Group seeks to educate hikers about goat safety
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The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wildnerness has partnered with the United States Forest Service and Idaho Fish and Game to help address recent problems with wild goats on the Scotchman Peak Trail No. 65.
The program, Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness program coordinator Sandy Compton said, is an extension of the organization’s ongoing relationship with state and federal agencies to protect and maintain the proposed wilderness area.
“This is a unique extension of our partnership with the Forest Service,” said Compton. “We’ve been building and maintaining trails and doing botany work with them for the past five years. Now we are moving into wildlife biology, it seems.”
The organization will put volunteer trail ambassadors on the trail. Although the ambassadors will serve several purposes, the main thrust of their presence will be to educate visitors to the peak about mountain goats and why it’s a good idea to stay away from them. The trail ambassadors will be wearing Forest Service volunteer shirts and FSPW hats. They will be taking surveys about any experiences that visitors might have with mountain goats, whether confrontational or not.
The trail was closed for several months last year as the result of aggressive goat behavior. Goats which had become accustomed to being fed by hikers were increasingly aggressive with other hikers in demands for food.
“We are excited to undertake this effort,” Compton said. “This will give us opportunity to teach people about goats, ensuring their safety on the trail, as well as the future of the goats themselves.”
FSPW will be coordinating this effort, which includes hiring a mountain goat education coordinator, a 20-hour a week position that will begin in mid-May and continue about 24 weeks. The coordinator will recruit, train and schedule volunteer ambassadors. Ambassadors will be trained in goat behavior and habits, including goat body language. Individual ambassadors will hike the trail at least twice during the coming hike season, concentrating on weekends and holidays.
“One goal is to prevent future closures with this program,” Compton said. “The other is to ‘wean’ goats off of human ‘help,’ which is really no help at all.”