Olympic Mountain Goats Safe For Now Park Officials Look For Another Way To Control The Goat Population

Faced with possible congressional action, Olympic National Park officials have backed off on a plan to shoot mountain goats in the park.

Park Superintendent David Morris said officials, after meeting with U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, were trying to find a solution short of killing the animals.

Dicks, D-Wash., “challenged us to take a look and see if we can come up with a compromise that satisfies his concerns, and we agreed to try to do that,” Morris said.

Dicks told Morris that if the park decided to shoot the goats, he likely would try to block the plan through congressional action.

“I don’t want it to come to that,” Morris told The News Tribune of Tacoma, which reported on the developments in Wednesday’s editions.

Dicks questioned park findings that the goats are harming native vegetation, said his spokesman, George Behan.

Dicks also noted that public opinion is against the plan, Morris said.

“It’s very hard to convince the public that an association of native plants is more important than these attractive animals,” Morris said.

Government biologists contend the goats are not native to the Olympic Peninsula but were introduced to the region by hunters in the 1920s. Park officials say the goats are damaging an ecosystem the National Park Service is required to protect.

Animals-rights activists say there are articles from the 19th century suggesting goats lived on the peninsula long before hunters introduced them. And they contend the park service has exaggerated the goats’ impact on vegetation.

Park officials have made numerous efforts over the past several years to reduce the goat population. Hundreds of animals were airlifted out of the park and transported to other parts of the country. Some were sterilized.

The population, once close to 1,200, is down to about 200 to 300, a remnant population nearly impossible for park biologists to reach.

Dicks was persuaded by the activists’ arguments, Behan said.

“The damage that the park service originally feared … because of the large population seems to be limited now because of the decline in the goat population,” Behan said.

He said Dicks has rallied support from the rest of the state’s congressional delegation in opposing the park plan to exterminate the goats.

“It’s the consensus of the delegation that we should scuttle this plan,” Behan said.

Morris said the park service is reviewing several options. Officials may be able to cap the goat population by using airlifting and other measures to keep the goats at the current level, he said.

Asked if shooting the goats was still an option, Morris said, “It’s certainly not looking that way.”