Park `surprised' by volume of volunteers

Park `surprised' by volume of volunteers
By LAUREN DONOVAN Bismarck Tribune | Posted: Tuesday, August 10, 2010
More than 13,000 men and women have volunteered to shoot elk this fall at Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, in the country’s first large-scale firearms reduction in a national park.

The deadline for volunteers to apply expired at midnight Monday and the final tally of people wanting to participate in this year’s reduction will likely be even higher. So far, applications have come from 38 states, said spokeswoman Eileen Anders.

“We knew we’d get a bunch,” Anders said, but the overwhelming response “is surprising.”

A total of 260 volunteers will be selected in a random, computer-based process, so anyone interested has less than a 2 percent chance of being picked for this year’s reduction.

Before making the selection, the computer will sort applicants by their weeks of preference and by whether they applied as an individual or as part of a group.

The park plans to shoot 275 cow elk, using four, five-person teams each week for 13 weeks starting in November through January. If this is successful, the same number will be shot for the following four years to bring the burgeoning elk population of about 1,000 down to the preferred number for habitat management.

Elk shot outside the park during permitted hunting season will be included toward the total.

Anders said the volunteers should be picked by the end of August. They’ll be notified by e-mail, but will have to clear a background check and sign a health and fitness waiver before being finally accepted.

The park also will be advertising for five team leaders who will lead the volunteer groups, Anders said. The team leaders will become federal employees for the project and must demonstrate proficiency with firearms and game tracking skills.

A call for packers went out a month ago. Those contract workers will haul in the killed elk for processing and distribution.

The elk reduction program is the result of a lengthy Environmental Impact Statement process that required intervention by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who halted any federal funding unless it allowed volunteer sportsmen and women to shoot the elk.

It’s being watched as a model for future wildlife reductions in national parks.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 701-748-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)