The participants in the 2022 Tennessee elk hunt will be announced during the August meeting of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission. In addition, the grand prize winners of the Tennessee Conservation Raffle will be announced.
The meeting will be held Aug. 18-19 (Thursday-Friday) in Gatlinburg at the Edgewater Hotel and Conference Center. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. the first day and 9 a.m. the second day.
Winners of the 14 drawn permits to hunt elk on the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area or private lands within the Elk Restoration Zone will be announced by TWRA Elk Program Coordinator Brad Miller on Friday morning. This will include seven quota permits for the archery-only hunt to be held Sept. 24-30, one youth permit for Oct. 1-7, and six permits where participants will have the option to use archery, gun or muzzleloader for the Oct. 8-14 hunt.
The final elk permit is included in the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation’s Conservation Raffle as one of 10 prize packages. Proceeds from the raffle support habitat restoration efforts. This year’s raffle winners will be announced during the meeting by the Foundation's Executive Director Joey Woodard.
In other items, a presentation will be made on the proposed 900-acre waterfowl refuge on Big Sandy Wildlife Management Area. The presentation will include a map of the proposed area with closure dates of the refuge and input received to date on the public comment period which began last month.
An overview of the TWRA’s 2023-24 budget will also be presented to the commission for approval. The budget for each fiscal year goes into effect July 1.