The issue of whether North Dakota sportsmen and women could help thin the overpopulated elk herd at Theodore Roosevelt National Park will be reviewed by the head of the National Park Service before the end of the month.

Park service chief Mary Bomar will deal with the question in the next two weeks, following a request made Thursday by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Dorgan said the Congressional Research Service concluded that the park has ample authority to use qualified hunters as volunteers. He said that hasn't been reflected in recent comments by Theodore Roosevelt National Park's staff, who said it could circumvent a federal prohibition against hunting in national parks.

Dorgan said he wants the highest authority in the park service to settle the matter.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park superintendent Valerie Naylor said the park understands there is authority to use qualified hunters, but "not as hunters as such."

Naylor said there is no disagreement with Dorgan.

She said the use of qualified hunters will be addressed in a draft Environmental Impact Statement that will be released by the end of the year.

Dorgan said the park doesn't need to pay millions of dollars for federal sharpshooters and helicopters when North Dakota volunteers would do the job for free.

Park staff estimate there will be 1,500 elk in the South Unit near Medora by the time it winds up an EIS and begins reducing the herd to a sustainable number of about 500.

So far, using public sportsmen to kill the elk has not been among any alternatives proposed by the park, causing the North Dakota Game and Fish Department to withdraw as a participating partner in the EIS process.

The department recently announced it will increase the number of elk licenses in hunting units around the park, where the large animals frequently are seen.

Dorgan said a plan by the Rocky Mountain National Park to use qualified volunteers, referred to as "authorized agents," to reduce elk in that park demonstrates that the two parks are moving in opposite directions on the same issue.

There is a distinction, however.

Rocky Mountain may use volunteers to help cull the herd, not hunt in the park, said Kyle Patterson, a member of the Rocky Mountain park elk planning team.

Culling would occur on a strictly limited basis, normally by park staff, and is not recreational and nor does it incorporate the concept of fair chase, she said. Any volunteer authorized agents assisting park staff would be closely supervised.

Patterson said what qualifies a volunteer will be defined when Rocky Mountain releases its final EIS later this summer.

Those killing the elk would also process the meat. The carcasses would be tested for chronic wasting disease, or the meat would be donated, she said.