Olympic National Park looks for mountaineers, hunters to target nonnative goats

Olympic National Park managers are looking for a select and likely rare combination: experienced mountaineers who are also proficient hunters.

The park will send selected volunteers to kill mountain goats between Sept. 9 and Oct. 17. The call for volunteers is part of the park’s multiyear effort to remove the nonnative species.

“It’s going to be really, really rigorous,” said Patti Happe, the wildlife branch chief for the park. “Experience navigating off-trail. Comfort off-trail on steep slopes. It’s a highly skilled set of people.”

Volunteers will be vigorously vetted. Among other things, they must be able to hike 15 miles a day through rugged mountain terrain, pass a shooting test, have experience with glacial and rock travel and provide their own equipment.

Happe said she’s received hundreds of applications. The park will send in 18 groups during three removal periods. A group can consist of between three and six people.

“There will be a lot of disappointed people,” Happe said. “I’m really sorry.”

Since 2018, the park has translocated 275 goats, mostly to the North Cascades. The goats are nonnative to the range, which is geographically isolated from the Cascade Range. According to newspaper accounts, 12 goats were introduced to the Olympic Peninsula near Lake Crescent starting in 1925.

Although more goats will be translocated this summer, Happi said the strategy is to kill most of the remaining goats. That will start with this fall’s volunteers. Next year, park staff will take to the skies to remove goats.

She estimates there are between 200 and 400 goats left. These goats are, for the most part, living in remote and wild areas often far from any trails. Volunteers will need to record data and collect samples, including hair, tooth and tissue samples, and skull caps, including horns. Volunteers may keep meat and other materials if they choose.

If Washington’s COVID-19 hunting and fishing closures extend into the fall, the program will be canceled or postponed, Happe said.

The call for volunteers drew considerable interest online, particularly in groups like Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

Initially, BHA member Adam Neff was interested and started to gather a team. After reviewing the requirements and considering the on-the-ground reality, he decided he wasn’t cut out for the mission.

Neff, who went to college at Western Washington University, spent his summers volunteering and working in the Olympic Range. He said the rugged country, combined with often inclement weather, means that it’s a highly technical endeavor that requires more mountaineering skills than hunting.

“They wanted a bunch of mountaineers with the ability to pull a trigger,” he said.

Neff, who has climbed a number of peaks in the Cascades, and done several high-country hunts, hopes would-be applicants ponder whether they’re cut out for it.

Happe echoes that caution and notes that the consequences of being unprepared could be high.

“It’s only for a few,” she said. “So really, honestly look at the materials we’ve provided and do an honest assessment of your abilities, because you don’t want to get out there and get hurt or get lost because as soon as that happens, (the program) shuts down.”