Elk plan to include damages

If the Conservation Commission follows through with plans to re-introduce wild elk to southern Missouri, it would have to compensate for any damage they might create. Representative Ken Legan of Halfway has succeeded in attaching an amendment on a conservation bill during House debate. It would force the Conservation Department to pay for car damage when motorists run into elk. The amendment would also force the commission to compensate farmers for crops elk might destroy. Southern rural lawmakers oppose the plan and have gotten the commission to study the issue further before making a decision, but Legan says they cannot prevent the commission from re-introducing elk.