US National Park Service Seeks Volunteers To Kill Bison In The Grand Canyon

The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking volunteers to help kill hundreds of buffalo on the northern edge of Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park. Writes about it Fox News.

Photo: Shutterstock

In partnership with the Arizona Game and Fisheries Administration (AZGFD), the NPS is looking for people "skilled in killing bison."

Applications will begin at 12:00 local time from May 3 to 23:59 on May 4.

You can apply for Online.

In an accompanying announcement detailing the work, the NPS wrote that the service is "concerned about the increasing impact of bison on the entire ecosystem of the park and visitors."

“Reducing herd size will protect the ecosystem, resources and values ​​of the park,” the agency said in a statement.

Twenty-five applicants will be selected from all applications, 12 of whom will be selected using a random lottery system.

NPS will contact the selected applicants by May 17, 2021.

On the subject: Bison: The History of the American Symbol

Volunteers must be US citizens over 18 years of age with a valid ID, no criminal offense, self-certify a high level of physical fitness, have a certificate of experience in shooting with firearms, pass a professional shooting test, be available for just one of the designated operational periods.

Park Service employees are prohibited from volunteering.

The agency noted that efforts to reduce the bison herd to a more manageable way are supported by consultations with Native American tribes and the public in a 2017 environmental assessment conducted by the NPS, Arizona and the US Forest Service.

“In addition to destruction, Grand Canyon National Park biologists began experimental capture and translocation of animals in 2019. Since the program began, 88 bison have been captured and relocated to five American Indian tribes under an agreement with the Intertribal Bison Council, the department explained. “These animals will supplement the existing herds managed by these tribes.”

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“In addition, NPS and USGS biologists placed GPS collars on 25 animals to help with population estimates, migration patterns and temporary locations,” the release said. “Grand Canyon will continue capture and relocation operations in the fall of 2021.”

Since the park began managing the herd in 2019, a total of 88 bison have been relocated.

The NPS reportedly plans to reduce the herd by about two-thirds, from 600 to 200 bison.

The NPS will choose the age and sex of the animals, and the number of bison that each team is allowed to kill will depend on the number of qualified volunteers.

Grand Canyon officials and officials have stressed that the removal is not hunting, but environmental and conservation groups advocate for non-lethal methods of removing the animals.

“Shooting animals accustomed to the safe presence of humans is a betrayal,” the Humane Society of the United States wrote in a 2017 blog post.

"I'm very nervous that there is a continued reliance on this kind of exploitation of people having to come into the park and shoot," said Alisyn Gitlin of the Sierra Club.

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