A Prominent biologist
doesn't like feeding Park Bison |
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Extra: Latest Buffalo Nations Update |
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| Judge Lovell, who refused to order a halt to bison killing or
get involved at all in last year's slaughter controversy, has been proactive this year. He has ordered plans for road closures and feeding bison inside Yellowstone NP. He also wants weekly reports from the federal government and state officials when the bison killing begins. Well known biologist, Dr. Mark Boyce of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, doesn't like the order according to a story in the Jackson Hole Guide. Boyce told the Guide that the judge's directive is "a real assault on what the Park's all about. It certainly flies in the face of natural regulation of the herd -- allowing natural processes to prevail." The biologist also predicted that concentrating bison at Park feed lots would facilitate the transmission of brucellosis to additional bison, the prevention of which is the supposed rationale behind the Interim Bison Plan and the slaughter of bison that leave Yellowstone. The state of Wyoming has long fed wintering elk at winter feedgrounds. The federal government does likewise at the National Elk Refuge near Jackson. As a result, the percentage of elk infected with brucellosis is much higher in the Jackson Hole elk herd than in the Yellowstone Park northern range herd. Brucellosis infection appears to have little or no effect on bison or elk, but state veterinarians, some stockgrowers associations, and the federal agency APHIS, have been adamant about eliminating this potential animal vector for the disease. Despite the higher infection rates in Wyoming, no brucellosis has appeared in cattle in Wyoming or Montana. For his part, Boyce said he preferred to shooting bison that leave the Park rather than feeding them in the Park. "At least then there's a semblance of natural regulation." "Yellowstone is the only place there's free-ranging bison -- not culled, nor kept in check by some arbitrary standard," he told the Guide. Boyce said that if we can't let natural ecological processes operate in Yellowstone, there are few to no other places where we can. When I first learned of Lovell's order, I predicted it would not help the cause of eliminated brucellosis, although it would reduce what promises to become an annual winter slaughter by the Montana Department of Livestock. Unlike last winter, however, this winter's mild and dry El Nino pattern has kept bison inside the Park. The few that have left have been hazed back inside by Buffalo Nations and Park Rangers. On December 17, Judge Lovell ordered Yellowstone to draw up plans to feed the bison and keep them in the Park by closing roads and trails. The order was in response to a lawsuit by the EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund (formerly named the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) challenging the now notorious "Interim Bison Management Plan," which resulted in the deliberate slaughter of over 1100 bison during last year's harsh winter in Yellowstone. An additional 700 bison starved to death inside the Park. The irony was that had the bison been allowed to roam outside the Park, they would have had an easy winter because although the winter was wet, it was not cold in the Yellowstone region. Just north of the Park was winter range with no snow. Since that time, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other conservation groups have made great progress in purchasing this winter range from the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) which wants to sell this land in fee simple and additional land for a conservation easement. If the CUT lands are acquired, however, there is no guarantee that the State of Montana or APHIS would let the bison use the winter range, even though they would be cattle free year long.
In other bison news, Buffalo Nations has issued a new update on their activities. It follows: Temperature's around West Yellowstone have dipped down to -30F, but the sun's out by mid-morning. The [Montana] Department of Livestock has created its own imaginary closure on U.S.
Forest Service land (public land) surrounding their buffalo capture facility. Insiders
from the Park Service have expressed their belief that this closure is illegal. The Forest
Service is the Last year hundreds of bison were killed on Forest Service land west and north of Yellowstone National Park. One local resident was disgusted to learn that his dog had gained 60 pounds from gorging on the gut piles left near his Horse Butte home. [My comment here: these gut piles are supposedly the most infective part of the bison. The Department of Livestock left them everyone, including many folk's private property -- RM] Millions of acres of Forest Service land, If we all had one wish on X-mas day, I think we all wished for more folks to join us
out here in this winter wonderland. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn and practice
winter camping skills, cross-country
Buffalo Nations |
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