The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is withdrawing its support for a process seeking to reduce the growing elk herd in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, saying the park should allow public hunting.

Game and Fish Director Terry Steinwand said controlled public hunting is "the only reasonable, economical, and proven" management solution for the park in southwestern North Dakota, but the National Park Service will not consider it.

"Gov. John Hoeven and a broad-based cross-section of North Dakota citizens have also asked that you consider this as an alternative," Steinwand wrote in a letter this week to park Superintendent Valerie Naylor. "Despite all this public response, it appears the (Park Service) is ignoring an option that is not only feasible and economical but will have overwhelming public support of the people of North Dakota.

"We cannot comprehend the mindset that refuses to acknowledge that times change, challenges change, and solutions must follow," Steinwand wrote.

Naylor was out of the office Friday. Park spokesman Bruce Kaye said he was "surprised and sort of saddened" by the Game and Fish Department decision, but that it would not stop the process.

"It's a complex issue. That's why we wanted them as a cooperating agency," Kaye said.

He said it was clearly the intent of Congress that hunting not occur in the park, which covers about 70,000 acres.

"Hunting (in the park) by the general public is not legal; that's why it can't be considered as an alternative," Kaye said.

Randy Kreil, the Game and Fish Department wildlife division chief, said the Park Service contention that hunting is not allowed in the park might not be accurate.

"As we understand the (park) legislation, hunting is not specifically disallowed," he said.

Steinwand called the elk problem a "special situation that requires a different approach."

The park has not been able to ship elk to other parks because of a 2003 national moratorium on such moves due to chronic wasting disease in other states. Theodore Roosevelt's herd is expected to approach 1,100 animals next year. The optimal number is closer to 400, officials say.

The Park Service is holding public meetings in Medora and Bismarck next week to get comments on ideas for thinning the elk herd. The options range from doing nothing to killing the animals through such means as drugs, shocking or federal sharpshooters.

"We have advocated for the last two years implementing a system that would allow qualified volunteers to act as sharpshooters," Kreil said. "Instead of the federal government having to pay for the whole thing, you could have qualified individuals participate, remove and use those animals … for their own consumption."

Kaye said if elk are killed, a decision would be made on where the meat would go. Food banks are a possibility, he said.

The Game and Fish Department for years has had a hunting season for elk outside the park boundaries. Kreil said that cannot control the population.

"The vast majority of the animals remain inside the park boundaries," he said.

The information gathered at the public meetings will be part of a draft environmental impact statement that will be released later this year. A public comment period and a series of public meetings will follow. A final decision might be made in spring 2008, Kaye said.