Comments are due by October 10, 2017. 

Send comments via the internet: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=77644

Or via US Mail:

Olympic National Park

Mountain Goat Management Plan/EIS

600 East Park Avenue

Port Angeles, WA 98362-6798

Sample comment letter:

I am opposed to the Park Service’s proposal to reduce or eliminate mountain goats via collaring and translocation or aerial and ground-based gunning in Olympic National Park and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

The proposed removal actions—around 274 helicopter landings in three Wildernesses in the Cascade Mountains to translocate goats and another undetermined number, presumably at least the same number as for translocation, to pursue, capture, and kill goats in the Wildernesses of the Olympic Peninsula—pose significant harm to the Wildernesses through intensive aerial intrusion and ongoing, heavy-handed wildlife manipulation. All three of the Park Service’s alternatives in its EIS would invade Wilderness with helicopters, subject the goats to intensive harassment and collaring, and require ongoing population manipulation in the future.

The agencies have no obligation under the Wilderness Act to remove nonnative species from Wilderness, especially when the removal actions themselves require significant, ongoing trammeling of Wilderness and intensive motorized intrusion. Similarly, it is not necessary to supplement overhunted goat populations in the Cascades when the agencies can take actions to reduce pressures on those populations without offending the Wilderness Act.

The Park Service must instead take no action on this proposal, or at the very least, consider alternatives that don’t violate the Wilderness Act, including methods that don’t require repeated helicopter pursuits and landings.

ACTION ALERT, 10/17: Protect Wildernesses in Washington from Goat Removal Plan

The Park Service is taking comments on a proposal to reduce or eliminate mountain goats via collaring and translocation or aerial and ground-based gunning in Olympic National Park and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. The US Forest Service is a cooperating agency, and the proposal will significantly affect eight Wildernesses in the region. While the best evidence indicates goats are not native to the Park or the Olympic Peninsula—they were introduced there in the 1920s—the proposed removal actions pose significant harm to the Wildernesses through intensive aerial intrusion and ongoing, heavy-handed wildlife manipulation.

The proposal calls for around 274 helicopter landings in three Wildernesses in the Cascade Mountains to translocate goats and another undetermined number, presumably at least the same number as for translocation, to pursue, capture, and kill goats in the Wildernesses of the Olympic Peninsula, though the impacts of those future activities are not disclosed or analyzed. 

The stated goal of the project is to reduce or eliminate mountains goats on the Olympic Peninsula, mainly through helicopter aerial gunning or capture via helicopter for translocation to other Wildernesses. To accomplish this goal, the Park Service is analyzing three alternatives:

1. Capture as many goats as possible using helicopters and net gunning. This would involve landing in Wilderness, taking the goats out of the Park, collaring them, and then translocating them to Wildernesses in the Cascades to supplement native populations recovering from overhunting. It seems rather than strictly regulating hunting of goats in the Cascades, the agencies prefer supplementation. 
2. Kill the mountain goats, using helicopters for aerial gunning and for transporting ground gunners in Wilderness.
3. Capture, collar, and relocate some mountain goats and kill others. This is a combination of the above two options and is the NPS/FS preferred alternative. It, like the other two options, would invade Wilderness with helicopters, subject the goats to intensive harassment and collaring, and require ongoing population manipulation in the future.

The agencies have no obligation under the Wilderness Act to remove nonnative species from Wilderness, particularly populations that have been established for nearly a century, especially when the removal actions themselves require significant, ongoing trammeling of Wilderness and intensive motorized intrusion. 

At the very least, the agencies must explore methods that don’t require repeated helicopter pursuits and landings—something they have not done here. Similarly, it is not necessary to supplement overhunted goat populations in the Cascades when the agencies can take actions to reduce pressures on those populations without offending the Wilderness Act.

Please join us in speaking up for Wilderness, and tell the Park Service to take no action on this proposal, or at the very least, to consider alternatives that don’t violate the Wilderness Act. 

Comments are due by October 10, 2017. 

Send comments via the internet: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=77644

Or via US Mail:

Olympic National Park

Mountain Goat Management Plan/EIS

600 East Park Avenue

Port Angeles, WA 98362-6798