FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Arizona Sen. John McCain is pushing an amendment in Congress that would allow anyone who kills bison at the Grand Canyon to keep the meat.
Hunting is prohibited at the national park, but land managers are trying to find ways to control hundreds of bison roaming the northern reaches of the Grand Canyon to preserve water resources, vegetation and fragile cliff dwellings. One of the options raised during a public comment period was lethal removal.
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The National Park Service has the authority to kill animals that harm resources, using park staff or volunteer shooters. But the shooter cannot keep the meat. Instead, it is handed over to wildlife agencies, tribes or charities to distribute.
McCain’s amendment – one of two he proposed this week as part of the Sportsmen’s Act – would change that. The bison hunt in the northern part of the Kaibab National Forest is highly coveted, McCain said. Allowing hunters to take the full animal would be a service to the national park, he said.
The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted Friday to support the amendment. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club criticized McCain for interfering in a public process.
“I don’t know why anyone would object to the bison meat going to tribal entities or people who are hungry,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “If it was just about the meat, it would be they (hunters) could go buy that.”
McCain’s office said the senator’s intent isn’t to open up the Grand Canyon to hunting. His office said Friday that the amendment would allow the Park Service to work with the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to determine who is authorized to aid in lethal removal, and allow those people to take the full carcasses of bison.
Martha Hahn, the Grand Canyon’s chief of resource management, said that’s not currently allowed because the bison are considered natural resources that can’t be consumed or taken by a visitor.
“The fact is we have regulations,” Hahn said. “You can’t just turn over resources to the public.”
The opportunities for hunters to catch bison in northern Arizona have lessened now that the animals are making their home almost exclusively at the national park.
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