Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsThis means trouble for the bison just released from the pens on the north boundary of Yellowstone Park. I see they are still playing the brucellosis card and the new Old West favorite, We’re scared of the animals!!
Bison are now allowed to leave the Park to the west in the winter at Horse Butte, but they are supposed to be back in the Park at an abnormally early time.
This year the Park is still under snow. The brutal Montana Department of Livestock hazed the bison toward the Park until the calf died. From the Island Park [Idaho] News- Bison ‘managers’ kill calf
Hundreds of bison were also held at the North Entrance of the Park. They have/had no grass to eat. There was talk about slaughtering a hundred of them, but that was forestalled. Many of them were released in early May, but they went north out of the Park instead of back into it. They were recaptured. Yellowstone hopes to release bison back into park for summer. by Adam Bell. KBZK
Meanwhile, cold and rain/snowy days continue well into May. The Park will be green when the snow finally melts and it finally warms.
It is redundant to call this sad and dangerous. Small arms are used not primarily to cause suffering, but to avoid a loud report from the gun attracting attention. Rural neighbors who are out to settle scores kill each others livestock this way.
Montana probes killing of Yellowstone buffalo. Laura Zuckerman. Reuters US Online Report Domestic News
Addition. Here is the story in the Island Park, Idaho newspaper. Bison haters attack roam-free policy.
4/23. More. Story makes it the U. K. Hunt for the Yellowstone bison serial killer after beasts shot in protected national park. The Daily Mail.
A “Bison conservation area” will be established in the Gardiner Basin, and for the first time it looks like migrating bison that cross the Yellowstone Park boundary on the north end will be allowed to roam rather than be shot or trucked off to slaughter.
Although the area is a large 75,000 acres almost all of it is steep mountainslope that bison rarely use. The basin itself is a couple thousand acres along both sides of the Yellowstone River until the mountains squeeze it shut at Yankee Jim Canyon on the north.
A hunt will be established and the annual bison slaughter ended. Apparently an average of 400 bison will need to be killed each year to keep the current population in the Park about stable. In mild years, few bison migrate north, so obviously in some years no hunt is possible.
Tea partiers and cattle cranks in the Montana legislature have passed a number of anti-bison bills, so this announcement assumes that Governor Schweitzer will veto them.
I think this is something to celebrate at a time when radicals have taken over many state legislatures and weird, dangerous and mean spirited laws emerge daily.
Agreement to let Yellowstone bison roam in [Gardiner area]. Associated Press.
Here are a couple of articles about the Buffalo Field Campaign and how they, and other groups are funded. Contrary to popular belief BFC’s top paid people don’t make much money (trust me, I know this because I am on their Board of Directors). BFC is also very efficient with its money and has very resourceful people working to maintain and improve its cars and property. Most of its funds are spent on keeping people out in the field to document what happens to the buffalo and educating visitors to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park during the summer months.
Buffalo Field Campaign: On-the-ground activism.
By CARLY FLANDRO, Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
The Donor Dance: How green groups stay funded.
By CARLY FLANDRO, Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
Buffalo Bull © Ken Cole
In February the National Wildlife Federation conducted a poll of 400 Montana voters and found that they are strongly in support of bison recovery in Montana. Particularly, 70% say they support recovery in areas such as the Spotted Dog WMA near Deer Lodge and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge which covers 1.1 million acres in central Montana.
These results run contrary to the measures that the Montana Legislature has been to trying to push through which would make reintroduction of bison illegal or subject to the approval of county commissioners.
Among other findings, the poll showed that:
The Eagle Cap Wilderness in the Wallowa Mountains is large and rugged. It’s in extreme NE Oregon near Washington and Idaho. This herd of 25 bison is of unknown origin. What a happy discovery!
The Eagle Cap Wilderness, the nearby Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness and areas in Oregon’s Blue Mountains are also where the state’s wolves live.
Wild herd of bison roams base of Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. Richard Cockle. The Oregonian
One of my photos of the Eagle Cap Wilderness.
For whatever the real reason Montana’s Governor Schweitzer spared the bison captured at the northern boundary of Yellowstone Park, most folks on this forum were pleased. The bison do eat a lot of hay and, of course, the feeding increases the chance they will return next year, although they don’t seem to like being penned.
It’s interesting that the Park Service has not ruled out killing the 40% of the bison who tested positive for brucellosis. The pointlessness of this harsh action has been pointed out many times.
Captive bison eating Yellowstone National Park’s stockpile of hay. By Brett French. The Billings Gazette |
If these negotiations are successful and result in the goals outlined then this would be a significant milestone in the buffalo wars that have raged since the mid 1990’s.
The arbitrary nature of the hazing and slaughter that has taken place over the years has taken a large toll on bison and cost millions of tax dollars with absolutely no positive results to show for it. Allowing bison to use the Hebgen Lake Basin by moving the tolerance zone out to Quake Lake and allowing bison to use the Gardiner area by moving the tolerance zone out to Yankee Jim Canyon would give bison much needed winter habitat.
This is a step in the right direction.
Montana, feds negotiating areas for buffalo to roam.
Associated Press
This is from Paul Richard’s blog at Alternet.
Other articles by Richards can be found at http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/.
Richards is a journalist with more than 43 years’ experience in Western politics and resource issues. He has served as editor or co-editor of three newspapers, newsman and editor for The Associated Press, and elections manager for The AP, UPI, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC.
John Brenden R-MT
Not surprisingly, the Montana Senate voted on a bill that would keep Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks from relocating bison anywhere in the state except for the National Bison Range in northwest Montana for the next two years. The Montana House has yet to pass any similar bill but there are many being considered.
Governor Brian Schwietzer has promised to veto any bills of this nature.
Senator Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, D-Crow Agency summed up what could result from this action.
“If the attack on buffalo continues, they will be listed as an endangered species. I don’t think you want to do that.”
To rub it all in with a strong note of arrogance, Sen. John Brenden sang a couple of bars of “Home on the Range” to the protests of Democrats.
If anyone thinks that western states aren’t run by the landed nobility you might want to think again.
– – – – – –
Update. Ralph Maughan on the teabagging Republican Brenden. Brenden Farms got almost $500,000 in farm subsidy payments from 1995-2009. That is about $34,000 a year.
http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A09372868
Over 15 years that would be an average of $33,152/Year. Some might call this federal government hater a hypocrite, and a mean one at that.
Harsh criticism is increasingly justified in todays world of National Park and public land management, a world in which regulatory retreat from principles and regulation is the new norm and “gut and grab” politics seem to be an every day threat. One such issue deserving of harsh review is the continuous persecution of bison in the Yellowstone ecosystem. What is happening on Yellowstone’s borders is no less offensive than the corralling and clubbing of dolphins in Japan, the clubbing of seal pups off Canada’s coast, or the indiscriminate slaughter of African elephants that eventually led to massive population declines barely a decade ago.
Obama’s budget would deeply cut farm subsidies. By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
I kind of thought Obama might not figure this out, but his budget proposal seems to take a whack at this nasty agency as well as the heretofore unstoppable subsidy payments to rich and corporate farmers. If you want to help wildlife, please write to the President and your members of Congress urging an axe be taken to the Department of Agriculture agency Wildlife Services. Make it clear you are not asking for cuts in the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service. These can be confused because the anti-wildlife cattle and sheep operations deliberately got the federal agency that kills wildlife, Animal Damage Control renamed “Wildlife Services.”
This is not all good news because the Department of Agriculture does have some conservation programs that protect the land, although perhaps at too high a monetary cost.
It is possible that the explanation of Governor Schweitzer’s behavior on both bison and wolves are the cuts to wasteful USDA programs, including the federal wolf killing agency. I personally think that cutting Wildlife Services budget is one of the best things we can do to protect our native wildlife from government directed killing.
– – – –
Cuts to Wildlife Service’s proposed by Obama’s budget. Note that FY 2012 begins on October 1, 2011
http://www.obpa.usda.gov/budsum/FY12budsum.pdf
page 84
Wildlife Services:
Wildlife Damage Management
2010 enacted $79 million
2011 Estimate $79 million
2012 Budget $69 million. Ask for zero, RM
This is a strange turn of events.
Montana gov blocks shipments of Yellowstone bison to slaughter, suggests park feed animals.
Matthew Brown – Associated Press
Here is the actual executive order signed by Brian Schweitzer:
Governor Schweitzer Stops Importation of Bison into Montana for 90 Days
Feb. 16. Schweitzer halts bison slaughter. Bozeman Chronicle. By Carly Flandro. (added by Maughan)
Decision will be appealed
513 bison at risk of being slaughtered
Western Watersheds Project, Buffalo Field Campaign, Tatanka Oyate, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native Ecosystems Council, Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation filed for a temporary restraining order in hopes of keeping Yellowstone National Park from sending 513 bison being held in the Stephens Creek capture facility to slaughter. Unfortunately, but expectedly, Judge Charles Lovell denied our request.
The decision will be appealed to the 9th Circuit.
Judge clears way for Yellowstone bison slaughter.
By Laura Zuckerman | Reuters
It think this is a fine opinion piece in New West. Is Gardiner, Montana, the Selma, Alabama, of Wildlife Conservation? By Michael Leach, Guest Writer.
I kind of feel the same way as Leach.
– – – –
Note that Leach, who used to work for the Park Service, but longer does, has started Yellowstone Country Guardians. It is in our blogroll. He seems to attract enthusiastic young people to learn about Yellowstone.
Buffalo on Horse Butte © Ken Cole
Recently I referenced unpublished data indicating that bison suffer from compromised mitochondrial DNA which could be exacerbated by government slaughter without any examination as to how it will affect the already genetically compromised herd. That information has now been released.
Historically, bison have gone through what is known as a bottleneck where the population declined to such a low number that their genetic diversity became severely limited. The Yellowstone herd of bison is derived of only about 50 individuals, half of which were brought in from other areas such as northwest Montana and Texas. In recent years, while conducting repeated culling – where greater than half of the Yellowstone herd could be killed either by slaughter or winter kill – government managers never studied how their actions affected the genetics of the bison. For example, prior to the winter of 2007/2008 the population was estimated to be 5,500. That winter 1,631 buffalo were killed by the government and hunting but an additional 1,500 died from starvation due to the harsh winter that they were unable to escape because their habitat has been so curtailed by the policy of Montana and its greedy livestock industry. This left only 2,300 bison, or less than half of the bison herd, the following spring and possibly irreparably harmed the remaining genetic diversity of the herd. Read the rest of this entry »
Bison Slaughter A Smoke Screen for Livestock Industry. “The on-going slaughter of Yellowstone National Park bison is justified on the basis of disease control—namely trying to prevent transmission of brucellosis from bison to cattle. While the potential economic impact brucellosis is real, the likelihood is extremely rare.” Unfiltered By George Wuerthner, Unfiltered in New West.
Contacts:
Tom Woodbury, Western Watersheds Project: (406) 830-3099
Dan Brister, Buffalo Field Campaign: (406) 726-5555
Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign: (406) 646-0071
Glenn Hockett, Gallatin Wildlife Association: (406) 581-6352
Bison in deep snow © Ken Cole
HELENA, MONTANA – A coalition of conservation groups, Native Americans, and Montanans filed an urgent motion for injunctive relief in federal court today to prevent a repeat of the 2008 slaughter of over 1400 wild bison captured on public wildlands near the border of Yellowstone National Park in Montana.
Many of the same factors that contributed to the mass slaughter in 2008, including heavy snowpack, bison population size, and the continuing agency intolerance for migrating bison, are in place this year as well.
With the Stephens Creek bison trap inside the Park already near capacity, and more bison migrating toward their natural winter range in Montana to forage at lower elevations, Park Service Spokesperson Al Nash indicated that the agencies may begin sending hundreds of bison off to slaughter whether they carry the disease brucellosis or not. While it is concern over the possible transmission of brucellosis to cattle that is the justification offered for preventing bison from utilizing their winter range in Montana, at the present time there are no cattle present in the bison’s winter range corridor, and no risk of transmission. And that, according to the Plaintiffs challenging the bison management plan in federal court, perfectly illustrates why the plan needs to be scrapped.
“One of the twin goals of the bison management plan is ‘to ensure the wild and free-ranging nature of American bison’,” said Tom Woodbury, Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project, “but ten years into the plan, there is still zero tolerance for bison being bison on our public wildlands.”
The slaughter of bison in Yellowstone has begun in earnest. Today Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers witnessed the capture of at least 300 buffalo in the Stephens Creek capture facility.
It appears that 13 of the bison captured were from the group of 25 allowed to leave the Park under a $3.3 million deal between conservation groups, the government, and the Church Universal and Triumphant. Those bison were captured and taken back to the Park on Friday and another one was shot because agents said she refused to go where they wanted her to. This leaves 10 out of the Park on those lands with another one whose whereabouts are unknown. The captured bison also probably include the 62 which were released from the Stephens Creek trap on Thursday.
This deal was touted as a “major breakthrough” by the groups who supported it but so far it has been an expensive fiasco.
Generally around 50% of bison test positive for exposure to brucellosis and Al Nash, spokesman for Yellowstone National Park, told the Buffalo Field Campaign that all of the bison that test positive for brucellosis exposure will be slaughtered. The test does not conclusively show that the bison actually have brucellosis and culture tests done in the past, which look for the actual bacteria rather than antibodies expressed by the buffalo, show that the rate of infection is actually much lower.
Good news is hard to come by in this issue.
Here is today’s Buffalo Field Campaign weekly update.
______________________________________________________
Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field
and in the policy arena to protect America’s last wild buffalo.
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
January 27, 2011
——————————
——————————
* ACTION REWARDED! Yellowstone Releases 62 Bison!
* ‘Corridor to Nowhere’ Continues to Harm Wild Bison
* Update from the Field–Bison ‘Hunt’ Continues Along Yellowstone Boundary
* VOLUNTEER! Please Join BFC on the Front Lines!
* Just $10 for Wild Bison 2011 Calendars! Accepting Photos for 2012 Calendar
* Last Words
* By the Numbers
* Helpful Links
——————————
* ACTION REWARDED! Yellowstone Releases 62 Bison!
Buffalo Supporters,
Thank you for contacting Yellowstone’s Acting Superintendent Colin Campbell to urge him not to slaughter the 62 bison currently confined in the Stephen’s Creek trap. After receiving hundreds of phone calls and emails on behalf of these bison, the Park announced this afternoon that all the bison will be released! Please give yourselves a pat on the back and take a moment to contact acting Superintendent Campbell and thank him for doing the right thing.
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Read the rest of this entry »
National Park Service hazing buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park © Ken Cole
The snow is deep, in fact it’s 130% of average in Yellowstone this year. That makes for a bad situation if you are a buffalo there. Do you try to stay in the Park where you can’t get to the food that you know is under all of that snow or do you follow your instincts and move to lower elevation where there is less snow? Either way, you’re screwed if you’re a buffalo.
This year, with an estimated population of 3,900 buffalo in Yellowstone, things are reaching a tipping point and a mass exodus of buffalo is likely to ensue.
What will await them when they leave the Park? Well, this year, there have been over 100 bison killed outside the Park, mostly by tribal treaty and sport hunters according to the Buffalo Field Campaign (full disclosure, I am a long time volunteer and board member of BFC), one was hit on the road as a result of being orphaned during the hunt and unable to trudge through the deep snow on its own, and another one was shot by Montana officials after it left the Royal Teton Ranch after being captured, tested and marked in an obscenely expensive program which is vaunted by the government and “conservation” groups for its greater “tolerance” towards bison outside of Yellowstone National Park.
That experiment hasn’t gone too well. The buffalo aren’t behaving the way, or staying where the government wants them to so they have been chasing them around on horseback trying to keep them on the RTR.
My earlier article about the Church Universal and Triumphant’s $3.3 million deal with the government and some conservation groups for bison grazing has spurred the AnimalTourism blog to do some more investigation into the value of the Royal Teton Ranch itself. What they conclude is pretty interesting. They estimate the value of the ranch to be about $3.9 million.
They ask one question though that I think can be easily answered. Why didn’t the government just buy the RTR rather than pay the exorbitant fee for 30 years of bison grazing? Well, I think that would have been a more reasonable approach too but the CUT didn’t want to sell and the government isn’t buying much anymore these days. The CUT appears to be struggling financially without these payments so they sought the best deal they could and found gullible government agencies and conservationists. It’s a shameful situation.
Why are the feds paying $3.3 million to graze for 30 years on land worth only about $4 million?
AnimalTourism News.
Buffalo calf at Stephens Creek capture facility, Yellowstone National Park.
Articles about how the perennial saga of hazing, capturing, slaughtering, and hunting bison is starting once again in and around Yellowstone National Park. There is one change this year though that has left me scratching my head. This is the first year where bison leaving Yellowstone from the northern entrance of the Park near Gardiner, Montana are going to be allowed to use the Church Universal and Triumphant’s (CUT) Royal Teton Ranch (RTR) under an agreement with the National Park Service, Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, and National Wildlife Federation.
The $3 million $3.3 million deal would initially allow 25 bison to use the RTR but only after they have been captured in the Stephens Creek capture facility just inside the Park boundary. They then would be subjected to squeeze chutes where they would have blood samples, fecal samples, taken from them and pregnant females would have vaginal transmitters placed in them so that biologists would be informed of the location where they give birth. Over time the deal might eventually allow up to 100 untested bison each year.
The Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks is floating a plan to move the last remaining quarantined bison to State owned wildlife management areas. Good thing right? Not so fast, they would be fenced in and not allowed to roam freely on the landscape. On top of that they would be hunted as well just like at those canned hunting places in Idaho and other states.
It sounds like a sick joke to me and I’m not the only one.
“FWP’s plan would further the disrespectful livestock model while adding the sickening twist of hunting buffalo on fenced-in public land after they have been raised in prison since they were calves stolen from the wild,” – Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign.
via FWP eyes state land for bison – The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: News.
“Putting them behind a fence and shooting them dead is too low of a bar. That’s not how we manage our wildlife species,” – Glenn Hockett – Gallatin Wildlife Association.
via State may put at least 50 bison on Spotted Dog land
Eve Byron – Helena Independent Record.
Norman A Bishop was a naturalist interpreter for many years at Yellowstone Park, and played a key role in the wolf restoration. He is retired and continues a vigorous life, partly as an expert ski racer. He holds many positions including the board of the Wolf Recovery Foundation, of which I’m President.
He started circulating a version of “what good are wolves” about a month ago. It’s good to see it up on-line because it seems that 10-15 years ago everyone interested knew the reasons restoring wolves was a good idea. With the reality of them we learned some of the ideas were not so, and there were other good reasons no one had really predicted.
Over time the opposition distorted the reasons and just made things up. The news media produced thoughtful stories, but also too many easy ones with headlines like “Rancher loses a dog and calf to wolves . . . heartsick.” This is variation of a common type of journalism that is disparaged — “fuzz and was.” That means routine police stories and dead people, usually by accidents. Ralph Maughan
From New West, ” ‘What Good Are Wolves?’ A growing body of scientific research shows wolves are key to the ecosystems of the Northern Rockies. Here’s a condensed version compiled by a long-time wolf advocate. By Norman A. Bishop, Guest Writer.”
Bison calf being processed at the Stephens Creek Facility YNP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 5, 2011
Contacts:
Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0070
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-644-2499
GARDINER, MONTANA: Yellowstone National Park and Montana Department of Livestock officials captured twenty-three of America’s last wild bison yesterday afternoon at the Stephens Creek bison trap, located inside Yellowstone National Park.
This capture marks the onset of the highly controversial Royal Teton Ranch (RTR) land lease experiment, an endeavor opposed by wild bison advocates and one that Interagency Bison Management Plan agencies incongruously tout as “increased tolerance” for wild bison in Montana.
“This RTR scheme increases harm and disrespect to buffalo, not tolerance,” said Stephany Seay, a spokesperson with Buffalo Field Campaign. “It’s a new phase in how Yellowstone and Montana aim to treat wild bison like livestock.”
Heavy snowfall sends elk to refuge. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole Daily.
It is shaping up to be a snowy winter in southern Idaho and Western Wyoming.
Northern Arapaho seek to restore historic link to buffalo.
By TOM MAST Casper Star-Tribune
Park County bison tests positive for brucellosis
By BOB MOEN – Associated Press.
Herd tests positive for brucellosis
By BRENNA BRAATEN – Cody Enterprise.
Buffalo on Horse Butte © Ken Cole
It has long been postulated that Yellowstone bison are important because they remain the only continuously free roaming herd but their importance has been elevated with the disclosure of a recent report which says that they are also the only genetically pure herd among those managed by the Department of Interior.
Not only this, but the Yellowstone population actually consists of two distinct populations which has extraordinary management implications. Currently the management plan for Yellowstone bison does not take in to account the two distinct populations leading to the possibility that management actions could have a disproportionate impact on one population over that of the other. These kinds of impacts can be profound genetically and can lead to loss of genetic diversity over time. The management activities can also have disproportionate impacts on herds because they can eliminate entire maternal groups, groups of closely related cow/calf groups, which are routinely captured and slaughtered on the northern and western boundaries of Yellowstone Park.
The last week has been filled with many stories about brucellosis and its impacts on wildlife and livestock.
First, Montana has announced plans to capture and test elk for brucellosis then place radio collars on those females that test positive to see where they go and where they give birth.
Montana plans to capture 500 elk for disease testing.
By MATTHEW BROWN – The Associated Press
This comes at the same time that cattle in Wyoming have tested positive for brucellosis which has caused the state to implement wider testing to determine if there are other cases nearby.
Cows in Park County cattle herd test positive for brucellosis exposure.
By JEFF GEARINO – Star-Tribune staff writer
Wyoming plans to test up to 3,000 cattle.
Associated Press
On top of all of this news come reports that domestic bison on Ted Turner’s Flying D ranch have tested positive for the disease. These are not the bison from the Yellowstone quarantine program.
Brucellosis Found in Domestic Bison Herd.
Montana Department of Livestock
Brucellosis Found In Domestic Bison Near Bozeman.
cbs4denver.com
In response to the infections of brucellosis in previous years the state of Montana implemented a plan which called for increased surveillance in counties which surround Yellowstone National Park in an effort to spare the entire state of losing its brucellosis free status in the event that further infections occur.
Livestock officials set meetings on brucellosis rule
The Belgrade News
All too often, when infections are found, officials blame elk before there is any evidence to support the claim. While it may be likely that elk are behind these incidents it is important to investigate other sources in an effort to determine whether other cattle may be the source as well.
One thing has been determined with regard to past incidents, bison are not to blame.
It never fails. Every time I find myself driving across the immense open space and undulating landscape of the front range in Montana, I puzzle myself over the absence of bison. And each time I hear about the threat posed to livestock by wolves, I wonder how different it would be if bison were out there. Just today, I was speaking to Chief Jimmy St. Goddard of the Blackfeet Nation about restoring balance to nature (versus plopping species down onto landscapes), and he stated “wolves will go where the bison are.” Humans, being lazy by nature, tend to think that given the choice between cows and bison, wolves would favor the slow, dumb ones. But we’ve never given them that choice. Since wolves co-evolved with bison, I tend to think Chief Jimmy knows what he is talking about.
Last year, WWP’s Montana office premiered “Lords of Nature” in Montana, a film documenting the importance of top predators like wolves to healthy ecosystems. Scientists were surprised to learn after reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone that there was a dramatic improvement in riparian ecosystems, benefitting fish and birds and creating a cascading beneficial effect on the food chain. Then we had a lively panel discussion that included Montana Wolf Coordinator Carolyn Syme. In arguing for management authority in federal court, Montana emphasized how “all species fit together”, with the wolf being an “integral part” of the ecosystem. But when asked why bison should not then be welcomed back to Montana, Syme refused to answer, pretending the question was a matter of opinion, not science.
This was the title of an October 15 article I wrote for the Farm & Ranch supplement of the Idaho Falls Post Register, in rebuttal to an October 1 article by Heather Smith Thomas. Heather writes a weekly column in the F&R, usually about livestock management, but she ran several consecutive columns about hard times on the range for ranchers due to wolves. A lot of her verbiage consisted of interviews with ranchers, and however much we may disagree with the sentiments, still, that’s what they said. However, when she began issuing flat, unattributed statements that there were no wolves in central Idaho before white settlement (they followed the cows and sheep in, don’t you know), I couldn’t let it pass, and e-mailed the editor, Bill Bradshaw. “Six hundred words by Tuesday,” he said, and this was the result:
Heather Smith Thomas’ article “Wolf Losses Go Beyond Actual Kills,” (Intermountain Farm and Ranch, October 1) is wrong in its assertions that wolves did not live in central Idaho before white settlement, and that “the wolves came later, following sheep and cattle herds brought into this valley.”
She cites no sources for this claim, except to mention that during Lewis and Clark’s stay in Lemhi County in 1805, they observed little game and no wolves. Apparently, if the Corps of Discovery didn’t see it, it must not have existed.
Yet, a little research would have turned up first-hand accounts of both abundant big game — and wolves — in central Idaho long before white settlement.
In 1831, for instance, the American Fur Company trapper Warren Ferris saw the Big Lost River valley “covered with Buffalo, many of which we killed.” His party also killed 100 buffalo, and two grizzly bears, on the Pahsimeroi River.
The following summer on Birch Creek, “our slumbers were disturbed by the bellowing of a herd of bulls, near us; and by the howling of a multitude of wolves, prowling about the buffalo. We were approached by a formidable grizzly bear, who slowly walked off, however, after we had made some bustle about our beds.”
On August 24, “we followed the trail to the forks of Salmon River, passing several other [deserted] encampments, which were now occupied by bears, wolves, ravens and magpies, which were preying upon the yet undevoured particles of dried meat, and fragments of skins scattered around them….in the night we were serenaded by the growling of bears and wolves, quarrelling for the half-picked bones about them.”
A few days later, “eight miles into the mountains that separate the valley of Salmon River from the Big Hole….we killed a grey wolf which was fat, and made us a tolerable supper; we likewise wounded a grizzly bear…”
They ate another wolf in the Big Hole, then wounded a buffalo. When they found the carcass the next day, it was surrounded by “thirty or forty wolves.” They drove the wolves off and scavenged the remains, while the wolves waited “politely” for them to finish. Continuing on to the Beaverhead, they bagged elk, deer, and antelope.
Between 1827 and 1832, Hudson’s Bay Company factors Peter Skene Ogden and John Work led several trapping expeditions into central Idaho, where scores of hunters and their families found abundant bighorn sheep just outside the city limits of Salmon. They killed buffalo in the Lemhi Valley foothills, saw “incredible” herds of antelope near Copper Basin, and yet more buffalo in the Pahsimeroi Valley. They trapped thousands of beaver. On what is now the INEL, buffalo were so plentiful that one of Work’s expeditions left most of the meat “for the wolves and starving Snakes [Shoshone Indians].”
In the winter of 1831-32, Captain Bonneville’s American trapping expedition moved their camp from near Carmen to the North Fork, where they found “numerous gangs of elk” and large flocks of bighorn sheep, which were easy to hunt and delicious.
In 1834, ornithologist John Kirk Townsend accompanied an expedition to the Columbia River which passed through the Salmon River country. He described an abundance of almost tame “blacktailed deer” in the Salmon River mountains. And somewhere between Big Lost River and Camas Prairie, he noticed “a deserted Indian camp” and “several white wolves lurking around in the hope of finding remnants of meat.”
Wolves are native to central Idaho. There’s no need to invent a past that never was, in an attempt to justify a point of view.
Heather has another article up this morning in the Farm & Ranch (“Wolves Go Where the Food Roams“), in which she admits that yes, there were a few wolves, but they were smaller, different wolves. Then she starts making stuff up again: “There were no elk in central Idaho in recent history.” Stay tuned as Round 2 begins!
It never fails. Every time I find myself driving across the immense open space and undulating landscape of the front range in Montana, I puzzle myself over the absence of bison. And each time I hear about the threat posed to livestock by wolves, I wonder how different it would be if bison were out there. Just today, I was speaking to Chief Jimmy St. Goddard of the Blackfeet Nation about restoring balance to nature (versus plopping species down onto landscapes), and he stated “wolves will go where the bison are.” Humans, being lazy by nature, tend to think that given the choice between cows and bison, wolves would favor the slow, dumb ones. But we’ve never given them that choice. Since wolves co-evolved with bison, I tend to think Chief Jimmy knows what he is talking about.
Last year, WWP’s Montana office premiered “Lords of Nature” in Montana, a film documenting the importance of top predators like wolves to healthy ecosystems. Scientists were surprised to learn after reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone that there was a dramatic improvement in riparian ecosystems, benefitting fish and birds and creating a cascading beneficial effect on the food chain. Then we had a lively panel discussion that included Montana Wolf Coordinator Carolyn Syme. In arguing for management authority in federal court, Montana emphasized how “all species fit together”, with the wolf being an “integral part” of the ecosystem. But when asked why bison should not then be welcomed back to Montana, Syme refused to answer, pretending the question was a matter of opinion, not science.
This year, we are presenting two films with a panel discussion. We’re excited to show the new High Plains Films documentary on bison, “Facing the Storm.” According to the filmmakers, the film shows that “the American bison is not just an icon of a lost world, but may very well show us the path to the future.” In a second theatre, we will be showing a film that premiered at the Wildlife Film Festival last year, “The Wolf that Changed America.” It’s a remarkable story about a wolf bounty hunter named Ernest Seton who was hired in 1893 to kill America’s last wolf, a notoriously crafty and elusive wolf named Lobo, and was so changed by the ordeal that he became a global advocate for wolves and helped spearhead America’s wilderness movement. Afterward, there will be a panel discussion with George Wuerthner, author of “Welfare Ranching”, Richard Manning, author of “Rewilding the West”, FWP Commissioner Ron Moody, and Chief Jimmy. Buffalo Field Campaign Spokesperson Stephany Seay will moderate the discussion.
According to recent scientific studies by independent experts, wild bison present almost no risk whatsoever of transmitting brucellosis to livestock. So the kind of balanced wildlife management approach we intend to discuss in this public forum is socially feasible, scientifically justified, morally compelling, and economically smart. Please join the dialogue.
Tom Woodbury, Montana Director, Western Watersheds Project.
In so many ways the issue of brucellosis in bison and elk is similar to the issue of domestic sheep diseases and bighorn except the rationalization for killing wildlife is just the opposite.
We now know that domestic sheep are responsible for disease issues in bighorn sheep and those who support the livestock industry want to simply deny it and continue to allow domestic sheep to use areas where there is an obvious conflict and to kill bighorn sheep if the “invade” the sacred domestic sheep allotments.
With bison the same argument is turned on its head so that bison are routinely hazed and slaughtered for being on the sacred landscape of the holy cow. Forget that there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that bison are a truly a risk to cattle that are not even on the landscape when bison are capable of transmitting brucellosis. The bison must be tortured and killed so that the sacred cow can eat the grass that those pesky beasts are eating.
Well, now comes evidence to show that bison another species, elk, have been the culprit in spreading brucellosis to the sacred cow. Are we now going to see a new war waged against them? Forget that brucellosis came from domestic livestock in the first place. Something must be done to protect the kings and queens of the West and the taxpayer must fork over millions upon millions of dollars for a pointless and impossible eradication exercise so that the livestock industry won’t ever have to face any adversity.
Think it won’t happen? Well, it has already begun and the livestock industry will use this new study to rationalize it and to rationalize continuation of their bison policies as well.
DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone National Park Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely To Spread Brucellosis.
Kurt Repanshek – National Parks Traveler
The US Forest Service and the National Park Service are violating the law by not allowing bison the use of public lands. The grazing allotments provide the excuse the Montana Department of Livestock wants for their annual abuse of buffalo inside and outside of Yellowstone National Park.
Keep in mind, this issue has nothing to do with brucellosis, it is about political control of western lands and wildlife and about who gets to use the grass. It has always been about the noble landed elite showing the rest of us who is boss.
In the winter and spring of 2007-2008, the National Park Service “oversaw and carried out the slaughter of approximately 1,434 bison from (Yellowstone National Park), which represented approximately one third of the existing population of wild bison in the (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem),” the group wrote in their complaint. “Such management, and ongoing commitment of NPS resources, severely restricts wild bison migrations, impacts their natural behaviors, maintains bison populations at artificially low numbers and negatively influences the evolutionary potential of bison as a wildlife species in the ecosystem.”
Hearing over hazing set for Tuesday.
Eve Byron – Helena Independent Record
Yellowstone National Park – Summer 2010 Bison Population Estimate Released.
U.S. National Park Service Press Release
We are used to bison leaving the Park to the west and the north, and the great, stupid controversy it causes. The approximately 150 bison moving out of the NE Entrance was most unusual.
It appears the herd has now returned to the Park.
Bison herd pays visit to tourist towns. By Billings Gazette staff.
A yearling bison on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch has been found to have died from anthrax. The bison is not one of the quarantined Yellowstone bison transferred to Turner but this is nearby Turner’s Green Ranch where the quarantined bison are being held. This concern was brought up by those who opposed the transfer that will result in the privatization of 75% of the bison progeny after 5 years.
There was an outbreak on the Flying D Ranch in 2008 which killed more than 200 domestic bison. The Montana State veterinarian Dr. Martin Zaluski doesn’t expect there to be a further outbreak because Turner’s bison have been vaccinated for anthrax.
Anthrax again detected on Turner’s ranch, outbreak not expected.
By DANIEL PERSON, Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
It (RB-51 vaccine) barely works as a vaccine. If it does work at all, it will take generations to make a difference. It might make the brucellosis bacteria more robust instead. Bison will soon become wary of people. It is expensive. Vaccinated bison will be painted. That won’t look good in a national park.
The benefit is it might increase tolerance to bison outside Yellowstone Park, although based on many years of past experience there is not one bit of empirical evidence that this is so. The great battle over bison and brucellosis is not really even about brucellosis, but about who has the political and cultural power to dominate wildlife in the Yellowstone area.
Story in the Jackson Hole News and Guide.
Bison vaccine no magic bullet, Park Service says. Inoculating some in Yellowstone herd to protect cattle could make brucellosis bacteria stronger.
By Cory Hatch.
Here is a link to the actual draft environmental impact statement. You can comment on it until July 26, 2010
The plan to dart bison in Yellowstone with vaccine is just another money pit in an unending battle against bison by the livestock industry. It is inconceivable that the government wants to waste even more money on a plan that even they say won’t rid Yellowstone bison of brucellosis or bring more tolerance for wild bison by the livestock oligarchy of Montana.
This is just another money pit that won’t accomplish anything. Quit pushing the rancher’s problems onto the taxpayers, let bison be bison and vaccinate the damned cattle instead.
Many skeptical of bison vaccination proposal.
By DANIEL PERSON – The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
I’d say this is a minor victory. The Stockgrowers wanted even more severe “management” of bison that we already have to witness.
Stockgrowers’ Suit Over Bison Management Dismissed. Matt Gouras. Associated Press Writer
Buffalo Bull © Ken Cole
The insanity of bison mis-management in and around Yellowstone National Park has prompted the privatization of this iconic wildlife species.
Buffalo Roam Into Controversy ~ (Audio) ~ NPR – On Point
Bison from the park have been hazed and quarantined for ‘study’ under the promise that they would later be released. But where ?
Interagency Bison Management Plan or IBMP is the controversial bison management plan adopted in 2000 to keep brucellosis from spreading from Yellowstone Park bison to cattle outside the Park. No brucellosis has spread from bison, so a few Montana state officials say that means it has worked. However, there are almost no cattle in the area that the bison would occupy if they were allowed to leave the Park. It is a great irony that the disease itself has spread from the area’s wide ranging elk to cattle on several occasions.
The IBMP has cost over $20-million and taken a huge toll on what could be free roaming bison. It has also been a great cost by generating public resentment and conflict and violations of local people’s private property rights, civil liberties and the wild integrity of Yellowstone Park itself.
The plan should be abandoned.
Hazy results: Officials disagree on whether program to keep park’s bison from spreading brucellosis has been successful. By Eve Bryon, Helena Independent Record.
Here is this week’s update from the Buffalo Field Campaign. There is a very interesting video showing the birth of a buffalo calf where the mother consumes the entire afterbirth. This seems to contradict the myth that livestock industry perpetrates on the taxpayer. They want you to believe that the risk is so high as to justify this B.S.
For the third year in a row the Montana Department of Livestock has violated the private property rights of the Galanis’ on Horse Butte with their helicopters. The arrogance and the hypocrisy of the livestock industry is astounding. They continually cry that private property is sacred but it must only mean their private property.
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 20, 2010
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* Update from the Field
* New! Two Video Clips from BFC
* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers
* Buffalo in the News
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links
Read the rest of this entry »
This is the time of year when Montana’s Department of Livestock pushes bison back into the Park for no real reason except to demonstrate that they run things in the area. Activist Jim McDonald has written a long essay on a blog describing the disgusting event from his perspective on the ground.
Buffalo torture 2010: Firsthand witness account of Monday’s haze. Buffalo haze 2010: Firsthand witness account of Tuesday’s haze. by Jim Macdonald. Jim’s Eclectic World
Hazing bison inside Yellowstone National Park on Madison River ©Ken Cole
The ridiculous annual event of hazing bison during their calving season is underway even though this year the bison are likely to come back out of the Park because the green-up of grass hasn’t started there due to late season snowstorms.
Each year the residents of the West Yellowstone area have to endure this fiasco on behalf of a few ranchers who whine and cry that their cattle might get brucellosis from bison when they don’t even bring them to the area a until after the buffalo have all calved. This year, due to the late green-up, it will likely be even later.
On numerous occasions I have witnessed Montana’s helicopters chasing buffalo deep into the Park even beyond the border of Wyoming in front of bewildered tourists. Last year, while hazing herds of newborn calves and their mothers off of private property where there never will be cattle again, Buffalo Field Campaign filmed a calf that had broken its leg in the malay of the hazing operation. These kinds of incidents are a common occurrence and there is no justification for it.
Below is today’s Buffalo Field Campaign weekly update. Of note is the shooting deaths of two bull bison that were involved in the recent APHIS tests which involved using a vibrating anal probe so that they can test their ejaculate for brucellosis. The bulls had been drugged to immobilize them then once the samples had been taken they were given a drug to wake them up again. The drug caused them to be very agitated and they started moving north of the Park towards Yankee Jim Canyon along the Yellowstone River. Because the Park Service was unable to haze them back towards the Park agents from the Montana Department of Livestock shot them.
I’ll say it again, this study is useless and has put people at risk. They are just trying to rationalize hazing and killing bull buffalo which will not transmit brucellosis to cattle.
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Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 6, 2010
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* Perseverance Despite Overwhelming Odds ~ Roman Sanchez
* Update from the Field: Two Bulls Shot, Hazing Begins
* NEW VIDEO & TAKE ACTION: APHIS Torture Testing Bull Bison
* BFC Looking for Summer Education Volunteers
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links
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Read the rest of this entry »
The Bison have been stuck on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake awaiting transfer to the Book Cliffs. By Mike Stake. AP
People forget that Utah has wild bison herds — herds that are hunted.
From yesterday’s Buffalo Field Campaign Weekly Update [emphasis is mine]:
Along Yellowstone’s western boundary, the Duck Creek, Cougar Creek and Madison River corridors are flowing with the migration of the country’s last wild buffalo. Buffalo families, solitary bulls, and bachelor bull groups beautifully ignore the ecologically meaningless man-made boundaries between Yellowstone and Montana as they spiral through this tiny fraction of their native homeland. As they gently graze the new spring grasses, they are taking a lead role in healing the wounded land that suffers in their absence. And in so doing, they also lift our spirits. Volunteers have been engaged in a total celebration of buffalo, and this week, we were gifted with the sightings of two newborn calves.
Patrols have also been blessed with the sightings of a grizzly bear, Sandhill cranes, white pelicans, otters, ospreys, bluebirds, great blue herons, bald eagles, moose, flickers, and many of the area’s animal inhabitants. This region, while sadly just a wee dot on the map, is huge in its wild majesty.
The buffalo’s spring migration has been keeping BFC quite busy along Highway 191, which cuts through the buffalo’s migration corridors. Patrols have been out at all hours, into the early morning darkness, warning traffic and helping buffalo (and motorists) survive this aspect of their journey. BFC’s night patrols are a huge boon to the buffalo and the community, and while it’s truly the responsibility of the State, Montana looks to BFC and we are honored to offer this service that has a direct and positive impact. BFC will continue to call on Montana to do more, including construct safe-passage projects that allow wildlife to cross the highway without setting foot on the asphalt.
Bull buffalo near Duck Creek. BFC file photo by Stephany.
For bull buffalo, the celebration has turned into a confusing nightmare. After molesting 8 bull buffalo along Yellowstone’s northern boundary, the USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has arrived in West Yellowstone. Beginning yesterday on Horse Butte, APHIS drugged and collected semen from five bulls – some as young as two and a half years old like this young fella – in their “study” to determine what is already known: that bull buffalo pose no measurable risk of transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Under this extremely invasive study APHIS first darts the bulls to inject a drug to knock them out, then collects their semen by inserting a large vibrating probe in their anus. Before injecting the downed bulls with the reversal agent that wakes them, they spray-paint a thick blue line across their magnificent hind quarters. There will be no benefit for wild buffalo coming from this totally unnecessary and shameful study.
While BFC was documenting the first bull that went down, one of the APHIS technicians rudely and purposefully stepped in front of our camera multiple times, trying to prevent BFC from filming, causing a confrontation. He failed to stop us. Later in the day, patrols reported that APHIS agents were cracking jokes about the invasive work they were doing, making a mockery of how they were “handling” the bulls. In another instance, after APHIS darted a mature bull out of a bachelor group, one of the buffalo’s buddies got extremely upset and wanted to investigate what had happened to his friend, much like we witness during the buffalo hunt. He approached APHIS with his tail up, ready to charge and defend his comrade. APHIS responded by pepper-spraying the bull with bear-spray. A brief discussion with APHIS after they were done with their “data collection” yesterday revealed to us that the drugs they use on the bulls can cause them to overheat, disturb gastrointestinal functions, and cause anxiety and anger. They then monitor the bulls for a mere 30 minutes and then set their sights on another. The young bull who was targeted yesterday was so confused and visibly humiliated he left his family group and ended up walking through a near-by neighborhood on Horse Butte. We wonder if APHIS is warning Horse Butte residents that they are injecting bull bison with anger-inducing drugs?
Today, APHIS is again in our backyard, on the buffalo’s home turf. At the time of this writing, patrols report that no bulls have yet been molested by APHIS. They are being escorted around the area by a MT Department of Livestock agent, looking for “test subjects.” APHIS let us know that they will continue to target bull buffalo until the DOL gives them the heads up that hazing operations will begin. BFC will be with the buffalo, as we always are, ready to document all actions made against them, so we can share their story and turn the tide – with your help – towards a future where wild buffalo take precedence over the economic interests of the cattle industry. Together, we will realize our vision of self-willed buffalo walking the earth as they please, with honor and respect bestowed upon them and their sacred relationship to the Earth.
For the buffalo, for all things wild and free, celebrate Earth Day everyday!
ROAM FREE!
Alaska wants to reintroduce wood bison from Canada but they are currently listed as an endangered species by the USFWS. In response there is an effort to classify them as an experimental, non-essential population under the 10(j) rule so that there will be less protection and no critical habitat designation. They would still be protected from intentional harm. It seems that the oil and gas industry is worried they won’t be able to exploit the land if there are protected species there.
There haven’t been wood bison in Alaska for 200 years or so but there are some plains bison which were introduced into the Copper River Delta in 1928.
You can read about the plan to reintroduce wood bison here.
Wood bison are on the comeback
Wild wood bison could be roaming Alaska again if effort succeeds
By MIKE CAMPBELL
The bill would hand over management of elk to the Montana Department of Livestock, the same agency responsible for the continued war on bison. If you think this isn’t a threat to elk then you’re crazy.
Imagine helicopters and snowmobiles chasing elk out of the state or massive roundups of elk for a test and slaughter program.
Montana has brucellosis. Live with it.
Future of elk hunting in Montana is in jeopardy
BY VITO QUATRARO
A good overview of the buffalo issue and how they continue to be persecuted by Montana’s livestock industry and how the buffalo from the quarantine feasibility study ended up going to Ted Turner.
The Privatization of Wildlife: How Ted Turner Scored Yellowstone’s Bison Herd
AlterNet / By Joshua Frank
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – March 23, 2010
Contacts:
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign 406-646-0070, bfc-media@wildrockies.org
Summer Nelson, Western Watersheds Project, 406-830-3099, summer@westernwatersheds.org
Glenn Hockett, Gallatin Wildlife Association, 406-586-1729, glhockett@bresnan.net
Buffalo in quarantine - Kim Acheson
GALLATIN COUNTY, MONTANA: Four conservation organizations filed a legal challenge today against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ (FWP) decision to complete one phase of its Quarantine Feasibility Study on a private ranch of Turner Enterprises, Inc. (TEI), and to give TEI a percentage of the public’s bison at the end of the study. The groups assert that this action violates the state’s public trust responsibilities to protect and manage wildlife for public and not private benefit. The decision privatizes a full 75% of any offspring born to the 86 bison now held on TEI’s Green Ranch. Throughout earlier phases of the study, FWP indicated all bison, including offspring, would be managed as public wildlife and could never be privatized. The plaintiffs assert FWP’s final decision goes against these promises, and against FWP’s public trust duties.
Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday I did a long post on the stabilization of the elk population on Yellowstone’s northern range, but I didn’t mention another important development, the recovery of the bison population to a bit over 3000 animals. Growth between 2008 and 9 has been slow. In the past years, the bison population has swung wildly, often climbing to near 5000 only to be killed off by the brutal Montana Department of Livestock as the bison literally began heading for greener pastures outside the Park.
One big change is the distribution of the bison population. It has grown strongly on the northern range, but not with the herd in central Yellowstone. In fact, the northern range bison have largely made up for the decrease in elk in terms of forage consumption.One bison eats about as much as 3 elk. So about 2/3 the bison are now living on the Northern Range.
Right now bison on the west side of the Park are getting ready to migrate out of the Park onto Horse Butte, just west of the Park. Last fall it appeared the bison would be welcomed for the first time, at least grudgingly, onto this vital calving ground. All the government agencies were lined up as was the enthusiastic major private landowner. The Forest Service even officially closed the Horse Butte cattle allotment. This allotment had already been bovine free for a number of years. However, not being officially closed, opponents of bison could use the vacant cattle allotment to persist in their false argument about the danger of bison spreading brucellosis to cattle.
At the last minute, however, the agency that is the source of all the trouble, Montana’s DOL, went back on the deal. Knuckle-dragging DOL agents are already lurking in the area. There will be trouble.
On 2/2/10 Montana’s wildlife agency, Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) announced their decision to send all 88 quarantined Yellowstone bison to the private lands of billionaire Ted Turner. The Yellowstone bison were part of a state-federal Quarantine Feasibility Study, which had the stated goal of placing brucellosis-free bison on public or tribal lands.
Single bison shot in state’s winter hunt. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press |
Now, however, Montana’s Department of Livetock is completely out of control and wants to kill any bison that leave the Park even in cattle free areas, in violation of the new tolerance by the Park Service and the Forest Service.
Brown writes:
“Now that the three-month hunt has ended, animals leaving the park will be subject to hazing, capture and possibly slaughter under a program meant to prevent the spread of animal disease to cattle.
And, after being criticized by ranchers last year for what they saw as a migration that got out of control, state livestock officials are planning a more aggressive response this year.
Montana state veterinarian Marty Zaluski said that ‘proactive’ plan will apply even in areas where cattle aren’t present, starting immediately.” [emphasis added]
I can’t see how the Dept. of Livestock is allowed to do this — violate the public lands of the American people and the private property rights of Montanans. As I have said many times before, the only rational explanation of the DOL is it is the agency that shows who really rules over the people and land of the area.
This was to be a year when bison could legally migrate freely out of Yellowstone into the area west of the Park, especially Horse Butte where they are welcome. All the cattle are gone from area. The Gallatin National Forest approved of the migration. Now Montana DOL says “no.” Of course, it is apparent to almost everyone not associated with livestock now that brucellosis is just a smokescreen for retaining the unbridled power of the cattle industry in Montana.
This sad development was reported earlier by the Buffalo Field Campaign.
DOL looks at stemming bison migration. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
February 4, 2010
Buffalo Field Campaign relies on donations from people like you to fund our work to protect the bison. Please contribute today to keep us strong in the field and on the policy front.
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* Update from the Field
* IBMP Agencies Hold Secret “Public” Meeting
* Good-Bye Tolerance: DOL & Park Service Battle Over Adaptive Management
* Quarantine: FWP Decides to Send 88 Yellowstone Buffalo to Ted Turner
* Wild Buffalo: What Does this Mean to You?
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Important Links
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Read the rest of this entry »
“It’s difficult to imagine a safer or better home for 14 Yellowstone bison than Guernsey State Park, which was suggested by Wyoming officials to host the animals.” Read the rest of the story in the Casper Star Tribune editorial.
Today there is an optimistic article about bison by Daniel Person the Bozeman Chronicle.
The bison cause brucellosis in cattle story has been under attack here and many other places now for a long time, and it is clear that all the actual cases of brucellosis spread in the Greater Yellowstone have come from elk or cattle.
Person talks about restoration of bison to the plains as a real possibility, but with a lot of questions. One of them is will they eat the grass that cows could be eating? Of course, that is one reason why there are efforts to create a large reserve by purchasing land so the bison can roam free and not compete with cattle.
For over a decade now, my explanation of the hostility of cattle organizations to bison, however, has been that their opposition is really based on the idea that killing bison as they leave the Park (and even trying to kill them in the Park) is really to show the rest of the West who is still boss around here. The problem with bison restoration is not brucellosis; it is the politics of cultural domination.
Stephany Seay, media coordinator for the Buffalo Field Campaign, writes a letter in response to the Casper Star Tribune’s poorly researched op-ed of December 30th titled “Turner ranch plan is the best way to save bison“.
Giving bison to Turner isn’t legal
Stephany Seay – Buffalo Field Campaign
It’s not legal: according to the permit from Yellowstone National Park (Permit #YELL-2007-SCI-5506) “Yellowstone National Park bison transferred to quarantine shall not be used for commercial or revenue-generating purposes.”
The Gallatin Wildlife Association speaks out as well.
Wildlife group explains position
JIM BAILEY, Belgrade, Mont.
Gallatin Wildlife Association
Buffalo in quarantine - Kim Acheson
As is typical with this issue, the State of Montana has set up a false dichotomy with the bison in the quarantine program. They say that the bison need to be given to billionaire Ted Turner or slaughtered because they have no other options. This is nonsense.
As I have discussed before, there are other options including working with the Fort Belknap Reservation to locate the quarantined buffalo there, placing them back into the Park, or placing them on a state wildlife refuge, all of which would keep these bison in the public domain which was required under the plan. If Ted Turner receives these 78 buffalo he wants 190 of their progeny in return for his own commercial operations which also violates the agreement with the National Park Service to keep them in the public domain.
“There’s land in Montana,” said Stephany Seay with the Buffalo Field Campaign. “The alternatives are not Turner or slaughter. But that’s what we are being fed.”
Activists call for bison on state land
By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer
Here is a little shameless promotion for the Buffalo Field Campaign
From the BFC Weekly Update:
Tune in because it’s on again! Late tonight and on Thursday, January 7th, Discovery’s Planet Green will once again air Buffalo Battle. This Planet Green program, produced by Matthew Testa, tells the continuing story about the plight of the Yellowstone bison population and work of Buffalo Field Campaign. Buffalo Battle has been getting tremendously positive feedback, so Planet Green is giving the public more viewing opportunities. The more viewers they get, the more likely it is they’ll want to make a series and this will certainly help tell the world about what is happening to the last wild buffalo. Please check your local listings for showtimes and invite your friends and colleagues to watch Buffalo Battle with you late tonight and again on Thursday, January 7th. For more information visit Planet Green.
We have been posting about the natural restoration of wildlife to the high plains as its human population reaches a critical point after generations of population decline. I was not aware of the Prairie Project. Of course, the down-in-heels land barons don’t like it, but they sell their holdings because they are not economically viable in this part of the country.
Ranchers wary of group’s effort to create wildlife reserve bigger than Yellowstone. By Tom Lutey. Billings Gazette.
Bison calf being processed at the Stephens Creek Facility YNP
In an address to the Montana Stockgrowers Association, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer boasted that “No governor in Montana history has sent more bison to slaughter than this governor.” During Schweitzer’s administration he has the dubious distinction of presiding over the deaths of 2808 wild bison, 1,616 of which were killed in a single year. This from a Governor who campaigned on the promise that he would work for more tolerance towards buffalo in Montana.
Schweitzer tells livestock group that lobbyists have stalled help
Matthew Brown – Associated Press
Despite the absence of cattle on the butte, its official status as a grazing allotment allows Montana Department of Livestock and the Montana Stockgrowers Assn. to bleat about the dangers of brucellosis from the bison that migrate out of Yellowstone every winter (and especially spring) onto the butte. Now their propaganda is even more just thin vapor.
Horse Butte is used by all kinds of rare species the Forest Service says in addition to bison. Much of the Butte is also private and owned by a family that supports free roaming bison.
The difficulty closing this area officially to grazing underscores how hard it is to get livestock off any public lands regardless of the other more important values of a place.
National Forest closes Horse Butte grazing. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer.
The south side of Horse Butte in April. The snow melts earlier here than anywhere else. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan
Added. Here is the actual Forest Service Horse Butte-suitability analysis
Buffalo in quarantine - Kim Acheson
The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks’ bison quarantine project started several years ago in an attempt to create a brucellosis free heard of Yellowstone bison from captured calves which had been repeatedly tested for the disease. These calves were separated from their mothers who were slaughtered and placed in pastures just north of Gardiner, Montana where they were fed out of troughs. They have no connection to their land and have not been exposed to experienced, older animals so they haven’t learned buffalo social skills. There is a big problem though. The program wasn’t thoroughly thought out, the FWP didn’t have any takers for the bison before the program was started.
The original, and often vaunted, intent was to create herds which would be used to repopulate the western public and tribal lands with genetically pure bison. There is a requirement to keep the bison that leave the quarantined facility fenced away from other animals for an additional 5 years in case brucellosis, a bacterial disease, re-emergerges. That’s expensive and nobody wants to do it so proposals to take the bison have been limited.
Enter Ted Turner. He has offered to keep the bison fenced, at a cost, for five years but he wants 190 of the progeny expected to be produced during those 5 years so that he can improve the genetics of his own commercial buffalo operations. This is the polar opposite of what was originally required of the recipients of the bison. The plans specifically mandated that the bison would not be mixed with hybrid bison and that they would remain in the public trust.
The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has said that the other major proposal to take the bison to Fort Belknap is not serious in nature and that they would have to slaughter them if they can’t give them to Ted Turner. They frame the issue as if slaughter is the only other option.
Ted Turner gets OK for Yellowstone bison on ranch. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press Writer.
Earlier Robert Hoskins had criticized this. Illegal plan just makes Turner richer
Below is this week’s Buffalo Field Campaign Update from the Field. I’ve been holding my tongue about “Buffalo Battle” which is a pilot episode for a possible new series about the bison issue and the Buffalo Field Campaign. The episode will air on December 5th on Planet Green.
I’ve seen two early cuts of the episode and I think it does a great job of explaining the issue and showing how the Buffalo Field Campaign conducts its field operations. It was filmed this past spring during the big hazing operations which moved the buffalo off of Horse Butte back into Yellowstone National Park.
Buffalo Battle is directed by Matt Testa who produced The Buffalo War, another documentary about the buffalo issue and the Buffalo Field Campaign, in 2000.
We are excited and hoping that this will become a series so that the light of day will shine on this issue and the plight of the buffalo. I hope you can watch.
Ken Cole,
BFC Board Member
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Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
November 19, 2009
BFC Klean Kanteen Water Bottles Make Perfect Gifts. Order Yours Today While They Last!
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In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* TAKE ACTION: Help the Buffalo with Your Comments to APHIS
* Buffalo Battle: BFC Will Be on TV’s Planet Green!
* Do You Like to Cook? BFC Needs You!
* Buffalo Field Campaign Wish List
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Important Links
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Read the rest of this entry »
Op-ed in the Casper Star Tribune. Illegal plan just makes Turner richer. By Robert Hoskins
I hope this new page will prove to be another site for good information on efforts to compell the Park Service and Forest Service to stop cooperating in the bison slaughter and eventually allow a significant number of bison to live on the open range outside Yellowstone Park in Montana.
See Yellowstone Bison. Western Watersheds Project.
I’m not suprised Alberta opposes it; a regressive province, but it sure works for me.
Story in the Calgary Herald.
As winter comes, Montana Department of Livestock and 4 other agencies are again gearing up to kill bison that wander from the confines of Yellowstone Park under the discredited argument these will spread brucellosis.
This year they are being hit with a big fat lawsuit. Federal judge asked to end Yellowstone bison kills. AP. By Matthew Brown in the Billings Gazette. Please notice the excellent links attached to the story in the Billings Gazette.
The plaintiffs bringing the suit are Western Watersheds Project, Buffalo Field Campaign, Tatanka Oyate, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native Ecosystems Council, Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation, Meghan Gill, Charles Irestone, And Daniel Brister.
More Media on suit.
Groups file lawsuit over Yellowstone-area bison. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole Daily.
A couple of young bulls close by ©Buffalo Field Campaign
Ken Cole and I (Brian Ertz) are going to be tromping around southwest Montana this Tuesday & Wednesday.
You’re invited.
WHEN: August 11 & 12, 10am
WHERE: BFC Headquarters, 14365 Hebgen Lake Road, West Yellowstone, Montana
WHAT: Bring your own food
We will meet at 10:00 am for an introduction and overview then head to a nearby grazing allotment. If you are interested in attending this workshop please contact Ken Cole at ken@westernwatersheds.org. Spread the word!
Buffalo Bull © Ken Cole
ISLAND PARK, IDAHO: Federal agents with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture shot and killed a bull bison this afternoon. The bull had migrated to the area from Yellowstone National Park and was grazing to the south of Twin Creek, near the Nature Conservancy’s Flat Ranch property.
According to Buffalo Field Campaign Habitat Coordinator Darrell Geist, who witnessed the shooting, “This is part of the bison’s historic migration. For the past several years we’ve seen bison attempt to access their native habitat in Idaho only to be met with a bullet. As today’s shooting makes perfectly clear, Idaho shares Montana’s intolerance for native bison.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Montana Stockgrowers Association is suing to make sure bison are removed from the Horse Butte, which is devoid of cattle, by May 15th of each year. They would force the State of Montana to violate private property rights of those who live on the peninsula each and every year.
Cattle are no longer grazed on Horse Butte and there are few cattle grazed in the entire Hebgen Valley. Even those cattle don’t arrive until late June long after there is any threat of brucellosis transmission. Even so, bison are hazed, captured, and slaughtered by State and Federal Agencies at taxpayer expense at the cost of $1.5 million dollars per year to protect a few operators from a non-existent threat.
Stockgrowers sue over Horse Butte bison
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
A reminder of the consequences of this policy:
I think the headline should read “Bison Defends Itself from California Tourist at Yellowstone National Park” as the tourist approached within 10-feet of the bull. I’m glad the man was not severely injured but every visitor is handed a little flyer with a drawing of a person being thrown through the air by a bison.
Bison Attacks California Tourist at Yellowstone National Park
Local 8 News, Eastern Idaho
Bull bison weigh up to 2000 pounds and they have big pointy things on their head. I’ve seen them walk slowly up to a 5-foot fence and jump over it like a deer.
Don’t walk up to them unless you want a big hole in your leg or groin area which is where most people are gored. Most people injured by bison approach them too closely. I’ve never heard of a bison that went out of its way to attack someone.
As my friend Mike Mease always says, “if a buffalo lifts its tail then it is either going to charge or discharge”.
Here are videos of what can happen very quickly to people who approach bison too closely.
Bison on Horse Butte © Ken Cole
By Tom Woodbury, Western Watersheds Project,
Addition by Ralph Maughan. This is also in New West. You can comment there as well as on this blog.
2008 should be remembered as the year of the buffalo. Over 1600 bison were slaughtered in Montana that year, about half of the last wild bison left in the world. This liquidation of wild bison is totally at odds with Montana’s strong conservation ethic, and is against our economic interest as well. In spite of this massive slaughter, Montana lost its “brucellosis-free” status due to repeated transmissions from wild elk to cattle. Also in 2008, the Government Accountability Office released a blistering report on bison management, finding no increased tolerance for bison, as intended by the management plan, and no accountability to those with a stake in how bison are managed, including Montana citizens and the many tribes that hold bison sacred.
The Bison Management Plan was adopted in 2000 “to ensure domestic cattle in portions of Montana adjacent to Yellowstone National Park are protected from brucellosis… and to ensure the wild and free-ranging nature of the bison herd.” It has failed on both counts. Read the rest of this entry »
Hope I’m wrong, but I doubt this will get approval if it means bison will be able to migrate outside Yellowstone Park because brucellosis is not the real issue. It’s the symbolism of who has the upper hand on the public’s land.
Tentative deal would replace brucellosis rules. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press.
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
June 18, 2009
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In this issue:
* Update from the Field – Four Bulls Killed by Agents
* Our Friend Frog: BFC Celebrates His Life, Mourns His Passing
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
Read the rest of this entry »
Buffalo Bull © Ken Cole
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Montana Department of Livestock Captures and Slaughters Three Wild Bull Bison
* PRESS RELEASE *
For Immediate Release: June 17, 2009
Press Contact: Mike Mease, 406-646-0070
West Yellowstone, MT: Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) agents captured three bull bison this morning in the Duck Creek bison trap located on private land less than 200 yards from the western border of Yellowstone National Park. The bison were loaded onto a livestock trailer and shipped to a slaughterhouse. They had been grazing peacefully near the Park border for the past several weeks on and around National Forest lands purchased for wildlife habitat.
Read the rest of this entry »
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 28, 2009
In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* Help BFC Help the Buffalo
* Ground the DOL’s Helicopter: Contact the FAA
* Traditional Prayer Ceremony on Horse Butte May 31
* Support the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act
* BFC Needs Summer Volunteers in Yellowstone
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
NOTE: This will be the last weekly Update from the Field of this season. Updates will come every other week or as often as necessary to convey urgent news. Thanks for being with us for the buffalo!
~ Buffalo Field Campaign
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* Update from the Field
These buffalo calves, hazed yesterday inside Yellowstone, are struggling to make it across the Madison River's strong spring currents. Some barely made it. Photo by BFC volunteer Lake.
Since our last update, agents have been harassing bison every day. As I write, bison are once again being chased off of cattle-free Horse Butte, forced off of private lands where they are welcome, and off of public lands habitat where there will never be any cattle. Today, DOL agents again violated the private property rights of the Galanis family, using their helicopter, flying extremely low, to haze bison off the 800-acre buffalo safe zone. Buffalo have even been repeatedly shoved off of grassy meadows within Yellowstone National Park, deeper into the park’s interior to “make room” for the bison being hazed off of surrounding Gallatin National Forest lands.
Using U.S. tax dollars, Montana livestock inspectors bask in their assumed taxpayer-funded power while all the involved agencies cooperate, betraying the public trust and the wildlife and wild lands in their care, as they terrorize this unique facet of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Neither buffalo-friendly private lands, Gallatin National Forest, nor Yellowstone National Park are safe places for buffalo – livestock interests, including Yellowstone National Park, are seeing to it that buffalo have no sanctuary.
BFC documents Yellowstone National Park rangers hazing wild bison within the park. Photo by BFC volunteer Lake.
Yellowstone National Park willingly plays into the DOL’s hands, ignoring their mission “to protect park resources unimpaired,” and allowing these atrocities to occur within park boundaries. Yellowstone allows agents on horseback and the DOL’s helicopter to force wild bison off the ground they choose to be on, right in front of the eyes of park visitors. They create hours-long traffic jams, and when questioned by park visitors they misrepresent the issue and act as if they are doing the buffalo a favor, claiming that if hazing didn’t occur, the DOL would kill the buffalo. But Yellowstone participates in slaughter as well as hazing, and last year, of the 1,600 killed, they were responsible for the death of 1,400 wild bison. Hazing can also kill, and it certainly causes intense stress and injury to the buffalo. Injuries have been numerous, and the overall condition of the buffalo we have seen has been deteriorating since hazing activities began.
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 21, 2009
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In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* Complain to FAA About the DOL’s Helicopter Use
* Traditional Prayer Ceremony on Horse Butte May 31
* Join BFC on the Front Lines
* Thank You! BFC’s Media Crew Receives Laptops
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
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* Update from the Field
DOL helicopter hazing bison. Photo courtsey of Lance Koudele
The Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park continue to aggressively haze any wild bison in Montana. The sounds of the rotating blades of the Department of Livestock’s helicopter can be heard outside the media cabin this morning as I write. Just a few miles from here, on cattle-free Horse Butte and other areas of Gallatin National Forest, the buffalo are currently under attack by livestock interests. BFC patrols are with the buffalo, documenting all actions made against them. The scenes we’ve been witnessing are the stuff of nightmares.
Newborn bison calf. Photo courtesy of Lyle and Sue Wood
Within a single week, at least four newborn buffalo have suffered broken legs or debilitating leg injuries as a result of government hazing activities. All injuries have been documented by Buffalo Field Campaign. You can view footage of last week’s injured calf. Be advised that these images are difficult to watch, but take inspiration from the mother bison defending her calf. We don’t know the fate of this calf, though the calf that was separated from it’s mother during last week’s hazing operations was reunited with her the following day. Unfortunately, during today’s hazing operation, another mother and calf were separated, and patrols are currently monitoring the mother as she searches for her lost baby.
On Friday the DOL chased all of the bull bison that had been grazing in the Duck Creek area, deep into Yellowstone National Park. By Monday, eleven bulls had returned to their chosen ground, and the DOL resumed their harassment operations forcing them into Yellowstone, through the Park’s grizzly bear closure area. Patrols documented bulls being shot with paint balls by the agents. This is a way the DOL marks the
Read the rest of this entry »
Sarah Palin wants a 10j rule classifying reintroduced bison as experimental non-essential so that development of their habitat can go forward unimpeded.
Ruling might put wood bison back in Nenana Basin despite natural gas hunt
Newsminer
Last Thursday, Montana Department of Livestock chased/hazed/harassed/played ‘cowboy’ with a mother buffalo and her calf, despite the broken leg the calf sustained – all on behalf of Livestock’s stranglehold over our public land and wildlife management..
This is from Jim MacDonald.
There’s an online poll in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle asking whether people support the hazing of buffalo from Horse Butte.
Take it at http://www.dailychronicle.com (it’s toward the bottom).
Buffalo hazing frustrates property owner. Conservation easement not getting intended use. By Brett French. Billings Gazette Staff.
They were going to let 25 of what I sarcastically called “cyberbison” use the CUT (Church Universal and Triumphant) land north of Yellowstone Park, but there was no northward migration this winter.
Ranch land for bison sees no activity first year. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 14, 2009
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In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* The Wild in Us
* Join the Front Lines
* BFC Media Crew Needs a Laptop
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
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Montana Department of Livestock Helicopter violating private property rights. Photo by Lance Koudele
* Update from the Field
Though a day early, the dreaded time has come: All the buffalo have been cruelly forced off of Horse Butte.
All week patrols have been documenting the Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks agents carry out massive and relentless hazing operations, harassing and harming America’s last wild bison population.
Helicopter Hazing on Horse Butte. Photo by Lance Koudele
On Tuesday, agents were set to haze bison within Yellowstone National Park to “make room” for the bison that would be hazed off of Horse Butte. But Mother Nature had different plans: one group of bison the agents planned to target consisted of forty bulls who would follow none of the agents’ orders. An incredible hail storm assisted and the haze was called off for the day. But such luck was momentary.
Every day this week agents chased bison family groups, including newborn calves and pregnant mothers, off of the south side of the Madison River, and today they set their sights on cattle-free Horse Butte. In fact, all of the Gallatin National Forest lands where the buffalo roam are cattle free, yet livestock interests insist on assaulting them with mounted cowboys*, ATVs, local and federal law enforcement and the DOL’s helicopter.*
Like a broken record, year after year – Yellowstone Park officials, Gallatin National Forest officials, and Montana Department of Livestock officials – all contribute to the inhumane hazing and killing of America’s last genetically wild bison, all to enable livestock ranchers – on your federal public land – to perpetuate the myth of brucellosis and practice the alchemy of churning our environmental heritage into their private pastures of “feed”. And year after year we hear the same narrative — ‘we have to haze the bison to make way for livestock’ says the government official, ‘but there aren’t any livestock, there’s been no transmission of disease, and your plan promised to share our public land with bison’ says the bison advocate :
Officials defend hazing of bison into park – Billings Gazette:
“We work to provide a month between the time the bison are on the land and the cows are expected to graze,” Nash said.
And much to the dismay of an outraged public, little changes. Livestock remains the ‘given’ – and hazing & harassing bison, as if they were livestock themselves, fulfills the cultural pathology of otherwise pencil-pushing bureaucrats’ innate desire to play cowboy …
Supposedly it would be different this spring. Bison would allowed to migrate out of the Park and onto Horse Butte free from harassment until at least May 15. The reality is pretty much like recent years. Brutal Montana Department of Livestock agents and Yellowstone Park personnel on horses are chasing bison back into the Park. Helicopters harass them from above. Not just bison, but all Yellowstone wildlife on the west side of the Park are disrupted.
The whole exercise is pointless because there are no cattle in the area to which the bison can theoretically transfer brucellosis. According to the Buffalo Field Campaign, there remains just one small hobby rancher in the area who won’t have cattle on his ranch until mid- to late-June.
In case anyone has missed it, my view is that the entire point of this yearly outrage is simply to show us who really runs things in Montana, and it’s not the citizens of the state or of the United States.
Please contact President Obama. It’s time to see if our new President cares any more about this than George W. did.
Ralph Maughan
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Here is the report from the Buffalo Field Campaign.
~Update from the Field
This mama buffalo and her newborn calf have had a very difficult week.
Chaos is reigning along Yellowstone National Park’s western boundary as the thumping of chopper blades and the shouts of government agents repeatedly harass wild buffalo families and all wildlife near the Madison River. Nearly 200 buffalo – including dozens of newborn calves, yearlings, and pregnant mothers – have been ruthlessly run off of their spring habitat within the Gallatin National Forest. Agents are out harassing buffalo as this Update is being written.
Newborn buffalo calves and many pregnant buffalo cows have been run for miles through pockets of deep snow, barbed wire fences, thick forests laden with dead-fall, fast moving river currents, mucky wetlands, and steep, sandy bluffs. For these babies, it is a terrible and sometimes deadly introduction to the world. The new and developing muscles of these little ones cannot sustain such abuse. Today, mounted Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park horsemen have picked up the hazing operation at Yellowstone’s border, after it left Gallatin National Forest land, and are currently pushing the exhausted buffalo deep into Yellowstone National Park’s interior with the assistance of the Montana Department of Livestock’s helicopter. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been an intense week for buffalo. BFC volunteers are out in the field and on the road with the buffalo nearly 24 hours a day. If you are able to join us on the front lines, please see our call for volunteers below. The buffalo and BFC need you!
Near Gardiner, along Yellowstone’s north boundary, National Park Service and Department of Livestock agents have been actively hazing various groups of buffalo. Multiple management actions aimed to appease cattle interests have been taking place within this enormous wildlife migration corridor. So far, there have been no buffalo captured. Yesterday, four bulls were hazed back to Yellowstone, and again today, Park Rangers hazed 32 buffalo to just outside the Roosevelt Arch. Other groups of buffalo are around the Gardiner area, including some in town.
On the western boundary, a few bull bison were hazed back into Yellowstone National Park earlier this week by Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) agents. The buffalo’s “crime” was in stepping onto the private land of the Koelzer family, who allows the DOL to operate the Duck Creek bison trap on their property. Like so many other obstacles the buffalo must face, the Koelzer property and other houses with fenced in yards block a migration route favored especially by bull bison.
There has been a large bachelor group of bull bison roaming the area near Duck and Cougar Creeks, along Highways 191 and 287 this week; they are massive and incredibly impressive. BFC has been with these bulls every day and through the nights, warning traffic of their presence. Buffalo have no qualms about walking right down the middle of the road, sometimes side by side in numbers, taking the highway over. It’s a beautiful sight; this is their land and they are happy to remind us of it. Numerous travelers can’t help but pull over in admiration; being in the presence of North America’s largest land mammals is truly an awesome experience. It is shameful and sad that these magnificent creatures who have been around for over 10,000 years are forced to abandon their ancient practices, and unwillingly yield to the selfish wishes of Montana’s cattle industry. So far, other than the challenges of fences and traffic, these bulls have been left alone, but we don’t trust that the DOL will leave them in peace for long.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hazing bison inside Yellowstone National Park on Madison River ©Ken Cole
USDA wants two zones to reduce costs.
Livestock interests say that it will put Yellowstone area ranchers out of business.
According to the article, Livestock interests and Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife want eradication of the disease which means killing of entire herds of bison and elk. This apparently is not totally correct as you can see from Bob Wharff’s statement below. It still appears that some livestock interests favor eradication.
The Park Service says that “the only certain solution – destroying entire infected elk herds in Yellowstone and elsewhere – was not politically or practically feasible”
Wildlife advocates who oppose eradication/wildlife slaughter efforts were not consulted for the article.
Wyoming brucellosis group examines federal proposal
Billings Gazette
Although conditions for the bison that leave west side of Yellowstone Park in the winter, and especially the spring, have been much better in 2009, the sudden migration of buffalo across busy U.S. 191 has resulted in at least 15 dead bison this week. Fortunately, human injury has been minor. The bison are heading for Horse Butte where they calve on its sunny south-facing slope.
The great danger is at night. That is when these wrecks have happened. Bison on the highway are all but invisible in the dark, and they generally don’t move when they see on-coming headlights. Unlike elk and deer, their eyes don’t glow in the headlights. They don’t have a light rump patch like elk.
The bison don’t just cross the highway. They eat the grass on the edges and linger because the warmer roadside is one of the first places grass sprouts in the spring. This year the snow is staying longer than usual due to wave after wave of storms with heavy wet snow.
When bison are on the road, or likely to be, the Buffalo Field Campaign deploys a number of volunteers to slow traffic down, warn them, etc. They have a number of pink neon signs that read “Buffalo Crossing.” They patrol day and night, although 24-hour-a-day coverage is not possible. Moreover, BFC has no official capacity, so they cannot haze the bison off the highway. The result can be frustration among motorists waiting for the bison to move off the highway. Read the rest of this entry »
Dan Brister of Buffalo Field Campaign was featured on Montana’s Public Radio March 27, 2009 with this audio essay
Here is an excerpt of today’s Buffalo Field Campaign Update from the Field. You can read the entire update here
Dear Buffalo Friends,
Wild buffalo have returned with the Spring!
Buffalo grazing on Horse Butte ©Buffalo Field Campaign
The song of mountain bluebirds is in the air, and tracks of the mighty bison are upon the land once again. After a long winter without the buffalo in Montana, the unspoken question hung in the air: would the buffalo return this year? Wild forces prevail, and on the Vernal Equinox the steady, determined footsteps of approximately fifty buffalo made their way down the Madison River corridor, out to their calving grounds on Horse Butte, heralding the season of rebirth. The buffalo’s return has raised the spirits of everyone at camp. The energy is palpable, and we are once again running full patrols and basking in the presence of these prehistoric wonders.
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