Yellowstone Bison: Madison Valley Landowners Get Tough with Montana DOL

A couple just bought much of the top of Horse Butte, a place bison love to come when they leave Yellowstone Park searching for grass, and where Montana DOL loves to capture them for slaughter and haze them back in the Park to “protect” the non-existent cattle from getting brucellosis from the bison.

The new landowners will not tolerate the DOL trespassing on their property (we will see if DOL cares about private private rights. I’ve said they don’t. Hope to be proven wrong). There will be a confrontation this winter because a lot of bison are going the leave the Park because this summer’s drought has left the range in bad condition according to biologists I have talked with.

It will be winter of starvation for elk and bison . . . worse if the bison are confined to the Park.

Here is the story in New West.  Yellowstone Bison: Madison Valley Landowners Get Tough with Montana DOL. By David Nolt.

Elk are duping Jackson Hole hunters. Study confirms how wily Grand Teton elk survive.

Here is the story in the Jackson Hole News and Guide. By Corey Hatch.

Elk from Grand Teton National Park where there is no general elk hunt migrate out of the Park early and seek refuge at the southern end of the National Elk Refuge near small city of Jackson. Most elk on the refuge do not summer in Grand Teton National Park and come down from the adjacent mountains later and are subject to the elk hunt.

Montana Board of Livestock refuses to split Montana to solve brucellosis legal problem

The Montana Board of Livestock voted not to adopt a plan that would free the rest of Montana from being held hostage on brucellosis status because some of the bison and elk in Yellowstone Park are infected with brucellosis.

“Gov. Brian Schweitzer said the decision represented ‘misinformation’ spread by the lobbyist of the Montana Stockgrowers Association”

We all know the controversy has little to do with brucellosis and a lot to do with the Stockgrowers insisting Yellowstone be treated like one big ranch as well as showing they can push local people around and disrespect their property rights.

Panelists nix split zone for cattle. Brucellosis plan opposed by Montana Stockgrowers. By Jennifer McKee. Billings Gazette State Bureau

Texas school land board delays action on Christmas Mountains

This is a followup on the earlier story on the Texas state school land board’s attempt to sell the Christmas Mountains (given to them 16 years ago as a gift). They are adjacent to Big Bend National Park.

Story: Action delayed in land dispute. Board declines to accept a bid for the Christmas Mountains site. By Gary Scharrer. Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau