2017 Alpine Lakes Mountain Goat Survey

[jackelope]

You can through hike the Enchantments without a permit. There is no camping within the core zone but there's no allocation for through hiking. Have at it, just don't spend the night in the core Enchantments.

Minor correction, you do need a self issued hiking permit from the trailhead.  No limit to those

Agreed, and good point.

[ghostshell]

sounds like it would be a challenge to be productive given the perimiter of usage of the area allowed. seems to me they should ease up on there rules for this so more data could be obtained and utilize efforts. i would be interested in going but day use only and or having to trek away from boundry? perhaps there interest is really not there..........

[Bushcraft]

There is still a lot of great country around the overnight permit-only perimeter.  We'll need help with areas to the north of Mt. Cashmere, northwest of Windy Pass, and west of Horseshoe Lake.  If we could get some people up around Ingalls Peak that would be great!

[Cougeyes]

Is the end game hoping that a season can be opened up similar to the conflict hunts in the Olympics?  I'm asking because the last ground survey was to not only figure out the distribution of goats on a broader scale but try and get an accurate count in hopes of opening back up a unit between highway 2 and I-90.  This survey effort is a reduction of that initial broader survey footprint, and clearly will not capture other goat concentrations between I-90 and Highway 2 (e.g. Kachess ridge/Lake Cle Elum, Waptus pass).  I would definitely encourage someone to survey Ingalls peak/lake and longs pass as there are quite a few up there that are quite habituated and somewhat aggressive.

[jackelope]

I'm wondering why the survey in the core zone Enchantments?

Wondering the same thing re: conflict permits. @Bushcraft  , any more insight as to the overall intent of the surveys?
 

[Skyvalhunter]

Possibly the same issue they have on the Olympic Peninsula where there are too many in the area. I know when I did the one day hike thru there was a ridiculous number of them. They were quite comfortable being around people and that is one area that has a ton of people during the hiking and trail running season.

[Bushcraft]

WDFW wants to gain a better understanding of seasonal goat concentrations in and around this extremely high-use area.  They will be flying it within a week or two and having some boots on the ground will help them establish more efficient flight plans.  Helicopters are expensive to run!

To answer some questions, the primary objective is to observe where they are located, try and determine billy/nanny/kid count, observe and document interactions with hikers, look over available feed sources, perhaps paintball any that exhibit aggressive behaviors towards hikers so the FS can try and keep tabs on the problem goats (and alert hikers to goats that have gotten too adjusted to people).

I have been contacted by quite a few people and plan on contacting each person for location assignments between now and Friday.   There's room for more volunteers. Even if you overlap with others, it's a great excuse to get out in some great country with some great folks that care about conservation.

Regards,

Allen

[Gringo31]

 

[kingfisher360]

 

[pope]

Hint: look near the base and top of Snow Creek Wall. Take your shoes off because you'll fingers and toes to count 'em all.

[yakimanoob]

You can through hike the Enchantments without a permit. There is no camping within the core zone but there's no allocation for through hiking. Have at it, just don't spend the night in the core Enchantments.

You need a permit to spend the night in ANY of the Enchantment zones -- not just the core zone.  We were there this past weekend with a Snow Zone permit and got checked by the ranger.  We saw a group without a permit get kicked out as well. 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/okawen/passes-permits/recreation/?cid=fsbdev3_053607

[kingfisher360]

Well that was fun up at windy pass area, can't wait for next year

[X-Force]

We had a good time too. Wish we had more time in there.

[kingfisher360]

Yeah next time we will go up to cashmere from the north and come up that way. Even thou we had a overnight pass of eightmile I think more area can be covered from the non permit area. Its big country.

[quadrafire]

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