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Author Topic: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?  (Read 66363 times)

Offline JimmyHoffa

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #330 on: October 14, 2020, 08:48:46 AM »
Some of them, it looks like, would be getting some fun weather.  Now that the winds/rain/fog are fading, they get this--snow.
https://www.nps.gov/media/webcam/view.htm?id=81B46251-1DD8-B71B-0B29B9750DE273B5

Offline hunterednate

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #331 on: November 12, 2020, 11:46:20 AM »
Here's the press release from the ONP regarding the success of the lethal removal:

https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/news/mountain-goat-removal-complete-for-2020.htm

31 goats total taken by the 20 goat teams. Most importantly, sounds like it went off without any major PR hitches. Hoping this leaves the door open for more National Parks to consider recruiting hunters as volunteers for future lethal removal programs. Well done to the members here who were selected and participated! Sounds like you guys had to endure some tough conditions.

Offline HikerHunter

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #332 on: November 12, 2020, 03:57:24 PM »
Thanks for sharing the update, those were some hard earned goats!

Offline idaho guy

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #333 on: November 16, 2020, 02:25:52 PM »
Thanks for updating! Hope this opens door for hunters in future park depredation hunts or extermination’s in this case. Sounds like the hunters represented well with really tough conditions and no negative pr

Offline HighCountryHunter88

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #334 on: November 16, 2020, 03:06:04 PM »
so theres sill an estimated 300+ goats out there.. seems like a bunch. it will be interesting how many they get with the choppers
-Matt

Offline nwhunter

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #335 on: November 16, 2020, 07:39:16 PM »
Now that the goats have been removed from the areas that had the biggest hiker conflicts and the numbers are low enough that their impact is less , its too bad ONP doesn't have these management hunts every fall to keep the numbers down rather than gun them down with helicopters.

Offline sagemd

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #336 on: November 16, 2020, 08:45:17 PM »
 :yeah: :yeah:

Offline HikerHunter

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #337 on: November 17, 2020, 08:53:31 AM »
While that makes sense to me too, the plan that was approved has always been complete removal.

Offline actionshooter

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #338 on: November 17, 2020, 06:42:24 PM »
What a lot of people don't realize is, there was a goat removal over 20 years ago and the goats came back....   No it wasn't to this scale, but they have done this before....

Offline nwhunter

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #339 on: November 17, 2020, 07:55:36 PM »
There are some goats outside the nat park that I assume have to be left alone and then there are some in the nastiest spots that may survive the helicopter gunners so over the years they will rebuild . It is the best mt goat habitat on the planet thus the issue of over population with no management.. Easy fix to use hunters every fall to take out 30-50 goats...

Offline Bob33

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #340 on: November 26, 2020, 04:20:34 PM »
https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/hunting/national-parks-service-calls-hunters-to-cull-bison-mountain-goats/

National Parks Service Increasingly Calls on Hunters to Help Cull Non-Native Bison, Mountain Goats
NPS has been relying on hunter volunteers to help manage non-native populations of mountain goats and bison in popular parks—after the animals begin to pose problems

Abi Cole
November 24, 2020
Bison are destroying critical water sources, diseased goats are running rampant, and pythons are squeezing biodiversity to death. What sounds like chaos at the zoo is actually a series of habitat disasters unfolding in our nation’s national parks. While the sporting community often accuses the National Park Service of preservation practices rather than conservation, some parks have switched gears. Lately, certain NPS mangers have called on skilled sportsmen and women to help control the non-native species currently threatening the biological rhythms of certain parks.

At the Grand Canyon, park biologists have prescribed lethal removal practices to save a fragile ecosystem overrun by bison. A non-native herd of hundreds of bison has crowded the North Rim of the park since the late 1990s, trampling vegetation and nearly exhausting the limited water sources. To help reduce the size of the herd and conserve the region’s native species, officials will begin recruiting experienced hunters next fall to participate in its controversial lethal removal program.

Relocated 57 bison from the North Rim.
On Sept. 4, Grand Canyon wildlife managers successfully relocated 57 bison from the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park to tribes around the country.National Park Service
Historic Range, Modern Times
As many as 60 million bison roamed North America before white settlement and land grabs in the West whittled the population to a scant 300 head by the late 1800s. Federal troops, tourists, and hide hunters nearly eradicated the wild mammals, a critical resource for Native American tribes.



Read More
By the early 1900s, former bison hunter and rancher Charles “Buffalo” Jones began to reintroduce bison populations. In 1906 Jones carted 86 of them from Kansas to Arizona, as a ranching experiment to crossbreed with cattle. Though his attempt was a bust, the bison herd grew and meandered between the House Rock Wildlife Area and Grand Canyon National Park. Since 2009, however, the House Rock herd hasn’t wandered beyond the boundaries of the park. Hunting pressure from regulated hunts on adjacent U.S. Forest Service land has kept them on unpressured park ground.

“This could be part of their historic range, but [bison] have not been in Grand Canyon National Park until recently, which means the ecosystem here is very much affected by their presence,” says Kait Thomas, a public affairs officer at Grand Canyon National Park. “They do tend to trample and eat vegetation. They’re very good grazers.”

Jones’ legacy is the 400 to 600 bison that wander the North Rim of the park, which has the potential to grow an estimated 1,200 to 15,000 individuals in the next decade. Yet biological surveys have found that the area’s ecosystem can only support 200 bison. Park management is concerned that the bison herd has already significantly changed the composition and diversity of vegetation of the North Rim, and are poised to damage the area beyond recovery without intervention.

The bison have physically disturbed the North Rim of the park.
The bison have caused significant ecological damage to the North Rim of the park, as demonstrated by this wallow.National Park Service
To reduce the number of bison in the North Rim of the park, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission and the NPS agreed on Sept. 25 to collaborate on a lethal removal program. Volunteers hoping to help cull bison will be selected through a draw by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission in fall 2021. From there, the Park Service will select a limited number of qualified applicants who will be required to pass a shooting proficiency test.

“One thing that comes up often is, ‘Is it the same thing as hunting?’” Thomas says. “The answer is ‘no.’ Lethal removal is a management tactic to achieve that management goal of herd reduction. Hunters have more of an element of fair chase. You go out, you’re searching for a particular animal, you’re tracking that animal. In this case, the Park Service will be identifying the bison, and selecting individual animals for removal.”

Park officials also hope the lethal removal will encourage remaining bison to roam beyond the park’s borders. Additional volunteers on horseback will haze the bison in an attempt to push them out of the park boundaries.

Lethal removal volunteers are all-terrain commanders. This group at Grand Teton boated in to approach remote mountain goats.
Lethal removal volunteers are all-terrain commanders. This group at Grand Teton boated in to approach remote mountain goats.B. Day / National Park Service
Goats in the Grand Tetons
In recent years, calls for cull hunts to reduce stubborn non-native herds in national parks have become more common. In February, Grand Teton National Park contracted helicopter crews to eradicate its mountain goat population, which is competing with the park’s native bighorn sheep. The evasive animals live on craggy cliffs and in remote canyons, which are largely inaccessible to humans. The goats also carry pneumonia, which doesn’t affect the goats, but is deadly to the native bighorn.

The removal via helicopter evoked widespread criticism from Wyoming’s governor and animal rights groups. Due to the backlash, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt halted the operation after just one day.

Grand Teton National Park officials reimagined their strategy in August, when they called for qualified volunteers to trek through the Wyoming wilderness to cull the goats. Volunteers were instructed to assemble teams of two to six people and, within 24 hours, more than 240 teams from across the country had applied, according to Grand Teton National Park spokesperson Denise Germann.

A random draw selected just 70 of 240 teams from across the country for a weeklong cull in the wilderness. Similar to the Arizona bison cull application, the chosen volunteers were required to pass background investigations, physical fitness exams, and shooting tests.

During the cull, volunteers maintained contact with park management through radio and GPS, and used non-lead, copper ammunition. Teams were assigned to one of the park’s 10 geographic zones, each possessing unique terrain—and challenges.

A volunteers hikes into the interior of the Grand Tetons.
Volunteers hiked thousands of feet each day into the interior of the Grand Tetons.B. Day / National Park Service
“It took three hours to go one mile the first day,” says volunteer Jared Frasier, the executive director of 2% for Conservation and a Montana resident.

Frasier’s carefully selected team of self-described conservationist buddies were assigned to Zone 2, in the northern end of the park. It’s a treacherous area that contains Canyon Creek and the towering Mount Moran, and receives few park visitors.

“There were sections where we didn’t touch the ground for half an hour or more,” says Frasier “We were climbing over trees that it would take four people to put their arms around, old deadfalls that have been there forever. There are no trails in this section.”

Frasier is well-versed in goat territory. He has been on several surveys for the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance to document the species and has hunted goats often over the years.

“They’re my favorite species, period,” says Frasier. “It was a surreal experience.”

But unlike a bucket-list goat hunt, volunteers were allowed to cull yearlings and nannies to reduce the breeding population. Each volunteer was allowed to pack out meat from one goat and donate any additional salvageable meat. After taking biological samples for park staff, any trophy parts (the horns and hides) were left in the Tetons.

Volunteer Natty Hagood removes a piece of a mountain goat ear for DNA sampling in the Teton Range.
Volunteer Natty Hagood removes a piece of a mountain goat ear for DNA sampling in the Teton Range.Taylor Glenn / National Park Service
“That’s not what, as a hunter, you plan for,” says Frasier. “But again, the project is population eradication. So that part was a bit of a mental hurdle. We had to wrestle with, that it’s a fact of the project, you’re removing one group to save another.”

Frasier thinks it’s more humane to kill the goats instantly than to let them pass pneumonia onto bighorn sheep, which will suffer for months. Through that lens, the idea of culling large numbers of invasive goats became more palatable. In the end, however, Frasier’s team did not kill any goats. The animals had positioned themselves on inaccessible shelves of canyons, and were quick to leave when the hunters got close enough for a shot.

While Frasier’s team did not encounter a single visitor in their week-long trek, volunteer Justin Walters was assigned to the Cascade Canyon area of the park, which is a popular hiking and climbing area. Visitors were notified that they would be traveling in a mountain goat removal zone. Walter and his team encountered nearly 100 visitors, many of whom asked them questions about their volunteer cull work.

“A lot of people still have so much curiosity that when they see the volunteers,” says Germann. “It was a really good opportunity for some dialogue about National Park Service management.”

Walters, a former seasonal park ranger, says it’s like “comparing apples and oranges” to confuse culling goats in the park with recreational hunting. These goats were unpursued and unpressured for decades, growing accustomed to the non-threatening presence of humans. But there’s still no “easy” way to scale 5,000 vertical feet, or try to locate goats in the fierce Wyoming wind. Walters’ team harvested a goat on their first evening and removed three in total.

“It was very challenging,” says Walters. “And I cried for the first time in years, just because it was all of that: it was so emotional, so physically challenging. Which I knew would be, just given the Tetons…There’re really not many places like Grand Teton National Park.”

Volunteers climbing to meet the mountain-perched goats.
Most volunteers began climbing at dawn for hours to meet the mountain-perched goats.B. Day / National Park Service
Grand Teton National Park has removed 43 non-native goats, of the approximate 100 animal herd, since Sept. 14, says Germann. Management staff considers this a great beginning to a 3- to 5-year plan to eliminate the remaining goats.

Culls like the Grand Teton goat removal have proven effective, but many question the ethics of such management practices. Animal rights group PETA predictably condemned Grand Teton’s lethal removal practices, calling for relocation-only approaches. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department also criticized the initial goat management plan for the Tetons, though for different reasons. The use of “aerial gunning” was a poor solution, according to the WGFD, who wrote that, “having government personnel kill mountain goats from helicopters and leaving them to rot and be wasted is unacceptable. The GTNP’s refusal to utilize statutory options allowing skilled volunteers to harvest the mountain goats is shortsighted and sets a dangerous precedent.”

Captured mountain goats from Olympic National Park are dropped into a staging area where they are cared for by veterinarians.
Captured mountain goats from Olympic National Park are dropped into a staging area where they are cared for by veterinarians.J. Burger / National Park Service
Grand Teton National Park adapted its plan, and recruited volunteers to help with lethal management. So why not allow hunting in national parks to prevent thorny—not to mention expensive—management crises like this in the first place? Because hunting is illegal in most national parks, and changing federal law to allow it would require Congressional action.

As a result, lethal removal is often the most logical solution for park management. Relocating animals is wildly expensive, whether that’s by airlifting elusive mountain goats or freighting two-ton bison. Volunteers are typically experienced hunters who are eager to help cull a bucket-list species and are, most importantly for the parks, a much more cost-effective solution.

RELATED: Why Weren’t License-Buying Hunters Allowed to Cull Invasive Mountain Goats from Grand Teton National Park?

Turning to Tribes
Before the cull begins, Grand Canyon National Park is capturing and relocating bison to Native American Tribes through a partnership with the InterTribal Buffalo Council. ITBC receives grants and federal funding to help restore to help restore bison herds (or buffalo, as they’re called among tribal members) to the lands of their 69 member tribes. Since 2019, 88 bison have been corralled in the Grand Canyon’s North Rim and herded onto semi-trucks headed to tribes across the country. Bison serve a variety of purposes to the tribal community as a food source, including for elder nutrition programs and school lunches. Each year ITBC partners with new tribes that have a special cultural relationship with the bison.

“It’s an inherent right of tribes to access this food source and species,” says Megan Davenport, wildlife biologist for ITBC.

These bison were captured and transferred to the InterTribal Buffalo Council.
These bison were captured and transferred to the InterTribal Buffalo Council in Sept, 2019. They were later combined a new herd at the Quapaw tribe in Arizona.National Park Service
Though relocation is a win-win for both tribes and parks, Davenport notes that the transfers are extremely expensive. Especially at the Grand Canyon, which presents logistical complications because the North Rim roads are not accessible to semis. Transportation fees, veterinary services, and relocation personnel all add up.

ITBC receives funding through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and ITCB is currently backing a bill to assist tribal governments in the reestablishment and management of buffalo on tribal lands. The Indian Buffalo Management Act would create a permanent line item and appropriate funding in the BIA budget for tribal buffalo restoration efforts.

For now, the park management’s objective is to reign bison numbers to 200 in the next three to five years. Excess animals not captured and relocated by ITBC will likely be culled. That’s where the volunteers come in.

If bison are allowed to remain at their current population in the North Rim—more than double the area’s carrying capacity—they will ultimately edge out the region’s native plants and animals and destroy the fragile ecosystem. But we have all the management tools we need to fix the problem, as long as we’re allowed to use them.

Nature. It's cheaper than therapy.

Offline sagemd

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #341 on: November 27, 2020, 04:44:53 PM »
It is good news that the park service is waking up to using hunters.
The articles head line is misleading. The intent was not to cull mountain goats, the intent was to exterminate them. (fake news)
Culling and extermination are very different things.
So far the park service is only using hunters after they have aloud over population to become a problem.
Park service needs to manage wildlife.

Online Sitka_Blacktail

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Re: Olympic National Park Goat Hunt Group Anyone?
« Reply #342 on: November 27, 2020, 05:09:49 PM »
According to the press release about the Olympic removal, they removed 412 of an estimated 725 goats on the Olympic Peninsula.  The next round, helicopter shooting, is scheduled for next summer.  There will surely be more goats born in the mean time. This sounds like it will take a while to finish the job. For starters, goats don't spend all their time out in the open. And as the herd is reduced, it will be harder and harder to find the remaining goats and more time consuming which adds to the cost, especially when using helicopters.  I honestly have my doubts that they can totally knock them down to nothing. And if they don't, they will surely come back again and more money will be spent. 
A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears. ~ Michel de Montaigne

 


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