Wildlife Management

Overview

The Wildlife Management Program’s mission is to “preserve the natural resources, process, systems, and values of units of the national park system in an unimpaired condition, to perpetuate their inherent integrity and to provide present and future generations with the opportunity to enjoy them.”

This primary mission is therefore to maintain, in perpetuity, a highly complex set of ecological, genetic, behavioral, evolutionary and physical processes and the coevolved, compatible populations which participate in these processes.

The NPS will not attempt to solely preserve individual species except (threatened or endangered species) or individual natural processes; rather, it will try to maintain all the components and processes of naturally evolving park ecosystems, including all plant and animal species native to those ecosystems.

General Principles: The Wildlife Management Program will achieve the NPS’s primary mission by:

• Preserving and restoring the natural abundances, diversities, dynamics, distributions, habitats, and behaviors of native animal populations and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur;
• Restoring native animal populations in parks when they have been extirpated by past human-caused actions; and
• Minimizing human impacts on native animals, populations, communities, and ecosystems, and the processes that sustain them. For additional information see these pages: Threatened and Endangered Species, Wildlife Health, Ecosystem Restoration.
• See the NPS's Management Policies (pdf size 108 kb) for additional information.

Wildlife Management: The National Park Service’s Wildlife Management Program provides Servicewide oversight and guidance on NPS policy regarding native and exotic (invasive) wildlife (animal) species in units of the National Park System by:

• Reviewing and/or recommending new policy, modification of existing policy, and in interpreting existing policy relative to native and exotic wildlife issues and program. Recommending policy requires knowledge of the state of the science on the developing issues in wildlife management. One growing issue is wildlife habituation, and in 2005 NPS sponsored a symposium (pdf 42kb) and developed an annotated bibliography (pdf 122kb)of articles on the subject.
• Coordinates and cooperates with other Federal, state agencies, and national organizations on native and exotic wildlife issues and programs.
• Provides technical assistance and training to enhance the ability of park staff to meet the increasing demands for professional wildlife management in the Service
• Provides technical assistance in identifying issues, management alternatives, management strategies, assessing alternative management actions, designing specialized inventories/surveys, and addressing site specific policy questions and issues regarding native and exotic wildlife species.

Harvest of Wildlife by the Public: Public harvest (hunting or trapping) of wildlife in units of the National Park System may be allowed only when: Hunting, trapping, subsistence use, or other harvesting is specifically authorized by statute or regulation and not subsequently prohibited by regulation.

Where harvesting is allowed and subject to NPS control, the Service will allow harvesting only when the Service has determined that the harvesting will not unacceptably impact park resources or natural processes, including the natural distributions, densities, age-class distributions, and behavior of:

• Harvested species;
• Native species that the harvested species use of any purpose; or
• Native species that use the harvested species for any purpose.

Exotic Species Management: The NPS’s policy on the removal of exotic species already present in units of the National Park System that are not maintained to meet an identified park purpose will be managed-up to and including eradication-if (1) control is prudent and feasible, and (2) the exotic species:

• Interferes with natural processes, native species or native habitats; or
• Disrupts the genetic integrity of native species; or
• Disrupts the accurate presentation of a cultural landscape; or
• Damages cultural resources; or
• Significantly hampers the management of park or adjacent lands; or
• Pose a public health hazard, or
• Creates a hazard to public safety
• For additional information see the Invasive Species Page

Contacts:
Gary Johnston, Native Species Branch Chief (Acting), Biological Resources Management Division,

Terry DeBruyn, Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Regional Office, 907-644-3443.
Cay Ogden, Wildlife Biologist, Intermountain Regional Office, 303-969-2929,
Dan Lietch, Wildlife Biologist, Midwest Regional Office, 605-574-3193.
Mietek Kolipinski, Natural Resource Mgr. Pacific West Regional Office, 510-817-1430.
Scott Bates, Wildlife Biologist, National Capital Regional Office, 202-342-1443 x 226.
Michelle Batcheller, Wildlife Biologist, Northeast Regional Office, 814-863-9414.
Sheri Fields, Chief, Science & Natural Resources, Southeast Regional Office, 404-562-3113 x 517.