MOOSE, Wyo. — Grand Teton National Park will resume aerial culling of non-native mountain goats starting tomorrow, Feb. 23.
Aerial operations will take place in the northern portion of the Teton Range. The area from Cascade Canyon to Berry Creek and extending from the base of the range west to the park boundary will be closed. Additional locations may close if mountain goats are located in other areas of the park.
Non-native mountain goats threaten the native Teton Range bighorn sheep, NPS says. The park’s population is small and isolated, making it especially vulnerable to extinction. Mountain goats can carry diseases that can be lethal to “naive” bighorn sheep, and compete for vulnerable resources in the Tetons’ harsh alpine climate.
The park suspended aerial culling operations in 2020 after pushback from Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and moved to a volunteer hunting program. Volunteer hunters killed 63 goats between Feb. 2020 and the fall of 2021.
But NPS determined that using volunteers would be “neither safe nor effective” in removing the remaining 25-35 nonnative mountain goats, the park said in a press release. One recovery team got stranded overnight in technical terrain last fall.
“The safety risks and difficulty in ground-based removal efforts would continue to increase given there are fewer non-native mountain goats and most of those that remain occupy the least accessible areas of the Teton Range,” the park said. “As such, aerial removal is a safer and more effective method.”
Backcountry skiers will need to mind area closures starting tomorrow. Operations are expected to run through Saturday, but further operations will be considered if non-native mountain goats are found in other areas, the park said.
