33.1 - Identify a population control issue

NPS has a senior biologist and advisor on staff whose primary responsibility is to facilitate information flow and discussions between NPS and states. This employee is a retired CO DPW employee.

NPS uses a variety of tools including hunting, culling by federal agency personnel, culling by skilled volunteers (e.g. Theodore Roosevelt NP and Rocky Mountain NP), and/or a combination of the above (Apostle Island NL – hunting and skilled volunteers) to directly manage nonnative and overabundant native ungulates to meet resource management objectives. All such operations are mandated to utilize non-lead ammunition. Hunting is mandated or authorized in sixty-one NPS units. These units are designated primarily as National Rivers, Lakeshores, Seashores, Recreation Areas, Preserves, and Monuments.

An interview with Ron Regan and Carol Bambery of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies provided information and direction on these actions.

Regionally based species based technical work groups are an example of expanding and enhancing cross-boundary efforts to use hunting as a management tool. For example, the Northeast Deer Technical Committee's came to the conclusion in their report, "An Evaluation of Deer Management Options," that hunting "is an ecologically sound, socially beneficial, and fiscally responsible method of managing deer populations."

The Rocky Mountain National Park's Elk and Vegetation Management Plan and The Theodore Roosevelt National Park Elk Management Plan are both examples of the National Park Service using hunters as a wildlife management tool.