Tribes, state attempt to change course on steep mountain goat decline.
Updated May 29, 2026
As the weather warms, mountain goats move to graze what’s available in the rugged, high-altitude terrain of the North Cascades. In the next few weeks, they will have their kids, and those who survey these populations highlight the need to manage human recreation and other impacts in hopes of their long-term survival.
“Our mission in both wildlife and overall natural resource management is to manage from snow caps to white caps, the entire watershed and everything in between,” said Emily Wirtz, Lummi Nation’s wildlife program manager.
Historically, tribal members harvested mountain goats for meat, clothing, tools and ceremonial items. In the Mount Baker wilderness, aerial surveys show the mountain goat population went from 345 in 2019 to about 63 today.
“Baker had the healthiest population that we knew of until recently,” Wirtz said, “so it’s been devastating.”
The steep decline indicates many compounding environmental pressures, she said: lack of snowpack, new diseases, increasing predators and human recreation. If management practices don’t change, there is a real possibility these populations could be wiped in the near future.
“That’s just really scary, because mountain goats have a really hard time replenishing their population very quickly,” Wirtz said. “Unless something happens within the alpine system, or they just have a couple of good years, or somebody starts harvesting a lot of mountain lions, I think that we’re seeing a decline that might be irreversible.”
Jennifer Sevigny, who does similar work for the Stillaguamish Tribe in the North Cascades, said that “at the very least, we’re seeing changes in their habitat. When we’re up there in the helicopter, you can actually see things like tree encroachment. And we know there’s lots of snowpack and there’s lots of snow fields. And in the summer with really high temperatures or temperature inversions, they need to go onto those snowfields to thermoregulate. And if they can’t find cool places to go, that is going to be harmful to them. They’re a cold adapted species, and food (must be) available so that they can reproduce and successfully have a kid.”
Gathering reliable data is an ongoing challenge.
During an aerial survey, a primary observer sits beside the pilot, and a secondary observer sits behind, facing the terrain. They fly through diverse environmental conditions. Due to the extreme terrain, it is not feasible to follow flight patterns or consistent speeds, according to a 2009 study.
Before the survey, researchers sent ground observers to locate mountain goats to monitor movement and group size. Aerial observers record cloud cover, sky conditions, wind conditions, precipitation and temperature. For each goat seen, they record time, group size, substrate and keep track of the flight path with a GPS.
To hunt or not to hunt
Hunting of mountain goats is currently allowed in Naches Pass, Goat Rocks Wilderness, Mount Margaret backcountry and south of Mount Saint Helens. While the impact of hunting in these areas on the North Cascades population has not been studied, goats likely move seasonally into Forest Service lands, and overhunting is suspected by the Forest Service to be one contributor to their decline statewide.
Richard Harris, a researcher at the University of Montana who studied the survivability of Western Washington’s mountain goats, cast doubt on hunting being a major contributor of the statewide decline.
Hunting of mountain goats is very minimal; the number of permits given out each year represents about 4% of the statewide population.
While it’s part of their ancestral treaty right, the Stillaguamish Tribe elected in the 1980s to discontinue mountain goat harvest, Sevigny said.
Lummi has essentially come to a halt as well, said Wirtz. The last goat harvested by a Lummi tribal member was in 2019. Except in the case of a special request, the tribe no longer grants mountain goat permits.
“A tribal member can come to our wildlife hunting and gathering committee and make a request for a mountain goat tag,” she said. “If they really want to practice their cultural right and they made a good case and then maybe, ‘OK, yes,’ but we pretty much cut it off.”
Both Sevigny and Wirtz said that a major contributor to the decline of mountain goats is decreased hunting opportunity—particularly to predators that eat goats.
In 2024, the Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to cap mountain lion hunting permits at 13% of the statewide population. While just one of several factors likely impacting mountain goat populations, mountain goat numbers have dropped significantly in recent years.
One year, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe culled mountain lions that were “wreaking havoc” on young goats, Wirtz said. In the immediate aftermath, the mountain goat population grew.
“There’s a lot of restrictions on a state level, and even the tribes don’t have a lot of capacity for (hunting mountain lions),” she said. “Trust me, we’ve tried to encourage it. There’s not a lot of take of mountain lions right now, and I think they’re doing really well up there.”
Following the money
Harris said data on goats would be difficult to gather without the income stream provided by hunters.
As of July of last year, hunting and fishing license fees increased by 38% to offset general fund cuts. Revenues from fishing and hunting license sales go to Department of Fish and Wildlife accounts. [Ed.: previous version overstated the sales revenue that goes into state general fund]
Funding has dropped, Sevigny said. A nearly $200,000 2024 Bureau of Indian Affairs grant is now expired, and federal climate funds have ceased. Now, researchers rely on state Climate Commitment Act funds and a hodgepodge of other revenue streams.
She anticipates fewer surveys this year, because it can cost up to $90,000 annually.
“I think the gas tax will continue,” she said. “How much is available to the tribes is questionable.”
The last hope
In terms of what can be done, Sevigny points to greater funds for research and monitoring to increase the understanding of impacts and solutions.
“The things that we can control are harvest and recreation pressure,” she said, “so for sure we should try to get a hold of those things while we’re trying to figure out what else we can do.”
—By Sam Fletcher