HomeMy Public PortalAboutWildlife: Mountain GoatsMt' n - a/o ( 9 7
/ o Z 14P3
Mountain
goats
can't avoid
intruders
Recreationists climb higher
and higher, endanger the
tired, reclusive animals
Special to The Idaho Statesman/Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service
Mountain goats live off their fat reserves in the winter and have very little energy to spare. The U.S. Forest Service is urging win-
ter recreationists in the Ketchum area to avoid mountain goats to prevent the animals from being stressed.
Tips for avoiding goats
> Get information on mountain
goat hot spots from snowmobile
and ski shops in the Ketchum
area, or from the Sawtooth Na-
tional Recreation Area office, 7
miles north of Ketchum.
)- Check at trailheads for signs
warning of mountain goat terrain.
> If traveling where mountain
goats are known to live, use
binoculars to scan mountainsides.
If you see a mountain goat, leave
the area.
> Mountain goats should have
at least a 3/8- to 1/2-mile buffer
zone between them and people.
Pete Zimowsky/The Idaho Statesman
Nappy Neaman, Hailey, uses a spotting scope to watch a mountain goat from Idaho 75.
The ooat is on a ledge in the Boulder Mountains, which are reflected in the scope's lens.
The Idaho Statesman 2/26/97 Page #2 of 2
by Pete Zimowsky
he Idaho Statesman
Mountain goats, which live in the
now on Idaho's highest cliffs, no longer
an hide from skiers and snowmobilers.
The Forest Service is launching a pro -
,ram in the Ketchum area to keep the
sinter- stressed animals apart from
ackcountry recreationists, for fear the
oats may suffer or die from such en-
ounters.
Idaho has about 3,000 mountain
oats, including several hundred around
'etchum.
"The goats are going to suffer," said
;d Cannady, a backcountry ranger with
he Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
Mountain goats eat very little in the
Tinter so they have just enough energy
D survive.
Expending energy by fleeing could kill
hem.
"It's unhealthy for goats to move in the
rintertime," Cannady said.
Technology and population are behind
he problem. New snowshoes, cross -
auntry skis and snowmobiles enable
eople to move farther and higher into
he backcountry — into the Pioneer,
loulder, Smoky, White Cloud and Saw -
)oth mountains.
"They're going places where they
auldn't go before," Cannady said.
Cannady has seen snowmobile
racks as high as 11,000 feet —
Learly as high as the state's
Highest mountain, 12,655 -foot
dount Borah.
Besides equipment advances,
e number of people using back -
ountry areas around Ketchum
as increased about 10 percent
the past year.
The first step for the Forest
ervice is to pinpoint goat herds.
The Sawtooth Wildlife Council
working with the U.S. Forest
ervice on the project. College
terns also are helping by trav-
ling in the mountains to spot
ountain goats.
The Idaho State Snowmobile
sociation is providing money
or the work.
Information on what areas to
void will be circulated to snow -
obile and ski shops and clubs.
Winter is the hardest on
ountain goat kids and year-
They're .just trying to outlast
winter," said Robin Gar-
d, Forest Service wildlife bi-
,ist. "It's survival."
oring weather doesn't help.
,t's when goats are most vul-
able, because they've used up
r fat supplies to get through
winter.
Bothering mountain goats
Facts:
8111"",,! As more and more cross - country
>They inhabit
skiers and snowmobilers go higher
elevations of
and higher into the mountains, they
8,000 to 11,000'
°° are disturbing Idaho's elusive
feet, even in
, , mountain goats. The high - elevation
winter.3
°: goats eat little in the winter and
)o-They prefer
have little energy to run from
cliffs and wind-
recreationists. Disturbance can
swept ridges
�� .a kill them.
Here are the hotspots
that lack snow.
> Fifty to 65
''': where backcountry winter
mountain goats
travelei s are
are killed
annually by
disturbing
mountain
special hunting
t s herds.
permits only
> Idaho's
r
ins
mountain goat
population iSa7
gi,R source:
Idaho Fish
estimated
w ` a and Game
at 3,000
More about
mountain goats
What: A public meeting,
sponsored by the U.S. Forest
Service, to talk about mountain
goats and the disturbance by
recreationists.
When: 7 p.m. March 5.
Where: Blaine County Gun
Club on Ohio Gulch Road,
south of Ketchum.
Information: Ed Cannady,
backcountry ranger, 727 -5004.
Spring also is a time when
snow becomes packed and firm,
and skiers and snowmobilers
can go anywhere.
Because mountain goats live
at high elevations, they are
stressed for food well into June,
when mountain peaks still are
covered with snow.
Backcountry skiers, like Andy
Munter of Ketchum, see the
need to avoid mountain goats.
was using a spotting scope
from Idaho 75.
"Idaho is very blessed to have
mountain goats," Neaman said.
He doesn't want to see the ani-
mals go the way of the steelhead
or salmon.
"We have the ability to elimi-
nate the animal by over- stress-
ing it," he said.
Idaho hunters know about the
value of the animal, because
hunting is allowed only by spe-
cial permit gained through an
annual controlled -hunt drawing.
About 50 mountain goats are
shot each fall.
Currently, there are no re-
strictions in the Ketchum area
on where winter recreationists
can go, except for wilderness re-
strictions on snowmobiles and
closures of some areas to all
recreationists for elk winter
"There are plenty of other places
to go skiing," he said.
The mountain goat herds near
Ketchum are unique, said
Nappy Neaman, Hailey, who is
working with the Sawtooth
Wildlife Council and whose life
passion is keeping track of the
goats.
They are the southernmost
natural herds in the United
States, he said.
"We've got to make the pub-
lic aware of the value of the
mountain goat," he said Tues-
day, while watching the ani-
mals roaming cliffs in the
Boulder Mountains. Neaman
range.
The Forest Service wants to
help recreationists and goats co-
exist through education.
Signs will be put up in moun-
tain goat areas, and recreation-
ists will be asked "on their
honor," to avoid goat terrain,
Cannady said.
"We're trying to deal in a way
that doesn't shut people out,"
Cannady said. "People are con-
cerned enough about wildlife, so
we have great faith this will be
effective. We just have to get the
word out.
"We've got to be good neigh-
bors."