Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance

[weatherbow21]

Whats everyones thoughts on this organization? I can't ever figure out what they do other than organize surveys, which I do understand the benefits of. I tried to offer help other than the membership fee but the response I got was to attend a survey in Montana. I've quit sending them money since I talked to Peter at the Sheep show about the removal of all the goats in the olympics, but I go back and forth on my feelings towards the RMGA.

 

[slick]

I think they do good work, have the right attitude, and are still in their infancy. They help when and where they can. They do annual surveys in a few states, but the reality of it is, is most of that is anecdotal evidence. The state agencies have protocol that goes back sometimes decades, so while RMGA surveys don’t hurt anything, they don’t always necessarily help either. I enjoy that they are putting forth an effort in persuading states for proper mountain goat management ie: create billy only tags, educational tools on goat identification, the role of differing age class nannies within herds, etc.

 

[handwerk]

I've been a member for the last couple years, from what I've seen I think they are putting a good effort into their work and I look forward to helping out with the surveys in the future.

 

[Graves14]

The video they made teaching how to tell a billy from a nanny is exceptional. It’s a great tool for both identifying a goat’s sex and explaining to hunters why it is so important to shoot Billies and spare nannies. Aside from that their surveys have been tramendously helpful to state agencies even aiding in the addition of a new goat unit in Montana a few years ago.

For being such a small and your organization I think they’re doing an excellent job

 

[slick]

Aside from that their surveys have been tramendously helpful to state agencies even aiding in the addition of a new goat unit in Montana a few years ago.

For being such a small and your organization I think they’re doing an excellent job

Again, they help where and when they can. That biologist didn’t have the resources to survey that particular district, and surveying goats is hard. It’s great that RMGA was supported by MT FWP in that instance, but due to the terrain and geographic area being an isolated island range (similar to the Crazy’s) it lent itself for a boots on the ground survey.

On the other hand, the closure of 5 districts in R1/R4 of MT rallied supporters from different recreation groups (hunters, anglers, backcountry horseman, etc.) that were very willing to volunteer their time. But because of protocol that the biologists/states have in place, and may have had for decades, they can’t defensibly use the info from RMGA from the surveys in determining tag allocations. If there was a model that would take into account all the different variables between helicopter surveys and on the ground surveys- I’m sure they would use that, but those bios don’t have the time nor resources to create one. So it’s all very dependent on the situation.

The Black Hills, SD survey a few years back when the state reinstated a couple tags, was all happen stance that RMGA did surveys there the year prior. The commission approved of a season the following year, not solely because of the data RMGA collected. Again- it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Not knocking any agency, organization, or user group. I support them with monies, and have with time in the past, and will continue to do so in the future and would urge others to do so too.