Posted Thursday, September 20, 2012 --- 7:35 a.m.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The public will get a chance next month to sound off on state wildlife officials' plans to bring more elk to Wisconsin.

The Department of Natural Resources has scheduled a series of two-hour evening hearings in Hayward, Philips, Ladysmith, Black River Falls and Pewaukee during the first week of October.

The DNR estimates as many as 180 elk roam northwestern Wisconsin in the Clam Lake area. Agency officials have been discussing importing about 275 elk from Kentucky. They want to use the animals to bolster the Clam Lake population and establish another herd in Jackson County.

Copyright 2012: Associated Press