Action Alert: Comments on Horse Butte Buffalo Trap Due on January 13, 1999
Howdy folks,
Please take some time to read and respond to the request for comments on the Horse Butte Buffalo Trap Environmental Assessment and support Alternative 3: the No Action (No Capture Facility) Alternative. The EA is online, see the address at the bottom of this alert. And thanks to all of you who responded to our request for comments on the first phase of this misguided project. Though the Forest Service only sent out scoping notices to about 13 organizations, they received 502 comments, with over 300 of them coming via email!! Keep up the good work!
As of December 30th, the Montana DOL has yet to begin construction of the facility, though they have put up a gate and plowed roads to the proposed location, and have relocated snowmobile routes. They also have asked the USDA for the funds to construct and operate the facility, though APHIS has only committed itself to providing half of the construction cost ($50,000), and hasn't decided on the operating expenses (appx. $500,000).
This is our last opportunity to object before they start capturing and hauling buffalo to the slaughter house.
Jim Coefield
NEWS
On December 14, 1998, the Gallatin National Forest released the Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Horse Butte Buffalo Capture Facility. Comments on the EA are due by January 13, 1998.
This is the second phase of the trap permitting process. The first phase was when the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) requested a Special Use Permit and that the Forest Service grant a Categorical Exclusion (CE) to expedite the process. CE's cannot be appealed, and are either granted in emergencies, or when the proposal doesn't rise to a certain level of significance. Obviously, issuing an EA for this proposal underscores its significance, and the inability of the CE to stand on its own.
In an odd, and most likely illegal planning maneuver, the Gallatin NF split the project into these two phases. The first phase authorized construction of the trap at the main Horse Butte site (Alternative 1 at Site 2A) and granted authority to operate it until January 31, 1999. The second phase, which this EA would authorize, also analyzes an alternative site (Alternative 1, Site X) to the one authorized in the CE, and looks at operating the facility for the next 10 years.
The Chief of the Forest Service also granted an exemption from the automatic stay provisions of the appeal regulations. This means that even though parties may appeal the EA decision, the Chief will allow the project to proceed during the appeal process. This leaves us with a lawsuit as our only remedy. What does this all mean? It's a done deal! The heck with public process and opinion. The DOL wants the authority to construct and operate this facility at all costs, even illegal ones.
The no action alternative (Alternative 3) is the only logical solution. Unfortunately, the no action alternative already has been rendered invalid by the CE's allowing the Forest Service to issue the Special Permit (which it already has done) for the construction and operation of the facility.
"The No Action Alternative would constitute a decision not to issue a special use permit to the DOL for the installation or operation of a bison capture facility in the Horse Butte area." (from the EA)
In other words, there isn't any possibility that the Forest Service will chose the no action alternative, because the permit already has been issued. Doublespeak extraordinaire.
The main issues:
* The trap will be placed in a location where the greatest concentrations of buffalo are. Buffalo will be lured into the trap by baiting with hay or by hazing. All animals will be tested for brucellosis. All "pregnant females and animals testing positive would be transported from the site for disposal." That means slaughter.
* The preferred alternative (Alternative 1 at Site A2) would locate the trap within 1/2 mile of a bald eagle nesting site. The so-called reason for splitting the project into two parts (CE and EA) rests with the Bald Eagle (a threatened species) situation. Until February 1st, the project would not necessarily violate Bald Eagle management guidelines. After that day, the nest site is considered to be active, and a higher level of restrictions on human activity kicks in. The Gallatin NF's solution? A site specific Forest Plan Amendment to exempt the project from Bald Eagle guidelines and to exempt it from visual quality standards. Don't like restrictions? Sweep them under the carpet.
* The Gallatin already has shown its unwillingness to enforce Bald Eagle closures. Last winter a DOL hazing operation violated a special closure around the Horse Butte nesting site by flying a helicopter through the area and actually landing in the area. Buffalo Nations and Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers have video documentation of the violation. Helicopter? What helicopter? I don't see no helicopter.
* The Forest Service's whole logic with permitting the trap rests on the notion that if they allow the capture facility, then only animals that test positive to brucellosis or pregnant females (even if they test negative) will be slaughtered. They infer many times that without the trap, more animals will be slaughtered through indiscriminate shooting. The EA refuses to examine the issue of brucellosis transmission from buffalo to cattle. But how can you determine that there is a need for an action (slaughtering buffalo) without discussing the scientific data (or lack thereof) on transmission of brucellosis from buffalo to cows. Cows are not even present in the area until June, and it is an accepted scientific fact that if the buffalo move back into the Park 30-60 days prior to cattle being moved into the area, that there is no risk of transmission.
* Horse Butte is a beautiful area surrounded on three sides by water. The facility will be located at the neck of it. It is traditional winter/nesting/birthing grounds for not only the endangered bald eagle and the buffalo but elk, deer, swans, pelicans and other many species.
Make sure to include the following points in your comments:
* Demand that the Forest Service adopt the "no action" alternative, which will not allow the trap to be built or operated, and to rescind the Special Use Permit that the CE allowed.
* Splitting the DOL's Special Use Permit request into a CE and an EA violates NEPA by segmenting the trap project into two connected actions. This is illegal.
* Exempting the trap from Bald Eagle protection guidelines in the Forest Plan (by amending the Plan) is wrong, and will not exempt the trap from provisions of the Endangered Species Act that protect threatened and endangered species.
* Reducing buffalo population numbers in the ecosystem through unnatural processes (trapping and slaughter) impacts the grizzly bear by removing an essential food source (winter killed and weakened animals) in the spring.
* Demand that the Forest Service adopt scientifically based "risk management" techniques instead of the DOL's "zero tolerance" approach to buffalo management. These risk management tactics are discussed more fully in Plan B and the Bison Alternative (independently developed alternatives to the EIS on Bison Management in Yellowstone and Montana that is in progress).
* There are many other issues involved with this proposal with other threatened and endangered species, local residents, snowmobiling, etc. If you take the time to read the EA (see online address below), you'll discover many other things to comment on.
Thanks!
______________________
Please send your comments (on or before Jan 13th), or requests for further information to:
Olleke Rappe-Daniels USDA Forest Service R1 HQ 200 E. Broadway Box 7669 Missoula, MT 59807 ph: 406-329-3028
odaniels/r1@fs.fed.usChange that to klandl/r1@fs.fed.us). Updated 1-6-99CC: to Mike Dombeck Chief, Forest Service, Auditor's Bldg 201 14th Street, S.W. at Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20024 202-205-1661. Mike.Dombeck/wo@fs.fed.us
If you send your comments by email, make sure to include your name and address so that the Forest Service can fully analyze the range of comments, and where they come from.
For more information, you can view the EA online at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin/bison/index.html
You also can check out our web pages for more information in general about the buffalo situation in Yellowstone National Park:
Buffalo Nations: http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/