Deep in the Quinault River valley of Olympic National Park last week, mountain goat kids and their moms were rambling carefree across the 3,000-foot rock walls of Enchanted Valley.
This week, they’re probably dead.
As my uncle and I backpacked out of the valley, teams of hunters were arriving to kill every last one in Phase 2 of the park’s campaign of extermination in the name of biological purity.
Phase 3 is slaughter by helicopter.
Mountain goats are native to the Pacific Northwest.
They were introduced into the park about a 100 years ago and have thrived to the point of overpopulation.
As a hunter, I don’t object to culling them, but I cannot understand the crusade of annihilation.
Mountain goats in the Pacific Northwest, like all species, including our own, originally came from somewhere else.
Before goats arrived, North America had vast herds of camels.
Should we shoot all the elk and bring back camels?
If there are too many goats, go ahead and kill off the excess.
But enough with the ecological holy wars.
Tom Wolfe
Port Angeles