Dear HCN,
I suspect High Country
News will soon have its fill of communications about Olympic
Mountain goats, but Mr. Markarian’s letter of May 12 should not go
unchallenged. All of the evidence he cites in support of the idea
that the goats are native to the Olympic Mountains is
suspect.
First, the Gilman expedition, which
spent very little time in mountain goat habitat, reported sightings
of partridge on the same species list with the mountain goat,
despite the fact that there are not now, nor have there ever been,
partridge on the Olympic Peninsula. This leads me to doubt the
reliability of the Gilman report with respect to goats. As for the
Seattle Press Expedition, in addition to a goat, they also reported
seeing pheasants and chickens, neither of which has ever been
native to this area, let alone North America. What’s more, they
mistook the drumming of grouse for geysers, hence Geyser Valley.
Well, I ask you now!
In contrast to the two
sources cited above, Lt. Joseph O’Neil, who led the first extensive
expedition into the heart of the Olympics and later spent time
leading a trail-building and scientific expedition into the high
country, failed to report seeing any mountain goats. Chris
Morgenroth, who spent more than a quarter of a century exploring
and working in the high country, never reported seeing any goats,
even though he was a hunter and observer of
wildlife.
And finally, E.B. Webster, author of
the book King of the Olympics and one of the people who was
instrumental in introducing goats to the Olympics in 1925, wrote in
his book, “While the fauna of the Olympic Mountains, for some
peculiar reason, never included Mountain Goat, it is the intention
of the Klahane Club (Olympic Mountaineers), aided by the Forest
Service, to introduce the species as soon as it may be possible to
secure them.” I think the evidence is overwhelmingly against a
native population of mountain goats on the Olympic
Peninsula.
As to the negative effect of the goats
in the park: During my ramblings in the mountains I have talked
with a number of old-timers who, without knowing anything about my
opinions and without any prompting from me, have remarked about how
wonderfully the vegetation has recovered since most of the goats
were removed. This is anecdotal evidence, for sure, but more
credible than anything Mr. Markarian has to offer and supports the
conclusions of the Park Service on the basis of its field
studies.
The Park Service’s plan to eliminate
goats from the park is based on the results of good field research,
not fear and paranoia as Mr. Markarian suggests. Why would anyone
be paranoid about mountain goats?
Charles D.
Louch
Port Angeles,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Goats don’t belong in Olympic National Park.
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