If there is good news on the elk front, it's that this year's hunter harvest was better than ever.

The two elk units surrounding Theodore Roosevelt National Park yielded 77 successful elk hunts, up from 47 last year.

North Dakota Game and Fish biologist Bruce Spillings said the high success number is the result of a second season in October opened to hunters who didn't fill their elk tag during the traditional 16-day August season.

The department issues 118 tags for those two units, and this year's success rate of about 70 percent on average for the two units is way better than most years and most other states, he said.

The elk shot outside the park have wandered out of the park, where their numbers are approaching 900 animals, more than twice the optimal herd size for the park's 70-square-mile habitat.

Park biologist Mike Oehler said the good harvest was good to see because the more animals harvested by hunters means less elk will have to be eventually killed for the park to reach its management goal.

The park is currently writing an Environmental Impact Statement that should lead to a final decision within one or two years on how to reduce the elk herd by as many as 1,000 animals.

Spillings said he plans to talk about the extra October season with area landowners before deciding whether to recommend another similar season next year, but he said he was pleased with the way it turned out.

Oehler said he was pleased, too.

"Any harvest they take outside the park goes right off the amount we have to remove," he said.

Lauren Donovan