Seeing someone ignoring the rules and disturbing wildlife in a national park can be emotionally provocative for many people, but is it worth a physical confrontation?
Yes, it is, according to some hikers in Glacier National Park in Montana.
A confrontation between three visitors quickly escalated into fisticuffs and racial slurs after two men got close to a group of mountain goats on a ridge.
One man was so irritated he started shouting at them from below to get back on the trail near the popular Hidden Lake Overlook just off the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
“You’re off the trail; the rangers can fine you,” he yelled.
“Shut up, the goats go on that trail too, idiot,” responded the Hawaiian shirt-wearing tourist.
“Shut up bitch! You’re just jealous because you didn’t f**king hike this," said another tourist wearing flip-flops and carrying a volleyball.
Then they told the man to shut up and that he was “crying like a little bitch.”
“You wanna do this?” one of them shouted at him.
“Yeah, let’s f**king do it,” he responded, squaring up for a fight.
The goats didn't have time for the conversation, so they ran off.
Meanwhile, the three men circled each other and argued about what was and wasn’t off trail. Several bystanders, including a child, shouted for them to stop but didn’t intercede.
After more shouting and swearing - including racial slurs – the two men who approached the goats walked off. Small rocks were kicked, and larger ones were almost thrown.
“You want to die, don’t you?” one of the men shouted as he was walking off, loudly defending that he'd never been off trail.
That escalated quickly.
Don’t Let It Get Your Goat
Greg Jackson, the former deputy chief of the National Park Service division of law enforcement, security, and emergency services, reviewed the video and understood the emotions leading up to the confrontation.
However, he doesn’t believe it ever should have gotten that far or been that aggressive, on either side.
“The only thing worse than catching someone annoying goats is getting into a fight over someone annoying goats,” he said. “I want to protect mountain goats, but I’d want to protect my family and myself more.”
It’s difficult to determine if the two men who approached the goats were truly off trail, as they adamantly believed they weren’t.
It appears that the men were within the 25-yard distance the National Park Service requests that visitors keep between themselves and wildlife such as goats.
Even if they were, Jackson didn’t see that as an offense meriting escalation.
“From what I can see, they weren’t going to hurt the goats,” he said. “The goats might have been disturbed, but they’ll move on.”
Jackson could empathize with the tourist who was trying to get the men away from the goats but thought he went too far by continuing to shout and match the perpetrators' aggression.
“Confrontation may not be the right thing to do in any circumstance,” he said. “This may not be the best thing to get into a confrontation over.”
When It Gets Your Goat
In this incident, it was fortunate it didn’t escalate further. Considering that the confrontation almost resulted in throwing rocks, someone could have gotten seriously injured.
The “safest strategy,” according to Jackson, is to inform the proper authorities and let them confront whoever’s violating the rules.
“Report it to the rangers and let the rangers deal with it,” he said. “This video shows what can happen if you don’t.
Jackson argued that trying to get someone’s attention when they’re endangering themselves or others by their actions is “definitely appropriate.” Using language that could lead to an impulsive outburst and a physical altercation might not be.
That might not have been the best, or even the single best, approach to dealing with those folks,” he said. “It seemed rather confrontational versus to other strategies.”
Another strategy is the “here comes the cops” strategy. Jackson described it as a way to be the judge and jury, but not the executioner.
“You can advise someone that a ranger is coming, even if one isn't, and they’d better be careful with what they’re doing,” he said. “With that strategy, you’re on their side. You’re letting them know they’re going to get caught, and you don’t want them to get caught, even if you do.”
Nevertheless, these strategies are all forms of direct confrontation. That comes with the risks shown in the Glacier video.
“If you decide to get involved, pick your strategy well,” Jackson said.
Surveillance State
Photographs and videos of people violating the rules in national parks are becoming increasingly common.
Ironically, Jackson argued that these make confrontations even less necessary.
“The funny thing is people have probably been doing this for decades, but not getting caught on camera,” Jackson said. “People have had disputes like this in the past, but now that there are cameras everywhere, they get to go viral over it.”
The genuine passion of the man who started shouting at the goat-getters might have been better channeled toward documenting the incident, connecting with a Glacier law enforcement ranger, and relaying all identifiable information to them.
Because 99% of Glacier National Park has little to no cell service, recording incidents might be the only way to hold people responsible. That way, rangers have something to work with.
“Going off-trail and disturbing wildlife could be a misdemeanor, but if it doesn’t occur in the presence of a ranger, there may not be anything that can be acted upon,” Jackson said. “Those cases end up being rather time-consuming to identify if they’re not recorded.”
Overall, though, Jackson’s assessment of the Glacier incident is that it was entirely unnecessary. The two men shouldn’t have been that close to the goats, but nobody needed to get that aggressive.
“It’s definitely not worth getting into a fight over mountain goats or going off the trail,” he said.
Of course, going viral for fighting over one’s proximity to a mountain goat is its own form of punishment. Jackson couldn’t help but be slightly amused by the outcome of the contentious confrontation.
“Is this how you want to be remembered on social media? Let's go viral over our dispute over mountain goats? It is pretty funny when you think about it,” he said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
