Department of Livestock Hazes and Captures 2 Buffalo.
Tripod sitters Continue to Blockade Road to recently approved Horse Butte Capture Facility for over a week.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 3, 1999
Media Contacts: Sarah Chalmers, Sue Nackoney (406) 646-0070

WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT- This morning, Department of Livestock (DOL) employees are getting ready to chase 6 buffalo who are 6 miles west of Yellowstone in Red Canyon. Yesterday afternoon Department of Livestock (DOL) employees on snowmobiles hazed two bull buffalo from the Bear Trap housing area, ran them for four miles towards Yellowstone Park, and pushed them into the Duck Creek Capture facility on the park border. The facility has been baited with hay for the last month.

Six buffalo have been in Red Canyon for the last week, eating hay abandoned by the landowner, Mike Manship. The hay piles have attracted numerous bison and over 200 elk to the canyon. A DOL hazing operation on January 12 ran eight bison from Red Canyon and into the capture facility. Two of the buffalo that were tagged and released from the facility walked 8 miles and back to the bales within the week.

Earlier in the day, the DOL failed in a hazing operation of seven buffalo on the Madison River. Their snowmobiles got stuck in the deep snow and the buffalo refused to move.

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Buffalo Nations Blockade Enters its Second Week

Two Buffalo Nations volunteers, Kelly Needs and Brandon Bridges, continue their second week of sitting on platforms suspended 30 feet above the ground in lodgepole pine tripods blocking the Forest Service Road leading to the site of a newly permitted bison trap. The trap has not yet been constructed, and will be similar to the trap at Duck Creek which currently holds two bison.

On Friday, January 29, District Ranger David Garber signed a Decision Notice allowing the DOL to operate a new buffalo capture facility on the Gallatin National Forest. The Permit to build the facility has not been signed, and the Forest Service representatives available February 2 did not know why the signing was delayed.

The road blockade progressed from two tripods (30 foot high structure made of three lodgepole pine poles lashed together at the apex) to four tripods. One 3 foot by 5 foot platform is suspended from the apex of one of the tripods and the other platform is suspended from a pole balanced between two of the other tripods. There are now a total of 13 poles in the structure, one for each buffalo who has been killed by the DOL this year.

"We are here because we can not watch more buffalo face needless death at the hands of the Department of Livestock. It is obvious that capture facilities kill buffalo, and that few are released. Our blockade will continue for as long as necessary, until Horse Butte is a place where buffalo can walk freely," said Brandon Bridges, an 18 year old student from Kentucky.

The sitters have spent their days and nights living on platforms in the air since the early morning of Monday, January 25. Temperatures have been below freezing, there have been several major snowstorms and one huge windstorm. The road 610 is closed by drifting snow.

So far blockaders have seen law enforcement visiting the blockade, but no efforts have been made to remove them.

"Buffalo Nations will be here to stand with these buffalo until they are free to live on their winter habitat without being chased, captured, or killed. Until this happens, many of us feel in our hearts that non-violent direct action is the only way to stop this senseless tragedy," said Michael Bowersox, Buffalo Nations spokesperson.

Background: On Friday, January 8, the Department of Livestock killed 8 buffalo that it captured at its Duck Creek trap. Three Buffalo Nations volunteers were arrested for non-violently attempting to stop the transport of the bison to the slaughterhouse.

On Thursday, January 14, the Department of Livestock killed 5 buffalo that it captured at its Duck Creek trap. One volunteer sat in a tripod to block the trailer transport of the buffalo to slaughter. Another was arrested for supporting the tripod sitter. In total, 13 buffalo have been killed, 11 have been bulls.

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Buffalo Nations
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT
59758
406-646-0070 phone
406-646-0071 fax b
buffalo@wildrockies.org
http: www.wildrockies.org/bison