Other views: NPS should get moving on elk herd

Talk about it

We’re glad the National Park Service took the time to solicit comments from the general public on how to best reduce the elk herd in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Park officials received more than 11,000 comments during a 30-day comment period, which ended this past week.

We’d like to add one more comment, one we’ve made a few times before: Make a decision already.

The Park Service has discussed this issue to death in the past few years. Meanwhile, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park elk herd has grown to more than 900 animals. The Park Service plans to have an environmental impact statement finished by the end of 2009, and then make a decision on how to reduce the herd to somewhere between 100 and 400 animals.

There’s no secret to the right decision on this issue. The current proposal (finally!) is to thin the herd using teams of shooters, including volunteers, under the direction of park officials. That’s been the best scenario ever since this issue came up years ago (yes, even better than one of the government’s original ideas of using sharpshooters in helicopters).

In June, Sen. Byron Dorgan said he had secured a commitment to find a “common-sense” solution to the elk problem. It’s now September, and the issue isn’t resolved yet. “Common sense” says this solution should have been decided long ago, and the elk herd should already have been reduced. But then common sense and the federal government don’t always see eye-to-eye, do they?

Tags: natioanl park, theodore roosevelt, other views, opinion, editorials, elk, northland, outdoors, hunting