In the two years since the Grand Canyon approved a plan to reduce the number of bison roaming in the national park, the herd has only grown in size.
No one is sure exactly how many of the massive animals call far northern Arizona home because they're hard to count amid the Ponderosa pine trees, but it's in the hundreds. Left unchecked, the herd could reach 1,500 in several years, severely damaging the landscape and water resources, the park says.
The National Park Service released a plan in September 2017 that called for a mix of corralling the animals near the highway that leads to the Grand Canyon's North Rim, and for skilled volunteers to shoot a certain number of bison inside and outside the park. It has made no significant progress on guidelines for lethal options.
Balsom said the park plans to sort animals that are captured in September and give them to Native American tribes across the U.S. that request them through the Intertribal Buffalo Council. The agreement with the Park Service says none of the animals can be slaughtered within the first year, she said.
The state wildlife commission ordered the Arizona Game and Fish Department to cut off talks with the Park Service in January 2018 because it prefers hunters do the work and keep their prey, regional Game and Fish supervisor Scott Poppenberger said.It's a conflict that has played out in other national parks where hunting is banned.
The hunts have stirred controversy, with bison often shot immediately after stepping beyond the park boundary. They have also failed to significantly reduce Yellowstone's herds, which had roughly 4,500 animals at last count.
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