Treasurer Doug Howell. The committee has also organized elk sightseeing trips to the Bancroft area for the last 8 years, contributed funds to support the MNR’s elk monitoring and research, to the tune of some $74,000 for elk air surveys and collaring, for example, paid for and transported hay and grain to provide supplemental feeding for the elk (>$22,000), donated $3000 to a fund administered by the Hastings Federation of Agriculture and, most recently, has supported school group visits to the OFAH’s Mario Cortellucci Hunting & Fishing Heritage Centre (>$2,000.) Howell added that the committee intends to support some of these on-going activities as long as the remaining accumulated funds allow – “hopefully 3-4 years.”