Montana FWP wants local anti-bison judge replaced on Gardiner Basin bison case

Judge who singlehandedly stopped years-in-making decision to let bison roam, not acceptable, says FWP-

Finally, after years, state and federal government agencies agreed to let bison begin to roam the Gardiner Basin just north of Yellowstone Park, but Park County district judge Nels Swandal sided with the Park County Stockgrowers Association to put the landmark agreement aside.

The stockgrowers were effective with their tired, but still effective arguments about spread of brucellosis and danger to people (the classic children at the bus stop argument). “Large numbers of bison now regularly congregate at school bus stops and other locations, interacting with children, elderly, and other individuals that live in the area to a degree not previously encountered,” Park County’s lawsuit stated.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and other agencies are asking for a new judge, but the existing judge (Swandal) gets to pick any replacement.

State wants new judge in bison case. By Carly Flandro. Bozeman Chronicle.

Meanwhile, we haven’t heard anything more about Park County prosecuting the man cited for shooting numerous .22 rounds among the houses to kill a bison.

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Regarding the views and actions of the Park County Commissioners, here is an interesting guest editorial. Guest column: We must rein in fears, attitudes over roaming bison. By Karrie Taggart (co-founder/coordinator of Horse Butte Neighbors of Buffalo in West Yellowstone — HOBNOB)

When Elk Fly

Montana, feds negotiating areas for buffalo to roam

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

Lawmakers vote to keep wild bison off Montana land

…..and do it with a boatload of arrogance

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.

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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.

Montana governor blocks shipments of Yellowstone bison to slaughter, suggests Park feed the bison

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)

Judge clears way for Yellowstone bison slaughter

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

Is Gardiner, Montana, the Selma, Alabama, of Wildlife Conservation?

“On bigotry and bison management at Yellowstone National Park”-

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.

Greater Yellowstone Bison show signs of inbreeding.

Government slaughter could irreparably harm bison species.

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.

The effort to protect the livestock industry of Montana expands to elk.

Helicopter netting of elk as part of a brucellosis study

Yesterday the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks was out using a helicopter to capture elk with nets so that they could test them for brucellosis, attach radio collars, and implant vaginal devices intended to drop out when the elk give birth or abort a fetus. This is another example of how the livestock industry turns the table against wildlife so that they carry no burden.

Disease testing: Elk study aims to measure spread of brucellosis
By Nick Gevock of The Montana Standard.

Bison Slaughter A Smoke Screen for Livestock Industry

George Wuerthner gives us the facts on the brucellosis fraud-

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.

*NEWS: Conservationists Seek Emergency Injunction To Prevent Yellowstone Bison Slaughter

Conservationists Seek Emergency Injunction To

Prevent Slaughter of Yellowstone Bison

Harsh Winter Conditions May Lead to Repeat of 2008 Slaughter

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.”

300 Buffalo Captured at Yellowstone National Park’s Northern Boundary

Those that test positive for brucellosis exposure to be slaughtered

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.

Yellowstone Releases 62 bison from Stephens Creek capture facility

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.

Buffalo Field Campaign

Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
January 27, 2011

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* 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

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* 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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The impending bison slaughter.

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.

*NEWS: Yellowstone Captures Wild Buffalo

YELLOWSTONE CAPTURES WILD BISON
23 of America’s Last Wild Bison Trapped at Stephens Creek for Royal Teton Ranch Land Lease Experiment

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.”

Northern Arapaho seek to restore historic link to buffalo

Northern Arapaho seek to restore historic link to buffalo.
By TOM MAST Casper Star-Tribune

Two new cases of brucellosis in Wyoming.

Park County bison tests positive for brucellosis
By BOB MOEN – Associated Press.

Herd tests positive for brucellosis
By BRENNA BRAATEN – Cody Enterprise.

Important developments on the Brucellosis front.

Montana and Wyoming infections and capture of elk.

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.

DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone National Park Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely To Spread Brucellosis

Don’t worry about the man behind the curtain.

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

Hearing on bison hazing set for Tuesday

Grazing and slaughter threaten the viability of bison and other sensitive species-

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

“Bio-bullets” for vaccinating Yellowstone bison. How many ways is this a bad idea?

Draft environmental statement for this brucellosis vaccine finds many negatives, few benefits-

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

Rancher still quarantining herd after brucellosis

7 tested positive.

We wrote about this story last December: Second brucellosis case found in Idaho cattle herd. It turns out that 7 cattle tested positive in the herd that was assembled over the last two years. The origins of the animals have not been reported. The remaining animals are being kept in quarantine.

Idaho State Veterinarian Bill Barton was quick to blame elk as the source of the outbreak but there has been no source identified. Will the results of the epidemiology be released?

Rancher still quarantining herd after brucellosis.
Idaho Statesman

Many skeptical of bison vaccination proposal

$9 Million plan won’t bring more tolerance by livestock industry.

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

Norm Bishop’s comments at Montana wolf meeting

There will be media stories, good comments, and ignorant angry comments, but here’s one from a person who knows-

Without commenting specifically on numbers or distribution of hunting quotas, I offer just these notes for your consideration.

Aldo Leopold; forester, wildlife ecologist, conservationist, father of game management in America, lived from 1887 to 1948.  In 1944, he reviewed Young and Goldman’s Wolves of North America, which chronicled the extirpation of wolves.  In his review, Leopold  asked, “Are we really better off without wolves in the wilder parts of our forests and ranges?”  He also asked, “Why, in the necessary process of extirpating wolves from the livestock ranges of Wyoming and Montana, were not some of the uninjured animals used to restock the Yellowstone?”  Thirty years later, in 1974, the planning began, and in 1995, twenty years later, wolves were restored to Yellowstone.

Leopold’s thinking about deer, wolves, and forests is epitomized by his essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain.”  In brief, he shot a wolf.  In later years he came to “suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain (and its plants) live in mortal fear of its deer.”  To deer, we could add elk.  In Yellowstone, the lack of wolves led to woody species like willow and aspen being suppressed by elk browsing.  With the return of wolves, willows are growing, once-rare birds are nesting in them, beavers are building dams from the willows, and the wolves are feeding a couple of dozen species of scavengers, including eagles and grizzly bears.

I’m far more concerned about disease than about predators on our large game.

Chronic wasting disease could wipe out our elk and deer.  Wolves test elk and deer, looking for vulnerable animals all day, 365 days a year.  You and I can’t do that.   N. Thompson Hobbs (2006) evaluated the potential for selective predation by wolves to reduce or eradicate chronic wasting disease (CWD) in populations of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park.  If it works, can we afford to throw away our only means of controlling CWD?

Buffalo Field Campaign – A Buffalo’s Trail Of Tears

Here is a presentation on the annual hazing of the last wild and free buffalo.

Buffalo Field Campaign – A Buffalo’s Trail Of Tears.

Official disagreement whether Interagency Bison Management Plan is worthwhile

In fact, the Montana state veterinarian and MT Dept. of Livestock are the only ones who think it has worked-

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.

Last Wild Buffalo Tormented by DOL, Park Service

The myth continues. You can show the livestock thugs all the evidence in the world that they are wrong and inhumane but they will forever lie.

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

Yellowstone bison drive planned through this week

To hell with private property rights, to hell with wildlife, we must protect cattle that aren’t even here.

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.

New Brucellosis “Hot Spots” Found In Yellowstone Area

Is this going to result in a new power grab?

This seems to be what is behind the attempt to put elk under the purview of the Montana Department of Livestock. The article indicates that brucellosis is more prevalent on private lands where hunting is limited and elk congregate. I think the real question that should be asked is should livestock be the driving force behind wildlife management. Not only has this issue been devastating to bison, now it appears that the livestock industry is building up momentum for the same for elk. Anal probes for bull elk now too?

The hysteria surrounding brucellosis has allowed the livestock industry to fight even modest attempts at change in how it is managed. For several years the Montana Stockgrowers Association has fought attempts to create a zone around Yellowstone which would call for mandatory vaccination and greater testing of livestock by saying that it would be unfair to the ranchers who would be affected. In reality, the plan takes away from their ability to hold the brucellosis myth over the heads of the entire state by limiting the area affected by a brucellosis infection to just the zone around Yellowstone instead of the entire state. They don’t like this and they’re fighting.

Let’s face it. Brucellosis is here to stay. There is no way to rid the ecosystem of it now that it is an endemic part of the Greater Yellowstone, and keep in mind, it was brought here by the livestock industry in the first place. The same livestock industry that was partially responsible for, and benefitted from, the destruction of wolves, grizzlies, bison and Native Americans which inhabited the West.

New Brucellosis “Hot Spots” Found In Yellowstone Area.
MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

APHIS on Horse Butte

APHIS putting residents of Horse Butte at risk for a pointless study

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!

Future of elk hunting in Montana is in jeopardy

Former Montana FWP Employee Warns of Pending Legislation.

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

The Privatization of Wildlife

How Ted Turner Scored Yellowstone’s Bison Herd

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

Groups File Suit to Protect Quarantined Bison & Public Trust

Lawsuit Seeks to Secure Public Access to Bison and Prevent Privatization of Calves

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.

Why Yellowstone Bison do not belong on Ted Turners Ranch

Privatization of Public Bison

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.

Secret Meetings, Good-Bye Tolerance, Hello Turner

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.

——————————
——————————
* 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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Giving bison to Turner isn’t legal

Buffalo Field Campaign and Gallatin Wildlife Association speak

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

Activists call for bison on state land

State of Montana wants to give them to Ted Turner

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

Buffalo Battle Airs Again Tonight & Thursday, Jan. 7

In case you missed the original airing of the documentary about the buffalo and the Buffalo Field Campaign

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.

Forest Service finally closes Horse Butte to livetock grazing

There haven’t been cattle on it for 8 years, but now it is officially closed to grazing-

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

Second brucellosis case found in Idaho cattle herd

State Veterinarian quick to blame it on elk or bison

Another cow, this time a 15 year-old, has tested positive for brucellosis in a herd that resided in eastern Idaho. This is the second from the same herd so Idaho retains its brucellosis-free status. The herd was assembled over the last two years and the origins of the animals have not been reported.

It is very important that epidemiology studies look closely at the samples taken so that the true source of the infection can be found, even if it came from other cattle. It is premature to say what the source of infection is yet when infections occur people sympathetic to the livestock industry are very quick to point fingers at wildlife.

Second brucellosis case found in Idaho cattle herd
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS – Capital Press

Homeless on the Range

An article about the ill-conceived bison quarantine program that will likely be turning the majority of the progeny of these bison into privately owned livestock.

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.

Livestock disease found in eastern Idaho cow

The infected animal had been vaccinated.

This has been a perennial issue in areas surrounding the elk feedlots in Wyoming. It now seems that brucellosis has once again infected cattle in Idaho but it is too early to say where the disease originated. If brucellosis is found in another cattle herd in Idaho within a year then Idaho, once again, will lose its brucellosis free status and all cattle that are exported will have to be tested for the disease.

For years this scenario was held over the heads of people who support free roaming bison in Montana yet, when it came to pass, it turned out to be more of a minor inconvenience rather than the catastrophe the livestock industry claimed it would be.

This issue has been used rather effectively against wildlife for years but the disease is much less of a threat to human health than it was before the pasteurization of milk became the standard. The only way to contract brucellosis is by coming into direct contact with infected fetal tissue or by drinking unpasteurized milk. You cannot become infected by eating cooked beef.

Livestock disease found in eastern Idaho cow
By REBECCA BOONE (AP)

Buffalo Battle: BFC Will Be on TV’s Planet Green!

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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Buffalo Field Campaign

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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Federal judge in Montana asked to end Yellowstone bison kills

Suit asks federal judge to stop Forest Service and Park Service from participating in Montana’s annual bison slaughter-

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.

Montana Department of Livestock Captures and Slaughters Three Wild Bull Bison

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.

Hazing Continues, More Calves Injured.

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

——————————
* 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

Game management

Brucellosis is perpetuated by Wyoming feed grounds

Elk in Yellowstone © Ken Cole

“If we could get rid of feed grounds and reduce population, we could solve much of our brucellosis problem,” Tom Roffe said.

Game management
By DANIEL PERSON
Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Wyoming brucellosis group examines federal proposal

Zone outside Yellowstone declared “brucellosis free” with greater restrictions inside the affected Yellowstone area or eradication of infected elk and bison herds? Who pays? Who benefits?

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

Montana Public Radio Evening Commentary: Dan Brister

Dan Brister of Buffalo Field Campaign was featured on Montana’s Public Radio March 27, 2009 with this audio essay

Why We Need Wolves In Our Parks

. . . and about “the Ripple Effect.”

Why We Need Wolves In Our Parks. Todd Palmer and Rob Pringle. The Huffington Post.

Wolves brucellosis-free

I’m glad we answered that question.

Wolves brucellosis-free. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole News and Guide

Bison relocation plan deemed ‘too risky’

Again, it’s not about disease, it’s about control over land, wildlife and people.

Bison in quarantine near Gardiner.
Photo © Kim Acheson, Buffalo Field Campaign
Used with permission.

While I think that the quarantine plan is misguided I do believe that those bison in the program should be allowed to roam freely as wildlife.

This bill would make it illegal to transport the bison over Montana’s highways which is done currently when bison are hauled to slaughter. Apparently the transfer of bison to the Eastern Shoshone Wind River Reservation in Wyoming would be permitted.

Another issue that is raised here is the fact that the bison currently at Fort Peck Reservation have been hybridized with another species, cattle. I don’t know what the plan is for managing any bison received from this program would be but I hope that they would be separated from any that are hybridized so that there is no further hybridization. Genetically pure bison are rare and they should be valued for their special nature.

The quarantine facility has other problems not raised in the article too. How does removing calves from the rest of their herd and raising them on alfalfa affect their behavior and social structure? Can that social structure be regained over time? Habituation to humans can cause severe problems in other species such as wolves, bears, and coyotes as well as other species.

What will happen to those bison that don’t get relocated? Will they be slaughtered too? These people seem to be pulling out every reason they can to be irrational about this issue.

Bison relocation plan deemed ‘too risky’
Helena Independent Record.

Wyoming lawmakers want to test wolves for brucellosis

Are these people serious?

A cow would have to dig up a den to contract brucellosis from a wolf. This is ridiculous.

Wyoming lawmakers want to test wolves for brucellosis
By MATT JOYCE Of The Associated Press

Debate Rages Over Elk Feeding

The most recent on Wyoming’s elk feedlot fiasco –

Debate Rages Over Elk Feeding – Kirk Johnson, New York Times

thanks jdubya

Bill in Montana Senate would prohibit bison relocation.

What would happen to all of the bison presently in quarantine?  Would they be killed?

Senator John Brenden (R-Scobey) has introduced Senate Bill 337. It “Prohibits FWP from relocating wild buffalo or bison as a result of the state/federal bison quarantine feasibility study.” The Senate Hearing is next week on 2/17/09 in Helena.

The true colors of the livestock industry are showing with the introduction of this bill into the Montana State Senate. This makes it painfully obvious that the issue is not about brucellosis but about control over people, wildlife and public lands.

The recent defeat of HB 253 also made it clear that the issue isn’t about brucellosis. The bill would have protected the private property rights of people living on Horse Butte and other areas who welcome the presence of bison and would have handed over the management of bison to Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

Vet urges ranchers to adopt brucellosis plan

Producers in 7 Montana border counties would need to test, vaccinate. By Tom Lutey. Billings Gazette.

Bison advocates speak their mind in Helena

“Having the Department of Livestock manage wildlife is a direct conflict of interest.”

Here is the Bozeman newspaper’s take on the hearing to make bison “wildlife” in Montana. Note they have the bill number wrong. It is HB253, not 243.

Montana FWP did not support the bill.

Bison advocates speak their mind in Helena. By Daniel Person. Bozeman Chronicle.

Wyoming Game and Fish Slaughters Elk

Captures occurring at multiple sites.

192 elk were captured on Tuesday at the Fall Creek feedground of which 122 were females and 6 of those tested positive for exposure to brucellosis. Another 150 were captured Wednesday at the Muddy Creek feedground of which 60 were females.

State sends six elk to slaughter
By CAT URBIGKIT
Casper Star Tribune.

Cattle industry domination over elk and bison

Op-Ed. By Stephany J. Seay. Buffalo Field Campaign. West Yellowstone, Montana

GNF Supervisor Mary Erickson’s morbid sense of humor claims renewal of the Department of Livestock’s permit for the Horse Butte bison trap is a “tool of tolerance.”  It certainly fits with Governor Schweitzer’s interpretation of “more tolerance” for wild bison; all we’ve seen from his Administration is a canned hunt and the largest-scale slaughter since the 1800s.

The private/public Horse Butte peninsula is 100% cattle-free; residents welcome buffalo and oppose the trap and DOL’s presence.  At the dawn of the Adaptive Management Plan (AMP) crafted by IBMP partners, the trap is a serious contradiction.  But, the brucellosis argument is full of contradictions.

Jackson Hole Daily | Elk tests, kills to start

Wyoming Game and Fish continues fourth year of elk test and slaughter program.

Jackson Hole Daily | Elk tests, kills to start

The article points out that $815,000 has been spent and that seroprevalence has declined. This reduction may or may not be associated with past test and slaughter efforts and will likely be for naught if Wyoming persists with its feeding of elk during the winter which concentrates them and makes transmission more likely.

As pointed out by Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, this does not address the likely impending chronic wasting disease outbreak.

– – – –

Robert Hoskins wrote to me saying WY Game and Fish does not use an experimental design for this program. Therefore, you can’t conclude it is working.

This is a general problem in politically based studies of policy. Experimental or semi (quasi) experimental designs are rarely used. An experimental design includes one or more groups that get “the treatment” and a similar group or groups which is the “control” group, meaning no treatment. If both groups increase or decrease by about the same amount, the treatment has had no effect. Some other (some outside) factor was responsible. Regarding this program, we have no idea. Ralph Maughan

A Busy Week for Wild Buffalo & Elk

Buffalo Field Campaign update from the field-

• Gallatin National Forest Approves Horse Butte bison trap, WTF!
• Montana begins killing elk to appease livestock interests-

Although BFC is on my blogroll (down in the right column of the blog), I haven’t posted one of their “updates from the field” lately. Here is a slightly abridged version. Ralph Maughan

– – – – – – – – – –

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
January 15, 2009

In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* Montana Delegation, Schweitzer, to Ride in Obmama Parade
* Order Your Buffalo Valentines Today!
* Buffalo in the News
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
——————————
* Update from the Field

Dear Buffalo Friends,

A study was released this week that determines what we’ve known all along:  the risk of brucellosis transmission from wild bison to cattle is extremely remote.  The study, “Wildlife-Livestock Conflict: the Risk of Pathogen Transmission from Bison to Cattle Outside Yellowstone National Park” was conducted by A. Marm Kilpatrick, Colin M. Gillin, and Peter Daszak, and published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.  In summary, the study states, “… We have shown that the quantitative risk of transmission of [brucellosis] …is highly variable in space, time and frequency.  We believe that this variability offers great potential for focused adaptive management efforts that will reduce the costs of brucellosis management, reduce the need for hazing of bison, and maintain very low risk for the cattle industry of Montana.”  You can learn more about the study’s findings under “Buffalo in the News” below.

Nevertheless, livestock interests are running rampant with power in Montana.  This has been an incredible week of war against wildlife, even though the field remains quiet with no wild buffalo migrating out of Yellowstone National Park.

Study: Chance of brucellosis transmission posed by roaming bison is low

Scientific study pretty much says Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) is a waste of money-

For those of us not connected with the cattle industry the results of this paper coming out in the Journal of Applied Ecology are hardly surprising, but for the cattle bureaucrats it should be a real wake up call.

Study: Chance of brucellosis transmission posed by roaming bison is low. By Matthew Brown. AP. Casper Star Tribune.

Bison management riles folks, again

25- 100 bison to be allowed to wander north of YNP this winter-

Most folks will remember this, but if not, last winter a very expensive deal with made to allow a limited number of bison to leave Yellowstone near Gardiner to wander northward.

The female bison will be fitted with vaginal transmitters to warm us of conditions there (“cyberbison? !!”).

Then, to recap, bison will allowed to migrate west of the Park to Horse Butte for the first time.

The deadenders in the Montana Stockgrowers Assn. are suing to try to stop these modest reforms.

Story in the Bozeman Chronicle. Bison management riles folks, again. By Jessica Mayrer staff writer

Montana DOL releases plan said to allow Montana to regain brucellosis free status

Brucellosis proposal released. By Matthew Brown. AP

New brucellosis plan under consideration

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) looks to be working on new regulations to deal with brucellosis:

Brucellosis plan suggests special Yellowstone area – AP

The plan as now envisioned does not call for eradicating brucellosis in wildlife. McCluskey said that would have to be dealt with separately.

Wyoming brucellosis. Another cow may test positive

If a cow from a second herd tests positive, Wyoming will again lose its brucellosis free status, and it looks like one will.

It’s important to remember that the recent brucellosis infection near Danial, WY came from one of the state’s elk feedlots that conservation groups are trying to shut down because they are breeding grounds for disease and transmission.

The same was true when Wyoming first lost its brucellosis free status about 4 years ago.

The news article merely says the new case is in Sublette County. It doesn’t say if it is near an elk winter feedlot.

Wyoming brucellosis. Another cow may test positive. By Matt Joyce. Casper Star Tribune.

This whole matter is especially important for wildlife conservation because some livestock groups want to have a general extermination of elk over a huge area so they won’t have the inconvenience of vaccinating their livestock and/or the moderate burdens imposed by not having a class A brucellosis status for the state.

Note that Montana recently lost is brucellosis free status.

How far will Montana’s livestock industry go. Will they try to slaughter the Yellowstone elk to eliminate brucellosis

This is a long feature article in the Missoula Independent.

Bigger Game By Patrick Klemz

Montana officially loses its brucellosis free status

Montana officially loses its brucellosis free status. Billings Gazette. By Matthew Brown. AP

This is entirely a problem of their own making, or I just I should say the Montana Stockgrowers Association, who bulldozed away efforts to split the state into two zone when it came to brucellosis.

It’s hard to have sympathy when such a obvious course in the wrong direction was chosen. On the other hand, this is hardly a disaster for the Montana cattle industry. As the article says “The testing of cattle is expected to cost ranchers in the state’s billion-dollar cattle industry an estimated $6 million to $12 million.”

They have taken that much of the taxpayer’s money to kill Yellowstone bison to no positive effect for themselves or anyone else.

Bison Brawl. Horse Butte residents seeks to shield animals from over-reaching lawsuit

Bison Brawl. Horse Butte residents seeks to shield animals from over-reaching lawsuit. By Matthew Brown.

Brown writes that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, the Montana Stockgrowers Association who filed the suit on behalf of rancher Bob Myers and the Sitz Angus Ranch, run cattle near Horse Butte.

I did a Google search. The Sitz Angus Ranch has two locations, one near Harrison and the other near Dillon, Montana.

By what amazing stretch of imagination are Dillon or Harrison, Montana “near Horse Butte?”

No the people who live near Horse Butte are the people near Horse Butte where there are no cattle, or do cattle growers now get to rearrange geography as yet another of their privileges as well as impinge on the property rights of others?

Need a good laugh that isn’t funny? The Elk Vaccination Follies

Need a good laugh that isn’t funny? The Elk Vaccination Follies. By Bill Schneider. New West.

“FWP has doubled the elk quota around Yellowstone with minimal public input and is now talking about capturing 350 elk in the Paradise Valley to test the prevalence of brucellosis, which is commonly believed to be very low.”

Robert Fanning where are you to save the Northern Range Of Yellowstone elk herd now that it needs it? RM

Montana’s governor attacks Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds

There has been a sudden outbreak of rationality about elk and brucellosis. Good for Governor Schweitzer.

Feedgrounds under fire. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Montana’s Board of Livestock to reconsider brucellosis “split-state” proposal

Board brings back ‘split-state’ status. By Matt Gouras. Associated Press.

Thank god! Let’s hope they adopt it. It is only one of the proposals they are considering.

Yellowstone Park superintendent talks brucellosis

Park superintendent talks brucellosis. Warns board against ‘livestock versus wildlife’ view. By Jennifer McKee. Billings Gazette State Bureau

Same old for 20 more years on most WY Game and Fish elk feedgrounds

The Forest Service did deny the expansion in size of several of them and has imposed a few restrictions.

The Muddy Creek feedlot was the source of infection of elk to brucellosis several years back when Wyoming first lost its brucellosis free status.

Story. Elk feed areas get 20 years. Forest supervisor rejects additions to Fish Creek and Patrol Cabin in Gros Ventre. By Cory Hatch.  Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Hoskins on brucellosis

Robert Hoskins, one of the best informed people who post to this web site, is, of course, active writing in many publications.

Recently he had a good LTE to the Billings Gazette. Brucellosis management has utterly failed.

In Google News comments, he follows up on the Montana brucellosis in great detail.

There Is No Scientific Proof that Elk Infected Montana Cattle with Brucellosis. By Robert Hoskins, Naturalist, GravelBar. Google News. Comments by people in the news.

Focus on elk as disease [brucellosis] persists near Yellowstone

What an outrage! The officials who speak for this special interest group need to be put in their place. This should be a national campaign issue.

Focus on elk as brucellosis persists near Yellowstone. By Matthew Brown, Associated Press Writer.

They will have to kill every elk in the Greater Yellowstone, and, of course, every bison. They miss some too, so even their “final solution” will fail. The ecosystem will collapse, all on account of an inconvenience to the livestock industry, one primarily of their own making by failing to adopt a split state status for brucellosis.

The real bad guys here in addition to the Montana Department of Livestock, are the Montana Stockgrowers Association who deliberately shot down governor Schweitzer’s split state status proposal. Then, of course, there are the Wyoming elk feedgrounds/feedlots that perpetuate transmission of the disease among elk.

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Please make sure this story and your reaction to it gets posted to other blogs and sent to candidates for office.

State vets plan to eliminate brucellosis in Yellowstone bison

State vets plan to elminate brucellosis in Yellowstone bison. By Alden Downing, Channel 8 television. Billings, MT

How f–king stupid can you be and hold an office like this!!??

I debated the Idaho State vet once (a different person than the current one). The guy was dumb as mud, and I’ve not bragging about my intelligence when I say that.

The primary brucellosis problem is in the elk, not the bison. Every case of transmission to cattle has come from elk; none from bison.

Tests of the infection rate show that it is far higher south of Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, not inside the Park, and among the bison the big infection rate is the Jackson Hole bison, not the Yellowstone Park bison.

Elminate brucellosis from the bison and the infection in elk will hardly drop. It is the Wyoming elk feedgrounds that perpetuate the disease. All but the Montana brucellosis infection is a cow was clearly associated with winter feeding of elk near cattle.

The vets don’t dare touch this. Therefore, they suggest this offensive nonsense that will be as effective as sacrificing a virgin to a volcano.  In fact it is based on the same kind of thinking — conducting a ritual (killing or vaccinating) the bison with their ineffective vaccine with cause a change when there is no reason to expect a change except when you engage in magical thinking.

Wyoming’s Game and Fish chief doesn’t agree with the state vets on brucellosis

Brucellosis eradication from Greater Yellowstone currently impossible says Terry Cleveland. By Chris Merrill. Casper Star Tribune.

He doesn’t agree with conservation organizations either — closing elk feedlots won’t work.

Three-state talks focus on brucellosis strategy. State veterinarians to meet

Three-state talks focus on brucellosis strategy. Veterinarians from Montana, Wyoming, Idaho meeting Friday in Helena. By The Associated Press

This is a chance for a big change, but where are the wildlife people?  My experience with the state vets is that they are beholden to the cattle industrye. Therefore, they have a very narrow perspective.

Update. June 28. Just what you would expect, no recognition that the continuing source of brucellosis is not inside Yellowstone Park, but south on Wyoming’s elk feedlots. State vets: Yellowstone must eradicate brucellosis. By Matt Gouras. AP.

When they are this utterly compromised, it makes you worry what would happen if some serious threat to livestock and wildlife emerged, oh wait, it has. They are doing zip about bluetongue.

Livestock industry’s true colors: decimate Yellowstone Park bison and elk

“U.S. Cattlemen’s Association said Monday that the federal government should reduce Yellowstone’s elk and bison populations to keep the animals separated from domestic livestock.”

They aren’t satisfied with pushing bison toward extinction, and at the same time care little for elk in the Park or in the Greater Yellowstone.

It’s all about the cattle industry showing us who is boss and maintaining their power and privileges.

Story: Cattle group’s brucellosis proposal draws fire. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press.

Can we hear from the group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife about this, or are the too tied to cattle to speak out?

Udder failure: The politics behind Montana’s brucellosis discovery

Some would say it was the massive bad karma from killing more than 1,600 of the nation’s last wild buffalo by state and federal agents—the largest bison slaughter since the white man’s extinction of the millions-strong herds that once roamed the Great Plains. Or maybe it was the on-going and vicious political struggle between Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the Montana Stockgrowers Association. But whatever or whomever one blames, the reality is that Montana will now lose its “brucellosis free” status with this week’s discovery of yet another herd infected with the disease that can cause cows to abort. Ironically, bison caused neither the latest nor the former infections.

Read the rest of this interesting article — Udder failure . . . by George Ochenski. Missoula Independent. I didn’t know about Schweitzer’s unsuccessful efforts to win support for change with the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Brucellosis now confirmed in cows near Sublette County, WY elk feedlot

Brucellosis again in Wyoming, and, surprise, surprise, most likely from the nearby elk winter feedlot.

Brucellosis in Montana too, for the first time in a long while. it came from either elk or other cattle.

So what’s the government’s brucellosis policy directed toward? — killing thousands of bison.

Story in the Casper Star Tribune (with usual the typical scare tactics about human and other brucellosis). Tests confirm disease in cows in (WY) cows. By Chris Merrill.

One error that should be pointed out. The articles states: “Personnel at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory have confirmed that two black Angus cows from one Daniel herd were infected with what scientists call brucella abortus, a bacterium that causes animals such as bison, elk, cattle and swine to abort their fetuses, and can cause undulant fever in humans.” [boldface mine]

There are many kinds of brucellosis. Not just brucellosis abortis. Brucellosis in swine is brucellosis suis, a more dangerous disease. It is spread by feral pigs and its incidence is increasing in the United States because of spread of these non-native animals. Feral pigs, however, have a hunting constituency.

Brucellosis in the West

Dan Brister examines the possible connection between Corriente cattle and the recent brucellosis outbreaks causing the loss of Montana’s brucellosis-free status. He questions whether cattle may be the source of the outbreaks rather than wildlife.

Montana to lose brucellosis-free status
Dan Brister from Buffalo Field Campaign
West Yellowstone News.

Meanwhile, Bill Schneider is busy Debunking Brucellosis Myths over at New West.

Another Possible Case of Brucellosis in Livestock, This Time in Wyoming.

There have been reports today of another possible case of brucellosis in two cattle from Daniel, Wyoming. The tests don’t confirm brucellosis infection, that will require a culture test to determine if the brucella abortus bacteria is present which will take another two weeks.

Wyo may have new brucellosis case
Casper Star Tribune

Here is the Wyoming Livestock Board Press Release

Brucellosis confirmed in Sublette herd
Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund wants to kill thousands of Yellowstone area bison and elk

The powerful livestock organization R-CALF has written to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture urging that a program be implemented to rid the Greater Yellowstone area of brucellosis. This includes Yellowstone Park. The means they suggest for doing this are draconian.

According to a story today by Brodie Farquhar in the Casper Star Tribune they include:

• Mandate brucellosis testing of bison in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
• Work toward eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone bison by multiple means, including but not limited to trapping, testing and vaccinating bison in that area.
• Work with the National Park Service and USDA Wildlife Services to control the size of bison and elk herds in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
• Continue brucellosis testing, vaccination and surveillance where it already occurs and implement surveillance in all states where cattle are present.
• Maintain a national brucellosis surveillance/vaccination program for livestock disease traceback purposes.
• Redirect funding for an animal ID program to pay for ongoing and existing brucellosis surveillance/vaccination programs.