Why Not Reintroduce Gray Wolf To Control Mountain Goats?
I read with considerable interest the recent columns by Don Hannula and Ron Judd with regard to the mountain goat problem in Olympic National Park. As pointed out, the goats are not native to the Olympics but were introduced many years ago. Because they are exotics, they have upset the balance of nature, and their numbers definitely should be controlled, not only in the national park but also in adjacent national forest and state lands. Why not reintroduce the gray wolf in the Olympics? The Olympic wolf, a variety of the gray wolf, was native to these mountains, had lived in them for untold centuries when Caucasians arrived in the Pacific Northwest; but this wolf became extinct in the 1920s because ranchers living in the foothills systematically attempted to exterminate them – and succeeded. (They also tried to kill all the cougars, but the big cats proved to be more tenacious and survived.) Why not bring back the wolves and let nature’s predators help control the runaway goat populati
