U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced with Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) legislation that would enlist volunteer hunters to cull bison and protect lands inside Grand Canyon National Park.
McCain challenged testimony by the Interior Department last week in opposition to the legislation. “The bison population inside Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park has exploded to over 600, overgrazing and destroying its pristine lands, and yet the Interior Department says it opposes our bill because it’s busy conducting its own study which began in April 2014 and won’t be completed until December 2016 at the earliest. Nowhere in its testimony did the Interior Department argue that our common-sense solution to enlist volunteer hunters wouldn’t work. Hunters are eager to help manage these herds and will recover the full animal carcass at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer. The Interior Department is taking too long to advance a solution to stop the degradation of Grand Canyon National Park, which I believe must be preserved and protected so that it remains a national treasure for generations to come.”
“Wild game in the state of Arizona belongs to the state of Arizona. We have a Game and Fish Department that is quite capable, and which has the police powers enshrined in the uS Constitution as a State right, to manage the culling of bison. Issuing a permit to qualified hunters is the prerogative of the State of Arizona, not the Department of the Interior. As for “volunteer hunters”, we are all volunteers, nobody forces us to hunt. The lack of responsiveness to the overgrazing issue brought on by bison on federally controlled lands in Arizona, seems ludicrous in light of the persecution of ranchers who actually do a better job of managing range lands than the Department of the interior. This is just another example of why these lands should be under State management and not left to spoil under federal mismanagement,” stated Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem (LD11).
In April, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a letter supporting the federal legislation. “This legislation is a sensible solution to address the impact of bison on the Grand Canyon’s natural and cultural resources,” Brnovich wrote. “Hunters were the first conservationists and hunting plays a valuable role in sustaining healthy wildlife populations.”
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar sponsored companion legislation (H.R. 1443) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill was co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, Kyrsten Sinema, Matt Salmon, David Schweikert and Trent Franks.
The Grand Canyon Bison Management Act seeks to enlist hunters to help control a rapidly expanding bison population of 600. The animals have migrated into the Park from their range on the Kaibab National Forest and are trampling natural and cultural resources unencumbered.
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