Larry Crutchfield, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, which administers the 1.9 million-acre monument, said Thursday that the French-built helicopter apparently crashed while trying to land on 50 Mile Mountain in a rugged and remote region of the park.

He said BLM employee Gene Quilter, the most seriously injured, was flown to a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Thursday

"He [Quilter] said he was in great spirits," said Crutchfield after speaking to the employee. "There were no broken bones, just soft-tissue injuries."

BLM employees Brett Palmer, Clay Stewart and Jared Liman and pilot Curtis Olson and National Park Service worker Alicia Tanroth were all flown to a hospital in Page, Ariz., for treatment of minor cuts and bruises before being released.

Crutchfield said the BLM employees were shooting cattle in a herd of about 60 animals on a grazing allotment in the area. The feral cows were damaging rangeland, he said.

The cows were deeded to the agency when their owner was unable to remove them from the land during a drought several years ago. The herd soon became feral. Crutchfield said it is damaging the range by grazing year-round.

He said normally cattle are rotated on the allotments to avoid the stress to the landscape.

"Sometime people think [the BLM] are anti-grazing, but that is not the truth," said Crutchfield. "We have to be responsible to sustain the health of the range. The [ranchers] are also the benefactors of the BLM's land-management policies."

He said proper grazing is still allowed on the monument if done responsibly.

Crutchfield said several attempts were made to remove the cows without shooting them. Those attempts included netting them from the air, tranquilizing them with darts and rounding them up. None of those measures worked because the animals - a hybrid between Brahma and longhorns - are too wild and aggressive. Monument manager David Hunsaker proposed shooting the cows as a last result.

Hunsaker's plan was approved by the BLM state office in Salt Lake City and the first 30 cows were shot beginning Nov. 14.

Hunsaker said the helicopter was on the last day of the second round of operations when it crashed after shooting an additional 13 cows.

"This [crash] won't affect the operation," said Hunsaker.

"We'll wait through winter and re-evaluate in the spring. If it's determined we've removed the most aggressive bulls and cows we might be more gentle and issue another contract for live removal. But if there are still a number of large aggressive [animals] we'll continue with eradication," he said.

He said the goal of the project in addition to health of the range is to eventually get a viable permittee on the allotment and start grazing again.

The carcasses of the dead cows are left to decompose naturally because, Crutchfield said, it would be too difficult and possibly unhealthy for the agency to try to salvage any meat from the animals for charity.

To protect the area's scavengers, including the rare California condor, from lead poisoning, copper bullets are being used in the killings.

The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the investigation into the cause of the crash with the assistance of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Interior Department's Office of Aviation Safety.

mhavnes@sltrib.com