Brian Nesvick, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish, says the goat culling operation which the National Park Service ran was able to harvest 42 goats.

Originally the plan was to shoot and kill the animals from a helicopter, but instead went with “qualified volunteers” who tracked the goats. It was part of a management plan to conserve a native and vulnerable population of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

“The reports I received back from those that participated in the culling operation were very positive,” Nesvick said. “We worked very well with the (National) Park. The Park listened to what our concerns were and implemented those when they put the program in place.”

As of right now he says there are no future plans to put in another program, but he says his guess is there will still need to be more goats harvested.

“My hope is if they determine that’s the case then we use the same type of culling operation,” Nesvick said.

He says there were 2-6 people per team and they could shoot and kill as many goats as they could find, but only keep the meat from one. He says they were encouraged to pack all of the meat out, however.

Those that assisted in the operation had to submit an application to be considered and then in a random way select those participants. From there they had to go through some training and demonstrate they could shoot accurately.

“We actually had one of our Game and Fish commissioners that was selected,” Nesvick said. “His reports were very positive on how they ran it.”

He says the culling operation ended last week due to weather conditions.