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Fauna Series No. 2
Part II
Fauna of the National Parks
of the United States
PART II
SUGGESTED WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK
In accordance with your request for a definite plan of Wildlife Division procedure, a wildlife management plan for Grand Canyon us submitted. This plan is the result of field reconnaissance of Grand Canyon National Park and conferences which Mr. Thompson held with Superintendent Tillotson and Chief Ranger Brooks.
In submitting this report it was understood that only such points should be included as met the approval of all members of the conferences * * *.
This report is not in the form of a formal 5-year program, but if accepted by you will be used as a basis upon which such a 5-year program will be constructed for Grand Canyon.
SOUTH RIM
1. To sustain a normal herd of wild deer.
(a) By completion of the water-hole system now being developed.
(b) By improvement of the range. (NOTE.—A large portion of the South Rim deer range is now enclosed within the fence being built to exclude domestic stock and to allow free passage of deer, but the range as a whole has been overbrowsed and overgrazed generally.)
An essential step in range restoration is: (1) to construct perhaps 15 fenced range study quadrates, with an equal number of unfenced check plots, to be distributed along the South Rim at desirable places.
(c) By no further introduction of deer from elsewhere.
(d) By allowing the native predatory animals equal protection with other forms of the park's wildlife.
(e) By continuing the practice of hunting immediately adjacent to the south boundary.
(f) By discontinuing, as soon as possible, all artificial feeding of deer and allowing the tame herd to go wild.
NORTH RIM
1. To restore the overbrowsed deer range.
(a) By cooperative agreement with the Forest Service to the end that the deer population of the whole North Rim-Kaibab area may be kept low enough, by hunting, to permit range recovery.
2. To restore the deer herd to normal status when the range is recovered.
(a) By cooperative agreement with the Forest Service in the regulation of hunting.
3. To allow the normal predatory animals equal protection with other forms of the park's wildlife.
4. To practice no artificial feeding of the native animals, except the Kaibab squirrel, other rodents, and nongame birds which are sometimes fed by visitors.
5. To reintroduce and maintain a herd of native antelope in Toroweep Valley, with no other means of artificial sustenance or protection than will be necessary to establish the herd and to provide water. It is thought that the antelope range (some 25 square miles lying south of the stockproof fence) should be given 2 or 3 years to recover before antelope are placed there.
GENERAL
1. To assign a wildlife ranger, a portion of whose duties will be the study and investigation of local wildlife problems and wildlife administration.
Suggested course of action:
(a) To elicit observations and information from the entire force.
(b) To carry on specific investigations over a period of years, for example:
(1) A winter investigation of porcupine habits and food.
(2) A study of the food, habits, and abundance of bobcats, and their relation to other forms of life in the canyon.
(3) A study of the rate of recovery and condition of range, using the quadrates and all other field and printed material available.
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Last Modified: Tues, Feb 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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