Mountain goats are great, but maybe not in Yellowstone

By Tim Fitzgerald

The mountain goat is one of North America's unique large mammals. However it can also be one of the most controversial. The migration of mountain goats from Montana into Yellowstone National Park may seem like lagniappe with the addition of another charismatic species, but non-native mountain goats in national parks have caused trouble before.

Washington's Olympic National Park offers a perfect example of how mountain goats can create an ecological disturbance. Introduced to the Olympic Peninsula in 1925, mountain goats thrived. But by the 1980s the Olympic mountain goats numbered over 1,000 and concerns about their ecological impact grew.

Goats live in sensitive alpine environments and eat a broad array of plants. The ecologically isolated peninsula hosts many endemic plant species that evolved without grazers. Several of these species, notably Olympic milkvetch, were threatened by the impact of the non-native mountain goats. While never listed as an endangered or threatened species, the milkvetch was an icon for the concern over the impact of too many goats. Once the natural vegetative cover is damaged, many areas are susceptible to erosion. This is particularly true in the Olympics, which boast delicate soils. Goat trails and wallows above timberline were heavily used.

Of central concern was whether or not the mountain goat was native to the Olympics. Conflicting reports by explorers and pioneers gave rise to a long-running argument that pitted environmental groups against each other, with the National Park Service caught in the crossfire. The final decision was that mountain goats are native to the Cascades, but not the Olympics.

During the 1980s the Park Service tried several ways to reduce goat numbers by snaring and trapping them. It turns out, however, that capturing a mountain goat by non-lethal means is rather difficult. One method, helicopter mountain goat bulldogging, was especially hard on goats, helicopters, and cowboys.

By 1995 the Park Service was so fed up with the environmental damage it suggested shooting goats out of helicopters to try to control the population. This led to a raucous public outcry and debate of the costs and benefits of goat control. Of course since it was a national park, hunting by the general public was not an option. Therefore highly trained government employees would do the hunting. As might be expected, the prospect of assassinating unsuspecting goats from a helicopter did not sit well with anybody, regardless of the potential environmental benefit.

The end result was that many goats were captured and shipped off to other places. For still somewhat unknown reasons, the goat population in the Olympics has declined and stabilized at around 300. This population is considered sustainable. After all of the hoopla, the goats took care of their own problem.

In 2000, the Park Service commissioned a report that concluded, "Although mountain goats are certainly having some effect, substantial and harmful impacts at the population, community, and ecosystem levels have not been established." After 20 years of controversy, nothing happened.

As early as 1991 authors recognized that goats in Yellowstone "may eventually pose problems to park managers that could prove embarrassingly similar to those experienced at Olympic [National] Park." The Park Service itself admits that "while there are no known unique alpine flora in Yellowstone, the alpine area is relatively unstudied, and concerns over potential competition between goats and sheep remain."

Mountain goats are one of the least understood North American mammals. Rivaling only the musk ox, which lives in equally harsh environs, the biology of the goat is largely unknown. They are a fascinating animal, highly valued by tourists, wildlife enthusiasts, and trophy hunters alike. (In Montana, an out-of-stater pays $753 for a mountain goat tag -- not much compared to $1,800 in Wyoming or $1,640 in Colorado.)

While their arrival in Yellowstone deserves notice, we might see a real benefit to escorting whatever goats have taken up residence in the park to the boundary. People will still visit Yellowstone if there are no goats there. Considering the chance that goats could cause damage or displace an indigenous species, we might do better to visit the goats in Glacier.

Tim Fitzgerald is an economist and former outfitter who lives in Belgrade.

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