By Mead Gruver ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – Grand Teton National Park officials have suspended efforts to shoot
mountain goats from a helicopter after criticism from Wyoming’s governor
prompted Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to intervene.
Bernhardt
told park officials to suspend the shooting Feb. 21, hours after the effort
began and Gov. Mark Gordon called the helicopter shooting a “farce” in a letter
to acting Grand Teton Superintendent Gopaul Noojidail.
“I have long
appreciated Grand Teton National Park for the treasure it is to all our
citizens. Now I hope I will not have to remember it as an example of federal
disregard for the sovereignty of the states,” Gordon, a Republican, wrote.
Gordon said
he looked forward to a “more fruitful conversation” about ways to address the
mountain goats more cooperatively with the National Park Service.
The Park
Service suspended the flights since Feb. 21’s initial effort, which was “effective
toward meeting our objective,” park spokeswoman Denise Germann said Feb. 24.
“We are
taking a pause in operations and will continue our conversations with our
partners at the state,” Germann added. She said she didn’t know how many goats
had been killed. She said Gordon’s letter contributed to the decision to stop
the flights, but didn’t mention Bernhardt’s role.
The Park
Service seeks to eradicate about 100 nonnative mountain goats for the benefit
of about 100 native bighorn sheep, saying the goats compete with the sheep for
food and habitat and can spread diseases including pneumonia to the native
animals.
The Park
Service released a plan in January to use a combination of shooters on the
ground and on contracted helicopters before goats become too plentiful to be
easily eliminated from the craggy mountains.
“The
National Park Service has a legal responsibility to protect native species and
reduce the potential for the local extinction of a native species within the
park,” Germann wrote Feb. 24.
Foul weather
postponed a previous plan for aerial shooting in January but on Feb. 21 weather
in the Teton Range was clear and calm. Park officials closed off large portions
of the mountains to the public in preparation.
Gordon’s
letter came after Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian
Nesvik voiced last-minute objections by phone with Noojidail.
“I will
remember your blatant disregard for the advice of Wyoming’s Game and Fish
Department,” Gordon wrote Noojidail. “I am simply at a loss for why the Park
Service would ignore an opportunity to work toward a solution upon which we
could both agree and can only take it as an expression of your regard for
neighbors and the respect you apparently do not have for Wyoming or
our professionals.”
State
officials said they objected from a hunting-ethics perspective: Shooting from
helicopters leaves the meat to waste. The Wyoming Game and Fish
Commission, which sets the state’s hunting and fishing rules, passed a
resolution in January condemning the plan.
The National
Parks Conservation Association also objects out of concern the program could
lead to a “de facto” goat-hunting season involving private citizens. So far, no
public goat hunt is planned in Grand Teton.
Grand Teton,
located in western Wyoming south of Yellowstone National Park, is
unusual in that the 1950 law establishing the park provides for an “elk
reduction program” in which members of the public with hunting licenses hunt
elk in the park each fall.
