South Dakota volunteers needed

[Fritz the Cat]

[h=1]Wind Cave National Park, S.D. GFP seek volunteers to help reduce elk population[/h]

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By: South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks - Updated: 1 day ago
Posted Dec 27, 2019




WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK – The National Park Service, working with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, is again seeking skilled volunteers to reduce its elk herd at Wind Cave National Park to help address the high rate of Chronic Wasting Disease in the park. A total of eight trained volunteers will be needed – four each week for the first two weeks in February. The volunteers will be selected through a lottery system managed by GFP. After qualifying, selected volunteers will work with NPS staff to reduce the number of elk inside the park.
Elk will be removed in order to maintain the population at the desired target inside the park. This action is consistent with the range of options presented in the Wind Cave Elk Management Plan/ Environmental Impact Statement signed in 2009.
“We are pleased to continue our partnership with GFP on this project,” said Vidal Dávila, Wind Cave Superintendent. “This study continues to provide new information on CWD prevalence that will inform wildlife managers throughout our agency and the state regarding the long-term health of the species.”
Every animal taken during this operation will be tested for CWD. The NPS is partnering with GFP to distribute elk meat to Feeding South Dakota, an organization dedicated to eliminating hunger in the state. Also, volunteers who work an entire week on this operation will be eligible to receive a portion of elk meat. Only meat with a ‘not-detected’ test result for CWD will be distributed to volunteers or Feeding South Dakota.
Four different volunteers will be needed for this operation during each of the two weeks beginning Feb. 3. Two teams will be formed, each consisting of an NPS team leader and two volunteers.
Anyone wishing to volunteer must submit an online application through their license profile at the GFP website, gfp.sd.gov. Volunteers will be selected through a lottery. Applications will be accepted from Jan. 3, 2020, to Jan. 10, 2020. Only online applications will be accepted, no paper applications will be allowed for this project. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, a South Dakota resident, have no felony record and be willing to undergo a background check.
Volunteers who are selected will be contacted by NPS personnel. Volunteers will be required to demonstrate advanced firearms proficiency and physical fitness to participate. Each volunteer will be required to hit an 8-inch target at 200 yards a minimum of three times out of five shots using their own firearm and non-lead ammunition. During the week, volunteers will also be required to hike up to 10 miles per day over rough terrain and carry packs weighing up to 70 pounds in winter weather conditions.
For more information visit nps.gov/wica/learn/nature/elk.htm.

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[eyexer]

I wonder if it’s like shooting carp in a barrel.

 

[KDM]

You have to be a special kind of hard core to "Volunteer" for this. If I were a SD boy and WIN the lottery, my reward is to provide all the travel to the site, provide all the equipment to take the animal, work my ass off chasing it up and down the real estate, Gut, quarter, and pack out the animal, and if you spend a whole week doing this you are now "eligible" for a "portion" of the meat. Who pays for lodging and food for this week??? HMMMMMMM!!! I wonder what portion you would get for a week of effort?? Anyway, good luck to those lucky enough to "win" the lottery!!! I'm so sad I not eligible............NOT!!!

PS. If CWD is such a problem for elk.....why do they need volunteers to use guns to reduce the elk herd??

 

[guywhofishes]

Ha ha. I was also wondering what the “portion” would be.

 

[Kurtr]

You have to be a special kind of hard core to "Volunteer" for this. If I were a SD boy and WIN the lottery, my reward is to provide all the travel to the site, provide all the equipment to take the animal, work my ass off chasing it up and down the real estate, Gut, quarter, and pack out the animal, and if you spend a whole week doing this you are now "eligible" for a "portion" of the meat. Who pays for lodging and food for this week??? HMMMMMMM!!! I wonder what portion you would get for a week of effort?? Anyway, good luck to those lucky enough to "win" the lottery!!! I'm so sad I not eligible............NOT!!!

PS. If CWD is such a problem for elk.....why do they need volunteers to use guns to reduce the elk herd??

our gfp generally have been good but this is dumb. Just add license and have a season . Then the cwd bullshit .....

 

[KDM]

Kurtr, you need to secure that common sense RIGHT NOW. Your intelligence is showing!!

 

[SDMF]

Just like TRNP reduction. It’s not a hunt, it’s a cull. It’s a good way to come up w/practical bullet testing media as well as practicing breaking down a critter for packing out.

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Rather see volunteers used than paying for “sharpshooters”.

 

[Captain Ahab]

If you have time and a little money, I see nothing wrong with it. I would add a poker game for the choice cuts though.

 

[ndlongshot]

I'm sure it will be identical to the TR shoot. If each guy shoots an elk, he gets a whole animal. If the team only goes 2/4, they all get to split. Any excess animals go to the tribes.

 

[PrairieGhost]

our gfp generally have been good but this is dumb. Just add license and have a season . Then the cwd bullshit .....

Kurtr the game and fish has nothing to do with it. This is federal. It's sort of like a high fence hunt with a bigger pen.

 

[Kurtr]

I'm sure it will be identical to the TR shoot. If each guy shoots an elk, he gets a whole animal. If the team only goes 2/4, they all get to split. Any excess animals go to the tribes.

that’s not what the article says it spells it out exactly what’s happening with the meat.

Kurtr the game and fish has nothing to do with it. This is federal. It's sort of like a high fence hunt with a bigger pen.

the first sentence does say the gfp working with the sdgfp sure the park service has more say. This is like the 4 th year this has happened so it’s not like it’s a new thing. A couple years ago they had 0 volunteers. Need to have it on the weekend and make more meat available to the shooter

 

[Fritz the Cat]

the first sentence does say the gfp working with the sdgfp sure the park service has more say. This is like the 4 th year this has happened so it’s not like it’s a new thing. A couple years ago they had 0 volunteers. Need to have it on the weekend and make more meat available to the shooter

The National Park Service will get the meat to the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks who then distribute it. They adopted the same template as our Theodore Roosevelt herd cull. About time.

In 2013 federal and SD State agencies used helicopters to chase hundreds of elk out of the Park. Wind Cave is well documented for having CWD. Because Chronic Wasting Disease is such a serious disease, chasing and spooking them with helicopters to the four winds was very irresponsible.

https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/o...cle_b280ee7c-86b1-596d-9d97-82d42472837c.html

So let's understand this........Wind Cave is full of CWD but the herd is increasing? Hmm. And then there are wildlife biologists who believe in killing off a large percentage of herds. Certain biologists believe reducing animal numbers will reduce infection. We could surmise zero elk in Wind Cave would reduce infections to zero too. I mean...you are the taxpayer and this is the service they are providing to you.

Who is they?

https://www.newscenter1.tv/wind-cave-elk-capture-project-to-limit-spread-of-disease/

About midway down in the article is primary resource manager Glen Sargeant US Geological Survey from Jamestown ND. PrairieGhost worked with Glen and knows him very well. However, when it comes to this topic, PrairieGhost can be counted on to know nothing.

 

[Allen]

KDM. WTH? Not like NDGF (or any agency, for that matter) provides lodging and meals for its volunteers at the OWLS pond, or in any of their habitat planting efforts over the years. Why would Wind Cave pay "volunteers" for their lodging and meals?

 

[PrairieGhost]

About midway down in the article is primary resource manager Glen Sargeant US Geological Survey from Jamestown ND. PrairieGhost worked with Glen and knows him very well. However, when it comes to this topic, PrairieGhost can be counted on to know nothing.

There are different divisions in USGS Fritz. Even in our office. I have never worked with Glen, I worked in three areas. My career started with establishing canada geese, went to accessing wildlife use on federal grazing lands in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, then wetland ecology. Glen was involved with non of those projects. As a matter of fact he was still in grade school the first half of my career. Also, I have been retired 13 years. The last time I seen Glen was in Wal Mart years ago. Nice try though. Try to get over these things Fritz. You may not have Trump derangement syndrome, but you do have Plainsman derangement syndrome.

Oh by the way Fritz Glen is young, I am old, and my 36.5 year career and only overlapped his a couple years.

As for your comment about me knowing nothing about CWD I don't know that much. I do know that people went nuts when science/medicine introduced injections for treating infectioins, geese grew on trees in the far north etc. I don't claim science gets it right every time, and science through money has been corrupted by politics just like agriculture. If Trump starts cutting federal money science will not want to be cut, and you will be the first to complain if agriculture is cut. I grew up on a farm and have many farming friends, and my training and career were in science. I have both perspectives, but you do not Fritz, you just spout off in ignorance.

 

[KDM]

KDM. WTH? Not like NDGF (or any agency, for that matter) provides lodging and meals for its volunteers at the OWLS pond, or in any of their habitat planting efforts over the years. Why would Wind Cave pay "volunteers" for their lodging and meals?

It was just another WTH for the SD game and fish and this whole ridiculous idea. These "volunteers" will have to fork out ALL THE EXPENSES, provide all the equipment, go through a test, and then spend a whole week of their lives to help a govt agency with a stupid idea and then they are "eligible" for a portion of meat. You don't see the WTH with this?? There are at least a dozen different ways to do the same thing that actually make sense. Like Kurtr said about the last time they wanted to do this.....ZERO VOLUNTEERS! Well shucks, I can't understand why folks aren't crashing their cars in an effort to throw their hat in the ring.