Charles Gorecki, a 44-year-old North Dakota resident, won the lottery. But, not the kind that lets him buy a yacht, Lamborghini or mansion on the Riviera.

Gorecki was one of more than 45,000 people who cast his name into the National Park Service lottery to save the Grand Canyon from a small army wreaking havoc on the North Rim: the Kaibab Plateau bison, which is outgrowing its home in the park. 

Four supervised hunts were held during September and October 2021, each period lasting five days. Volunteers attended training on the first day, followed by a full week of work. Volunteers were not able to select which operational period they would participate in.

Gorecki’s adventure found him tracking “forest ninjas” — his term for the cunning and elusive bison — for three days. He came away with a new understanding and appreciation for this breed. Gorecki was in the second of four groups that participated in the lethal removal program, which harvested a total of five bison.

Sometimes, hunters get a bad rap, but the park service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department called upon them as skilled volunteers for the pilot program. The program involved the lethal removal of bison from the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, a plush area bountiful with vegetation where these animals live.

Grand Canyon National Park is known for its breathtaking views. Provided by Charles Gorecki

The herd currently contains 500 to 600 bison, according to park service biologists. They estimated that if left uncontrolled, the herd could grow to 800 or more within a few years. This is far greater than the approximately 200 animals the area can handle. 

Considering that bison can weigh from 500 pounds up to 2,000 pounds each, they are eating machines. Besides leaving limited resources for other wildlife, the bison have been trampling archeological sites, contaminating water sources, and otherwise ruining the park as they migrate in search of food and water, according to the park service. Fencing proved to be no deterrent for these mighty beasts.

No trophy hunt

The park service refused to call the lethal removal program a "hunt" since it targeted only young females capable of breeding and there was a cap on how many animals could be harvested.

Yet, many people objected to lethal removal, considering it a betrayal of the park’s historical commitment to wildlife, according to Daily Camera. These people said it would be more humane to relocate the bison, donate the surplus to Native American tribes or reduce fertility in the animals.

With no natural predators, bison populations have grown unchecked in recent years. Photo by Philip Brown | Unsplash

Gorecki is a conservationist and CEO of the Energy & Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota. So, he understands the park service's plight in attempting to keep bison from destroying the habitat that all wildlife depends on for survival. Gorecki agreed this was not a trophy hunt.

“Our national parks really have very limited options to be able to manage populations on national parklands,” he said.

He learned about the lottery through his hunting buddy, a Marine Corps major who texted Gorecki about the event and described him as “the luckiest person he knows.” It was no surprise to his buddy that Gorecki won the lottery.

Gorecki had more than a friend’s text to reflect upon when deciding whether to pack for the Grand Canyon and the experience of a lifetime. He knew of a similar problem with elk in North Dakota’s Teddy Roosevelt National Park. In that case, a friend was called upon as a skilled volunteer to help cull the herd, and “it was a fantastic experience for him,” Gorecki said. The friend and his family ate some of the harvested parts of the elk and donated the surplus to a food pantry and Native American tribes.

Bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, which makes satisfying their appetite a real challenge. Provided by Charles Gorecki

“The end result of all of that is a lower population that is sustainable by the environment,” Gorecki said. “It is a way for them to help protect other species.”

Making the cut

In his Grand Canyon excursion, Gorecki looked forward to a similar experience, but first he would have to meet the park service's qualifications. That was no problem for Gorecki. While some of the 25 randomly selected applicants failed to qualify after a federal background check and firearms proficiency test, Gorecki made the cut as one of the 10 chosen volunteers, the park service reported.

“I’ve been hunting since I was a little kid,” Gorecki said. More recently, he’s become skilled in hunting Western-style — with archery. “Most of the hunting I do today is very comparable [to] what the plan was for the bison, except I had a rifle for this endeavor,” he said. In the deep woods, “you’re many miles from the road,” so the hunter must know how to butcher the meat and pack the harvest, then transport it home by vehicle. That’s what Gorecki and his team were prepared to do if a bison was caught — carry the harvest to where people could benefit from it.

Gorecki’s other firearms experience includes spending nine years in the military as a combat engineer and Army National Guardsman and serving in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Besides his proficiency with a gun, he also excels in backcountry orienteering. 

“Basically, I don’t get lost,” he said.

Copper ammo protects wildlife

Still, there would be one full day of training before he could head out after the bison — addressing safety issues (like what to do if a bison attacked); how to identify the target, which was strictly young females; and how to use copper ammo. 

“Most firearm ammo is lead, and lead bullets have been directly linked to lead poisoning in birds like the California condor, which is an endangered species that eats dead animals and carcasses,” Gorecki said. By sticking to copper ammo, the pilot program would not harm the park’s ecosystem.

Fun in the forest

“It was a lot of fun, from many perspectives,” Gorecki said, although he did not get his bison. “I was able to bring four of my very close friends with me as support volunteers.” 

His Marine Corps buddy who suggested Gorecki enter the lottery was among them, as well as his brother-in-law, an avid runner, and a 6-foot-6 electrician “who can carry just about anything,” he said.

“I chose them because they are some of my dearest friends, and I knew they would enjoy it and be fit enough to pack out any animal if we were to harvest one,” Gorecki said.

Charles Gorecki, center, with the friends who joined him on his bison adventure. Provided by Charles Gorecki

The job of his support team included putting out salt licks to attract bison, but the actual hunt, or lethal removal, was limited to Gorecki, a biologist and a ranger. Gorecki explained that while he had opportunities to engage (military slang for “shoot”) bison, the team stuck to its mission, which was harvesting only young females. In many ways, it was like a military operation with a target, mission, rigorous training and protocols, he said.

“We couldn’t engage any animal unless we had permission from the biologist or the ranger,” he said. “They were there to help with bison identification [and to] ensure safety, and for their knowledge of the park.”

For safety’s sake, the ranger was also armed. 

“They are big animals, and they could charge, so that was a potential concern,” Gorecki said. Fortunately, his team did not have a bison attack among its challenges.

A new appreciation for bison

During the three-day adventure in the wilderness, Gorecki gained a new appreciation for the bison, which he came to call “forest ninjas.”

There was not a herd of bison standing motionless on a prairie, like in an old Western movie. 

“They are not fluffy forest cows,” Gorecki said. 

This was a dense forest that the bison know well and can easily take cover in.

Gorecki scouted for his target with airplanes and the help of the biologist and the ranger on his team. There were radio collars on some of the bison.

Some elements worked against the team, like not being able to get out to the North Rim at dawn or dusk, when most big game animals are on the move. It took time to get from the campsite to the targeted territory, even though they drove out at sunrise, at approximately 6 a.m.

But, no Jeep could take them where they needed to go, so there was lots of hiking — a total of 35 miles during their three days in pursuit of bison. 

Charles Gorecki hiked approximately 10 miles a day as part of his bison mission. Provided by Charles Gorecki 

“We were miles from roads when searching for bison,” Gorecki said. “It was all fun.”

The team saw bison every day, but they never had an opportunity to shoot a young female, as the mission required.

“This part of the park is extraordinarily wooded,” Gorecki said. “Trying to see an animal like that when they’re in thick cover (during the heat of the day) is like finding a needle in a haystack. Even with electronics saying, ‘We know there’s a herd over here,’ it’s still hard. And then, you add to that all the rules with respect to, ‘It must be a young female,’ and you really limit your opportunities. But, I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Ambush style

Despite using every available tool and his highly trained team, Gorecki concluded that the most successful tactics would have been ambush-style. 

“The last day was the only day when we had close encounters,” he said. “The last day, we used Western hunting tactics to be able to get close. That meant getting to a high vantage point to see the animals before they see you and approaching with the wind in your favor — stealthily. If we had another day using those tactics, we would have had a young female.”

A ranger and a biologist joined Gorecki in the forest each day as they tracked bison for lethal removal. Provided by Charles Gorecki 

The group was debriefed on the last day, and Gorecki and his team reflected upon the strength and weaknesses of the operation.

While the overall venture did not yield the park service its target of 12 bison, Gorecki deemed it a success. The operation shook up the herd a bit, perhaps moving them beyond the refuge of the park, he said.

The future of bison and the park

As Grand Canyon National Park prepared for the lottery, Public Affairs Specialist Joëlle Baird was thrust into the role of providing information. She had to correct the perception that this was a hunt on national parkland, which typically is perceived as a big ‘no,’ although it does happen at nearby Kaibab National Forest. The bison roam an area that encompasses the Kaibab Plateau, which extends into both parks, she said.

“The term ‘hunt’ implies you’re selecting the biggest animal and the trophy prize,” Baird said. 

In this case, the biggest animal was not targeted. Rather, it was the animal most likely to breed and spike population levels.

While lethal removal brought opposition, there has been much support for the park’s live capture and transfer program, which has relocated 124 bison through the InterTribal Buffalo Council since 2018, according to Baird.

“They've been distributed to six different tribes,” she said. “This program has allowed them to supplement their own herds. We've continued doing it. Each fall, we’ll essentially have a roundup or corral for shipment.”

Male bison, or bulls, weigh up to 2,000 pounds and stand 6 feet tall. Photo by Goutham Ganesh Sivanandam | Unsplash

The need for action was highlighted by an environmental assessment of the park conducted in 2017. This assessment estimated the bison population at approximately 600 to 800, according to the park service. By early 2022, with management techniques, the Kaibab Plateau herd was down to approximately 230 animals, Baird said.

Besides working with the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the park service said it also saw a reduction of another 154 bison from the herd, with hunting managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department at the Kaibab National Forest.

“Private individuals can apply for a hunting tag to hunt bison at Kaibab National Forest,” Baird said, describing the activity as “very sought-after by hunters throughout the country.”

It is no surprise that over 45,000 people entered the Grand Canyon’s lottery for lethal removal.

No natural predators

One of the reasons the bison have reached the point of overpopulation is that they have no natural predators, according to Baird. 

“The North Rim has a lot of green meadows, so it's a very inviting space for the bison, and they especially have a refuge in the park that's free of hunting and that's allowed their population to grow unchecked throughout the decades,” she said.

Ironically, bison are not native to the Grand Canyon. They were introduced by a rancher and frontiersman named Charles “Buffalo” Jones, who was experimenting with crossbreeding cattle and bison. 

“That experiment wasn't as profitable as he envisioned,” Baird said. 

It was scrapped, but the bison remained.

Lethal removal numbers fall short

Lethal removal this year reduced the herd by five, but fell short of its goal of 12 bison, Baird said. She cited challenges like the dense sub-alpine forest, which is “not really suitable for finding bison.”

For the operation, “a lot of it came down to being in the right place at the right time,” Baird said, and this included the challenge of going against cunning, highly skilled animals that clearly had the upper hand.

Whenever Gorecki found a bison out in the open like this, it did not meet the target demographic and could not be shot. Provided by Charles Gorecki

It did serve the purpose of creating “less of a refuge for the bison in Grand Canyon National Park,” she said. “Our [population] numbers are close to the target of around 200 animals.” 

So, there are no plans for another lethal removal operation this fall.

“It is a big learning curve for the park service, just how we approached it,” Baird said. “Some of the biggest challenges were trying to locate the bison, not that we’re doing this in the future, at least for this year.”

As for Gorecki, he said he would gladly return to the Grand Canyon to continue his bison adventure. 

“Yes, it was successful,” he said. “We learned a lot.”