OUR OPINION: Regulated elk hunt in park makes sense

Hunters?

Or helicopters?

Which should be called upon to solve a problem in Theodore Roosevelt National Park?

Hunters, the National Park Service now has answered, reaching an agreement with North Dakota state government. "Qualified volunteers will soon be allowed to hunt elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and possibly keep the meat, as part of a government initiative to reduce the elk herd in the park," The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported Wednesday.

It's a reasonable solution that took years to bring about.

Centuries ago, elk were common in the Badlands, but the populations declined in the 1880s -- and by 1900, no elk remained.

Then in 1985, wildlife managers reintroduced 47 elk into Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The population soon exceeded the park's goal of about 360 animals. So, in 1993 and 2000, surplus elk were rounded up and relocated offsite.

But in 2002, the park service director stopped such relocations nationwide, citing fears of chronic wasting disease.

There the situation has stood ever since. And while the park service and others have debated the options, the elk population has grown so that it now numbers more than 900.

One option was to combine the earlier helicopter roundups with testing for chronic wasting disease. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., objected, as did the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, among others.

Why not let North Dakota volunteer hunters thin the herd? Dorgan asked.

Well, why not?

Because hunting generally is not allowed in national parks, opponents of the idea responded.

Furthermore, hunting shouldn't be allowed, the argument continued. National parks are sanctuaries where visitors can escape technology and other impacts of humankind. Using hunters to manage wildlife lets too much of that outside world in. Plus, the noise and sheer violence of the hunt violate the cathedral-like serenity that's one of the park's main attractions, critics say.

While those views are entirely respectable, the state and federal governments were right to reject them.

A helicopter would violate the sanctity of a cathedral every bit as much as a gunshot would. But what the examples really show is not the rightness of either approach but the weakness of the analogy.

Nature is not a cathedral. Make that, it's a strange cathedral indeed that allows for predators to pounce on and eat prey, animals routinely to die of starvation and periodic wildfires to char the landscape.

Furthermore, the notion that national parks are islands of "nature before man" is a myth. Humanity has altered the North American landscape not just for centuries but for millennia. Today, every square inch of every national park is managed, in a way that very often allows for vehicle traffic, cook fires and car camping.

The problem in Theodore Roosevelt National Park is that in the matter of elk -- elk that managers reintroduced, don't forget -- this intensive management has failed. Letting North Dakota hunters thin the elk herd now is a reasonable tool, not a breach of trust.

If Teddy Roosevelt were alive, he'd no doubt he'd approve that the U.S. government protected a good share of his beloved Badlands from development. He'd beam with pride that the park bears his name.

At the same time, we have a hard time imagining he'd balk at an elk hunt as a management tool. For Roosevelt himself was a hunter as well as a conservationist and plainly saw a connection -- not a conflict -- between the two.

-- Tom Dennis for the Herald