Time to say goodbye to Olympic National Park's mountain goats (but do it from a distance).
The Seattle Times reports some could be removed from the park as early as this summer.
On Friday, the National Park Service released its final goat management plan. The park's preferred action - to relocate as many goats as possible to the North Cascades and then shooting any remaining animals - was pretty much the same as an earlier proposal.
Mountain goats are not native to Washington's Olympic Peninsula and have long posed an environmental problem for the park. But the fatal goring of a hiker in 2010 raised new concerns about the goats' presence.
The park's preferred alternative calls for capturing and relocating goats to national forests in the North Cascade Mountains and then switching to lethal removal. Three other options include exclusively killing the goats, relocating them, or taking no action.
More than 600 goats now graze the park's alpine meadows and roam its rocky peaks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
