GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS Status of the European Wild Boar Project Management Report No. 6

Natural Area Management¹

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1. Quotes from pp. 25, 107-108, U.S. Dept. Interior, National Park Service. 1970. Administrative policies for natural areas of the National Park System. U.S. Gov't Printing Office, Washington.

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Non-native species of plants and animals will be eliminated (in natural areas) where it is possible to do so by approved methods which will preserve wilderness qualities.

Wildlife populations will be controlled when necessary to maintain the health of the species, the native environment, and the scenic landscape, and to safeguard public health and safety. Ungulate populations will be maintained at the level that the range will carry in good health and without impairment to the soil, the vegetation, or to the habitats of the several species in an area.

Insofar as possible, control through natural predation will be encouraged. Public hunting outside of the area is recognized as the next most desirable means of controlling wildlife populations followed by: (1) live-trapping in the areas for transplanting elsewhere; (2) research specimens for National Park Service and cooperating scientists; and (3) direct reduction by National Park Service personnel.

Where other methods of control are inappropriate or impractical, excess park ungulates must be removed by killing. Such shooting should be conducted by competent personnel, under the sole jurisdiction of the National Park Service, and for the sole purpose of animal removal, not recreational hunting.

Legal Restrictions

The State laws concerning game apply to any wild boar taken in the Park which are then removed. Meat can be given to a charitable institution but cannot be eaten by a park employee. Controversies between a national park and adjacent states over a control program will be referred to the Secretary of the Interior.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Resources Management and Master Plan

Resources Management Plan, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is presently being revised and rewritten; the completed Plan is due about November 1976. Major efforts on boar research, control, and natural predator management should be treated in the Plan. Wording should be general and flexible to handle minor alterations in management resulting from new information.