BISON KILL IN GRAND CANYON IS PUT OFF

A bison herd that lives almost exclusively in the northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park won’t be targeted for lethal removal there this fall.

The park used skilled volunteers selected through a highly competitive and controversial lottery last year to kill bison, part of a tool set to downsize the herd that’s been trampling meadows and archaeological sites on the canyon’s North Rim.

Introducing the sound of gunfire and having people close to the bison was meant to nudge the massive animals back to the adjacent forest where they legally could be hunted. But the efforts had little effect.

New surveys also have shown the herd is closer to the goal of about 200, down from an estimated 500 to 800 animals when the park approved a plan to quickly cut the size of the herd. The park is now working with other agencies and groups on a long-term plan for managing the bison, an animal declared America’s national mammal in 2016 and depicted on the National Park Service logo.

Hunting over hundreds of years and a genetic bottleneck nearly left the animals that once numbered in the tens of millions extinct in the U.S. Federal wildlife authorities now support about 11,000 bison in about a dozen states, including the largest herd on public land at Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone, which spans 3,500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, also is developing a new management plan for the roughly 5,500 bison there. It’s working with Native American tribes, state agencies and other groups to find ways to reduce the number of bison sent to slaughter.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota regularly rounds up bison using helicopters and corrals, then transfers some of the animals to tribes, other states and national parks. Without natural predators, bison herds can grow quickly and strain the resources, the park says.