Mountain Goat Management - Removal

Mountain Goat Removal

Olympic National Park has recruited skilled volunteers to assist with the lethal removal of non-native mountain goats from the park. Selected volunteers will be required to navigate through park wilderness in difficult and steep terrain.

• This program will occur from September 9 through October 17, 2020.

• Volunteers had to apply in groups of 3-6 people and participate in one of 3 scheduled removal bouts.

Participants must:

• attend one day of training at the beginning of each designated removal session
• pass a background check
• meet requirements for physical fitness, orienteering, and experience recreating in extensive mountainous wilderness.

Groups may consist of field support personnel and expert shooters; only those who pass a firearms proficiency test (which will be administered during each training) will be permitted to shoot goats in the park. Each group must have at least one person that passes the firearms proficiency test.

• Volunteers must supply all their own required equipment and supplies, including suitable firearms and non-lead ammunition.

 

How to volunteer - As of April 17, the application period has ended.

Application Period Closed: Thank you for your interest in the mountain goat ground removal volunteer program at Olympic National Park. The response to the call for volunteers closed April 17. Over 1,200 groups applied. The application was not a quick and easy endeavor to complete, and we are grateful for the time and effort that groups put into completing the application. It took over a month to make selections due to the time needed to carefully pull together all of the emails into group application packets and evaluate each one.

The pool of applicants was very impressive, and we regret that we can accept so few. We evaluated all applications and pulled out those that were ranked as most highly qualified. From that pool, we then did a random draw of 40 applications and those were evaluated by a team of National Park Service and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff. From that pool, 21 groups were selected.

We tried to notify all groups whether they were chosen or not, but could not reach everyone. If you have not received a notification, unfortunately, you were not selected.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volunteers will not be guided in the field by National Park Service (NPS) staff. They will serve as official NPS volunteers and operate in the field independently. They will be required to sign a volunteer agreement and follow guidelines and protocols set by the project manager and volunteer coordinator.

Visit the volunteer page to find more information on the program requirements or review goat management units.

Background Information

• Mountain Goat Capture and Translocation Project
• Mountain Goat Management Plan/EIS for Olympic National Park