Reply to the Anunsens

Abstract

are no park plants federally listed as threatened or endangered. True, though I do not use this argument. I emphasize that changes in floral composition have resulted from heavy grazing by goats. park has not been able to document that is exotic.... I reiterate that expeditions of Biological Survey between 1897 and 1921, and expedition of Field Museum in 1898, found no evidence of goats. Published allusions to goats in park before 1925 (Dunn 1844; Seattle Press 1890; Gilman 1896) are bare statements without elaboration. There exist no specimen records of endemic goats, with improbable exception of big horn and goat remains that Regan found in seacoastal middens, usually only in ladle form of horns. (Regan 1917:16) That either species was endemic to Olympic Mountains is equally unlikely. Ethnologist Erna Gunther's statement (1936:117) that the mountain does not occur on Olympic Peninsula is important. Working in Washington State Museum for over 30 years, she spent hundreds of hours interviewing Clallam and Makah about their lifeways, traditions, and knowledge of Olympic environment. With respect to Lyman's (1988) theory, I agree that goats could have reached Olympics in late Quaternary. Lyman elaborates on theory in an unpublished 1993 paper, Indirect Evidence for Pre-1925 Presence of Mountain Goats on Olympic Mountains of Washington State. Scheffer also fails to acknowledge [the comments of Jay Kirkpatrick on value of contraceptives]. I first learned of these comments in September 1993. I accept Kirkpatrick's opinion that a vaccine administered by dart might keep a female sterile for up to three years. But Kirkpatrick's voice was only one in a five-man panel which concluded that treating mountain goats with these agents [sterilants] would represent a very expensive, never-ending program that, at best, would only partially control population. If goats are to be eliminated, not simply controlled, lethal shooting appears to be only feasible option. (Scientific Panel 1992:2) The National Park Service's Final Environmental Impact Statement on management may appear while present article is in press. I trust that it will recommend what is best for Olympic National Park and, in long run, best for people.