The
National Park Service is looking at a reduction plan that would allow
volunteers to shoot bison using non-lead ammunition
Associated
Press
Monday 11
September 2017 23.04 BSTLast modified on Monday 11 September
2017 23.26 BST
The
National Park Service plans to thin a herd of bison in the Grand Canyon through
roundups and by seeking volunteers who are physically fit and proficient with a
gun to kill the animals that increasingly are damaging park resources.
Some
bison would be shipped out of the area and others legally hunted on the
adjacent forest. Within the Grand Canyon, shooters would be selected through a
lottery to help bring the number of bison roaming the far northern reaches of
the park to no more than 200 within three to five years.
Some 600
of the animals now live in the region, and biologists say the bison numbers
could hit 1,500 within 10 years if left uncontrolled.
The Grand
Canyon is still working out details of the volunteer effort, but it’s taking
cues from national parks in Colorado, the Dakotas and Wyoming that have used
shooters to cut overabundant or diseased populations of elk. The park service
gave final approval to the bison reduction plan this month.
Sandy
Bahr of the Sierra Club says she’s hopeful the Grand Canyon will focus mostly
on non-lethal removal.
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