An ideal population of elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park would be around 360 according to park officials. Currently that population is estimated at between 750 and 900 animals. Something needs to be done and a debate has raged as to the best methods.

In Colorado at the Rocky Mountain National Park, they face the same problem and the discussions there are similar. The park service for both locations have indicated they prefer spending millions of tax payer’s dollars to hire sharpshooters to do the job. Others, including the North Dakota governor, John Hoeven, support the use of qualified volunteers.

At issue has been whether the park officials have the authority to determine who can thin the herd because of restrictions on hunting in most national parks. That issue seems to have been cleared up according to an article in the Bismark Tribune.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in March that federal law allows “authorized agents” of the National Park Service to thin animal herds.

With that clarification then it would seem that the next step is to convince the park superintendents to allow hunters to do the job but it seems that the head of the National Park Service, Mary Bomar, still is not convinced that volunteers is the way to go.

In her letter to Dorgan, Bomar said “authorized agents could include personnel from cooperating agencies, tribal personnel, contractors and skilled volunteers.”

On Tuesday of this week, N. Dakota governor John Hoeven met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Director of the National Park Service Mary Bomar, to discuss how to proceed. Hoeven is attempting to convince Bomar to use volunteers and is hoping to get Kempthorne to take his side as well.

In an article at KXMB.com, Hoeven says the National Park Service should allow volunteers to hunt the elk.

“We believe that the National Park Service should allow North Dakotans to participate as qualified volunteers, and we pressed that case with the Park Service and Sec. Kempthorne,” Hoeven said. “We are very pleased that secretary and Director Bomar have directed the agency to fully evaluate and seriously consider allowing North Dakotans to participate. We will work with them to include qualified volunteers, and we anticipate that both the hearing process and a draft environmental impact statement will be completed by the spring of 2008. The final record of decision will be completed by the fall of 2008, which we believe should and will include qualified volunteers.”

Senator Dorgan of North Dakota has also been pressing Bomar to use volunteers. He contacted the Department of Interior several weeks ago in order to assist in getting a ruling on who has authority to determine methods of game management.

Convincing both park managers and head of the National Park Service to utilize volunteers is one thing. Setting the guidelines for the hunt is another. There has been a lot of talk about how to use these so-called qualified volunteers.

The state plan calls for the use of “qualified sportsmen and women”.

……the state plan, which would entail a controlled hunt by qualified sportsmen and women supervised by wildlife officials.

I read one report that stated that fish and game personnel had to accompany a hunter and actually direct them as to which animal to shoot. It was made to sound more like an organized slaughter more than a hunt. But we must remember that under a proposed Park Service plan, it would be an organized slaughter.

There is another issue that seems to keep rearing its head as well. It came up again in the Bismark Tribune article in something that Sen. Dorgan said about the elk after they are killed.

“It makes no sense to me to spend millions of dollars on sharpshooters and helicopters when North Dakota hunters would be willing to take care of this problem free of charge,” Dorgan said. The elk would go to food banks to feed the hungry, he said.

I’m not opposed to feeding the hungry but I believe each hunter should be given the choice as to whether to keep the meat for themselves or donate some or all of it to charity.

There are other questions that jump out at me that I hope will be addressed at some point. One is to define the park’s version of “qualified”. Who can become qualified and what will those qualifications be?

Another is the selection process for those “qualified” hunters. Assuming there will be far more applicants than permits, some kind of drawing formula must be made. Will someone who draws a permit to take an elk in this cull be ineligible for a regular elk hunt draw? The reason I ask is that if the TRNP elk cull is nothing more than the utilization of hunters to slaughter an elk and give it away, I wonder how many will opt for a chance, especially if they are disqualified from the regular draw.

On the positive side though, we should be happy that it has been determined that park officials do have the legal authority to designate who can be used to thin game herds as part of the management plans. Now to convince them that public hunters can do the job.

Also, when states have governors like John Hoeven who recognize that volunteer hunters can do the job sensibly saving taxpayers millions of dollars, this is a good thing.

Hopefully this attitude of sense and sensibility and spirit of cooperation between agencies will continue and be a benefit to all, including us hunters.

Tom Remington

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