The Kapirowitz Plateau, a wildlife refuge on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, has come to symbolize wildlife management gone awry, a classic case of misguided human intervention intended to help wildlife that ended up damaging the animals and the environment. The Kapirowitz is located on the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona, and is bounded by steep cliffs dropping down to the Kanab Canyon to the west, and the Grand and Marble canyons to the south and southeast. Because of its inaccessibility, according to naturalist James B. Trefethen, the Plateau was considered a "biological island," and its deer population "evolved in almost complete genetic isolation."

The lush grass meadows of the Kapirowitz Plateau supported a resident population of 3,000 mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), which were known and renowned for their massive size and the huge antlers of the old bucks. Before the advent of Europeans, Paiute...