Aoudad and wild hogs to be reduced in Big Bend

I don't know it this has been posted, but I didn't see it in a search.

The staff of Big Bend National Forest is supposed to start culling exotic species, including aoudad and hogs. I thought it was interesting that they didn't mention anything about letting hunters do any hunting there. I'm guessing there are safety concerns or something along those lines. Also, they would have to develop some kind of plan with rules and regulations and that would take some time and effort. Just wondering if anyone else had heard about this and what are your thoughts?

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/20...native-wildlife

These types of situations come up quite frequently with introduced/invasive species in National Parks (example-Mountain goats in Olympic National Park, or elk and bighorn sheep in Rocky Mt National Park). Unfortunately, the wording of the Act creating Nat'l Parks is quite specific about no hunting in the areas.

When Grand Teton National Park was created in 1950 in Jackson Hole, the wording was modified specifically for it to continue to allow hunting of elk and other animals as deemed necessary, to allow continued good population control. If you get a Teton Park permit, your license is actually a temporary appointment as a ranger in performing a duty there.

Not so for Nat'l Preserves, which are something different, or Recreation Areas which are all managed under the Park Service. Probably half of all the lands administered by the NPS actually are open to some form of hunting. You are right, tho, it would take a major re-write of Federal law to allow hunting in the Parks.

Kinda sad, but National Parks do not allow hunting. Maybe this is something that Zinke can change. He seems to be very pro hunting in his recent decisions.

Even if the parks were to start allowing hunting, which I think is a terrible idea, they still wouldn't let hunters take aoudad in the big bend area. I was hunting Big Bend Ranch State Park last year and got to talking to the State Park Police officer running the hunt. He said they hit the aoudad pretty hard with hunters and professionals before they reintroduced big horns. I was under the impression they wiped out the aoudad, but he said that wasn't the case. They simply quit allowing hunting of them in the park because the risk of some dufus shooting a big horn by mistake was just not something they were prepared to accept. I am sure the National Park Service would be at least as conservative in their approach.