Buffalo Field Campaign. Report from the Field.

If there’s good news, it’s that this canned hunt was organized by wildlife managers who didn’t implement knowledge of bison migration habits. Some gunners will definitely come away empty-handed. Maybe that’s what it will take for hunters to finally understand that until there is significant year-round habitat, until wild buffalo establish a viable, resident population throughout the state, until the Department of Livestock is stripped of authority, and until Montana honors the buffalo and respects them as a native wildlife species, the “hunt” is not only unfair, unethical, and unjust, it’s plain WRONG by any definition.

The Yellowstone buffalo are America’s last continuously wild herd and number fewer than 4,000 animals. Their once vast numbers have been reduced to less than .01 percent of their historic population. They are genetically and behaviorally unique, yet with such a small population, threatened with wanton government destruction year after year, the last wild buffalo are in real danger of an eventual collapse. Wild buffalo are essential to the health of grassland ecosystems, they are the icon of the American West, and they represent a profound sacredness to First Nations People. Wild buffalo deserve protection and respect, not cruelty and indifference. They deserve to be honored, not persecuted. The land hungers for their return. When the land teemed with millions of buffalo, they gave of themselves freely. We now live in a time when we must give back to them.

Please continue to call, write, fax and email Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. Insist that he take real and positive action for the last wild buffalo and encourage Montana to co-exist with these gentle, shaggy giants who have walked this land for over ten thousand years.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, State Capitol, Helena, MT 59620-0801

Phone: 1-406-444-3111 / Fax: 1-406-444 5529 / Email: BrianSchweitzer@mt.gov
Thanks to each and every one of you who continue to be a strong voice for the last wild buffalo!
Roam Free,

~Stephany

View the hunt breakdown –
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0506/pressreleases0506/080306.html.

Lynx poaching rises in Colorado

Two radio collared lynx have been shot in the last two weeks on southwestern Colorado. A $5000 reward is being offered for information

Wild Again has the full story.

Donahue Pack, north of Yellowstone eliminated by Montana Fish,Wildlife and Parks

The Donahue Pack has been a small wolf pack in the vicinity of Paradise Valley. It formed a couple years ago.

The pack has long been beset by mange, and seems to have been down to its alpha pair when they were shot after two incidents of killing large cow calves in Paradise Valley.

They were shot on Oct. 25.

Phoney property rights measure (Prop 2) goes down in Idaho; Arizona dummies approve it

Out-of-state developer Howie Rich’s Proposition 2 got the bum’s rush in Idaho, losing by an overwhelming 76-to 24%. Except for $50 all of the money spent in Idaho on behalf of the ballot initiative came from Howie’s group. Conservative Idaho voters saw it for what it was, a radical effort to remake the foundations of private property.

Rich managed to get his sneak proposal on the ballot in a number of other Western states. Mostly it was rejected, but Arizona voters fell for the bait and approved his plan to destroy any regulation of land use. Arizona, already notorious for their urban sprawl and wasteful use of water, will now have to pay people to not misuse their land and in doing so harm the property of others. To be fair, I should add the Rich’s Idaho initiative was the worst of the bunch. As proposed in Idaho, the nuisance maker would get money without even first being subjected to land use enforcement. I really can’t see any difference between what was proposed and organized crime extracting “protection money” from property owners.

If it wasn’t for paid signature gatherers, Rich’s initiatives would not have found their way on the ballot in any state. While I think paid signature gathering should be illegal, and bet most others agree, the U.S. Supreme Court in its wisdom has decided that money spent this way amounts to constitutionally protected speech, so paid signature gathering can continue to be used to undermine the basis of civil society for any number of schemes.

The Boise Weekly reports on Prop 2.

Back in the early 20 th century, the ballot initiative was created to bypass legislatures and governors who had been bought off. While this was and may still may be a great problem, the initiative process itself has largely become a route whereby special interests, not the public, try to buy themselves favorable laws, pummel the liberties of others, and generally make mischief.

Here is a summary of Rich’s mischief as reported in New West.

Added Nov. 12, from the Idaho Mountain Express. Cities hail failure of Proposition 2. ‘Takings’ initiative soundly defeated in Blaine, other counties.

Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park washed out

“Glacier National Park has seen more rain in the past couple of days than it did all of July, August and September and that has caused flooding in several locations, including a severe washout of the Going-to-the-Sun Road on the east side above Jackson Glacier Overlook.”

Story in the Hungry Horse News.

This could have a big impact next summer.

Update. The Kalispell Daily InterLake has a story too and an impressive photo. See “We have lost the road.“ By Jim Mann.

Still more news (Nov. 12, 2006). Massive damage results from rain in Glacier Park. By the AP and the Missoulian. Photos1 and Photos2.