Environmentalists say Montana, Park Service violating wildlife management law
 

By Aviva L. Brandt
Associated Press
 
 

SEATTLE - Environmentalists asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to stop the state of Montana from slaughtering bison as they leave Yellowstone National Park in search of winter forage.
 

At issue are joint management plans of the state and the National Park Service that are intended to prevent the animals from spreading a disease harmful to cattle.
 

Montana and the Park Service contend that bison migrating from the park often must be killed to prevent the spread of brucellosis, which can cause cows to abort and, in rare cases, result in a recurring fever in humans.
 

But conservation groups and an Indian tribal organization argue that the risk of transmission of the disease is extremely low. Their lawsuit also contends the plan, which includes bison-capture facilities on the park's borders, violates federal law that requires natural anagement of wildlife
in Yellowstone.
 

About 1,100 park bison were shot or shipped to slaughter under the interim plan in the winter of 1996 to prevent the animals from reaching Montana cattle grazing pastures.
 

About half of the Yellowstone bison test positive for exposure to brucellosis, though there is debate over how many actually are infectious.
 

This winter and the previous one were mild, so few bison tried to leave the park, said James Angell, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, one of the conservation groups that filed the lawsuit. About 50 bison were killed this winter and last, he said.
 

Whether bison are likely to transmit the disease to cattle is an unresolved part of the bison management debate.
 

"Do you agree that controlling brucellosis is a serious matter that has serious consequences for people raising cattle in Montana?" Judge Harry Pregerson asked.
 

"No bison has ever passed the disease. If it was passed, it would lead to the control of that particular cattle herd. But again, it has never
happened," Angell replied.
 

John Bloomquist, a lawyer for the state of Montana, told the three-judge panel that the state considers the risk of brucellosis to remain serious. He credited the state's stringent measures for preventing the disease from becoming a danger to the state's cattle industry.
 

"Transmission has not occurred in the wild, and many believe that's because of the control efforts," he said.
 

Andrew Mergen of the Justice Department told the judges that the government has spent $1 billion to eradicate brucellosis, which has been virtually eliminated everywhere but among Yellowstone National Park bison.
 

He defended the bison plan as reasonable because it offers a "balance of some capture, some slaughter and some tolerance."
 

A ruling by the 9th Circuit panel could take several months.

Note: the Department of Livestock just captured 60 more bison, perhaps to double the number slaughtered this winter.  Large numbers of bison often leave the Park this time of year for the spring greenup that occurs first just west of the Park on Horse Butte.