Olympic National Park’s proposal to relocate mountain goats to the North Cascades jeopardizes a key purpose of national parks: an opportunity to experience wildness.
The argument that mountain goats are “not native” to the Olympics is questionable.
The root meaning of native is “born in the inhabited location.”
Not only was every Olympic mountain goat born here, but so were its parents, grandparents, etc., over almost a century.
How many human inhabitants of the Olympic Peninsula can make that claim?
The only humans with a much longer Olympic pedigree than the mountain goats are the Coast Salish peoples, who don’t seem to be seeking their removal.
Moreover, the mountain goats are anything but exotic.
They have been present in identical habitat in the North Cascades for millennia.
The only thing holding them back was Puget Sound.
The truth is that all goats are being literally scapegoated for one tragic goring by a single goat [of Bob Boardman of Port Angeles in 2010] whose previous behavior should have led to removal.
This is a serious overreaction to the death of a single human in a century.
Death in an automobile crash is just as tragic, but we casually accept that incomparably greater risk.
We rightfully do not believe in collective guilt among ourselves, so why do so for other species?
If a bear kills someone in the park, shall we remove or exterminate all bears?
Must we really domesticate the park?
How many visitors have thrilled to the sight of mountain goats, one of the few large wild mammals that can readily be observed?
Isn’t that an essential part of the park experience?
Isn’t the tiny risk well worth the ever-more-scarce opportunity to experience genuine wildness?
Andrew Reding,
Bellingham
EDITOR’S NOTE: Reding owns property in Port Townsend.