Letter to the editor: Dorgan deserves credit for work on elk hunt issue

Talk about it

As a hunter, I’d love to help cull the elk herd in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Right now, the herd is too big and damaging the park, and letting hunters harvest a portion of it is a good idea.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND., deserves a lot of credit for keeping this issue on the front burner over the past two years. It’s too bad the National Park Service initially wanted to hire federal sharpshooters and helicopters to reduce the herd. As I understand it, the plan Dorgan got done will allow North Dakota hunters to thin the elk and keep the meat. This looks to me like it will save taxpayer dollars by letting volunteer hunters cull the herd rather than using hired sharpshooters. That makes a lot of sense.

I appreciate Dorgan’s work and also the North Dakota Game and Fish Department!

Rep. Lyle Hanson

Jamestown

(Hanson, a Democrat, represents District 12 in the North Dakota Legislature)

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