“We are Making a Difference,” says the Buffalo Field Campaign

 post 1171

Here is the latest news from Buffalo Field Campaign on the situation just west of the Park where the bison remain in dire threat, but were not captured for slaughter yesterday as DOL originally planned.

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update From the Field

May 31, 2007

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Why are they killing the last wild buffalo?
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In this issue:

* Update from the Field

* We are Making a Difference! KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!

* Buffalo in the News

* Livestock Notable Quotes

* Photo of the Week & Slide Show!

* Last Chance: BFC Handcrafted Father’s Day Cards!

* Earth Friends Matching Grant – We’re Getting Oh, So Close!

* Last Words ~ Ken Cole

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* Update from the Field

Dear Buffalo Friends,

We’d like to start by saying *THANK YOU* to everyone who has been putting in calls, emails, and faxes to Yellowstone, Governor Schweitzer, and MT Acting State Vet Jeanne Rankin. You are making a huge difference for the buffalo! Your voice forced a stay of execution. The buffalo will not die today. Given the impact you’ve made and what still looms ahead, it is clear that *WE MUST KEEP THE PRESSURE ON.* Please don’t let up for one minute in contacting these decision-makers (listed below), and please continue to spread the word and share the buffalo’s story.

Yesterday the agencies met and decided that they would face a public relations nightmare if they went forward with plans to kill buffalo moms and babies. They felt the heat before they went through with their plans and the death sentence has been postponed. We are hugely grateful that buffalo will not be killed in the next few days, but they are far from being left alone. The agencies have decided, in lieu of immediate capture and slaughter, that they will resume hazing – with horses and helicopter – through the weekend. Border patrols will guard Yellowstone’s boundary to chase away any approaching buffalo. Come Monday, any buffalo – newborn calves included – found in Montana will be sent to slaughter. Slaughter or hazing? While the buffalo should not die, they shouldn’t be forced off of their native ground either. The hazing has begun and hundreds of buffalo calves, moms, and other family members are being hounded by helicopter and horsemen.

Secretary Kempthorne taps an aide from Idaho to head the BLM

Dirk Kempthorne has gotten the President to nominate Jim Caswell to replace Kathleen Clarke as the head (the director) of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Caswell was the head of Kempthone’s Office of Endangered Species when Kempthorne’s was Idaho’s governor and has remained in that position since.

During Caswell’s time in the office, most conservation groups saw his role as making sure no Idaho species got put on the endangered species list. Prior to Caswell’s time in Idaho Office of Species Conservation he was the supervisor of the Clearwater National Forest, and earlier the Targhee National Forest.

Back in his Targhee days, I recall we battled with him over the excessive clearcutting on that forest, which is located west and south west of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Link fixed. Bush appoints Idaho official to run BLM. Jim Caswell, state species conservation director, will join Kempthorne at Interior. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

The biggest issue before the BLM right now in terms of money and maybe habitat, is oil and gas with which Caswell has no experience (fortunately, for Idaho’s mountains and lands, no oil or commercial quantities of gas have been discovered in Idaho).

My personal experience with Caswell was that he is was easy to talk with.

Bison slaughter put off until maybe Monday

The outcry against Montana DOL’s slaughter plans probably had something to do with this bit of good news.

What DOL should really do is delay the slaughter permanently because there are are no cattle west of the Park near West Yellowstone. The Horse Butte (former) grazing allotment was bought out by a conservation group, and the Forest Service formally closed the allotment (a rare thing).  The purpose was to settle this conflict, yet DOL didn’t buy into the bargain, and so it goes on and on.

Bison slaughter postponed. By Jan Falstad. Billings Gazette.