| SUMMARY
OF PETITION TO LIST THE YELLOWSTONE HERD
AS A THREATENED SPECIES UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
With
the explicit endorsement of the U.S. Congress, the vast herds
of American bison were systematically slaughtered in the mid
to late 1800's in a campaign to subdue Native American tribes
dependent on the bison for survival. The cumulative impact
of market and sport hunting devastated the bison and reduced
their numbers from as many as 60 million to a few hundred
wild bison. The bison surviving this government-sponsored
massacre owe their existence to the inaccessible habitat deep
within the Yellowstone backcountry. These bison, even after
Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872, remained vulnerable
to poachers desperate for the vanishing chance to kill a bison.
By the turn of the century, only 23 wild bison survived in
Yellowstone National Park.
Today, the descendants of those wild bison find themselves
the targets of state and federal management plans that have
resulted in the shooting or slaughter of more than 3,500 bison
since 1985. The 21st century slaughter is based on an unsubstantiated
fear of disease transmission from bison to cattle and intolerance
for free-ranging bison by the Montana livestock industry and
state and federal livestock agencies. The imposition of an
artificial population cap of 3,000 bison also has contributed
to bison being shot and slaughtered without ever being tested
for brucellosis in the field.
Despite a lack of credible scientific evidence supporting
this annual slaughter, including no confirmed case of Brucella
abortus transmission from wild bison to cattle and an alleged
risk of transmission so small as to be immeasurable, the Montana
Department of Livestock, National Park Service, Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service, and the U.S. Forest Service
continue to permit and participate in the killing of American
bison in and outside Yellowstone National Park. Their stubborn
refusal to accept scientific evidence supporting a more rational,
natural, and humane bison management strategy will, if the
killing is not stopped, cause the endangerment and extinction
of the Yellowstone bison.
A coalition of animal protection and conservation organizations
will submit a petition to the government asking that Yellowstone
bison be protected as a distinct population segment under
the Endangered Species Act to mandate a cessation to the killing
and to compel the agencies to develop more enlightened and
scientifically sound management strategies to protect, rather
than prosecute, Yellowstone’s bison. This listing will
provide Yellowstone's bison and their habitat with much deserved
protection. State and federal agencies will no longer be able
to harass, capture, test, shoot, and slaughter America’s
last wild bison if the petition is approved.
The
petition provides a compelling case for granting Yellowstone
bison protection under the Endangered Species Act. It demonstrates
that Yellowstone bison represent a distinct population of
bison both geographically and reproductively isolated from
other bison populations. All other semi-wild public bison
herds are either heavily managed, resulting in a specific
and narrow genetic makeup, or the bison’s genetic makeup
in those herds has been polluted with cattle genes. The petition
provides evidence documenting the significance, including
the cultural and spiritual importance, of the Yellowstone
bison herd to millions of people throughout the United States
and the world who have observed or contemplated the magnificence
of these animals. At the center of this discussion is the
bison’s cultural and spiritual significance to Native
Americans.
The
herd’s scientific significance, particularly its ecological
and genetic importance and uniqueness, is discussed in relation
to other bison herds. The petition highlights recent scientific
studies providing conclusive evidence that Yellowstone bison,
unlike most other bison herds held in the public trust, are
genetically pure. The evidence demonstrating the distinctiveness
of the Yellowstone herd and the urgency for its protection
is irrefutable. The petition identifies and describes threats
to habitat and to the bison’s ability to access that
habitat. Threats exist both within Yellowstone’s boundaries
and on private and pubic lands surrounding the park. Development
activities outside the park are reducing the quantity and
quality of bison habitat and forage while the bison’s
use of the snow-packed road system inside the park has resulted
in direct and indirect impacts to the bison and the habitat
that sustains them.
Even
if Yellowstone bison habitat were not threatened by destruction
and modification, existing bison management strategies establish
a near zero tolerance policy for wild bison outside of the
park by creating an invisible fence surrounding Yellowstone
National Park that demarks the line between a bison’s
life and death and jeopardizes the population’s very
survival. Tragically, on the north side of Yellowstone, bison
are subject to capture and slaughter even before they leave
the park and the animals are deprived of access to much-needed
winter range. The National Park Service sent 231 bison to
slaughter from within Yellowstone National Park during the
first week of March, 2003.
The petition will comprehensively address brucellosis
and will demonstrate, drawing on existing scientific evidence,
that the threat of brucellosis transmission from wild bison
to cattle is infinitesimally small. The disease itself will
be described and evidence will be presented documenting that,
even if transmission were theoretically possible, the agencies
have killed thousands of bison since 1985 who pose no risk
of transmission. Statistics documenting the potential risk
of brucellosis transmission between bison and cattle will
be presented and will make it abundantly clear that the current
bison management scheme is fraudulent and threatens the survival
of this critically unique and important bison population.
Managing bison population numbers under the guise of disease
management, utilizing an artificial population cap, will eventually
drive the genetic diversity of Yellowstone’s bison into
an extinction vortex, as they become more and more inbred,
and they lose their wild characteristics.
The petition exhaustively documents the threat posed by existing
state and federal regulations governing the management of
Yellowstone bison. For example, Montana’s current bison
management plan places Yellowstone bison under the authority
of the Montana Department of Livestock, an agency with an
obvious bias against free-ranging bison and favoritism toward
cattle. Another contradiction documented in the petition is
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s existent and recently
expanded authority to address disease in wildlife. The petition
documents myriad deficiencies in the current Bison Management
Plan that threaten the very survival of wild bison in and
around Yellowstone. The unavoidable conclusion from this evidence
is that existing regulations— federal and state—fail
to provide the Yellowstone bison with the necessary protections
from current and future threats to their habitat and survival.
Additionally,
the petition identifies and evaluates other factors affecting
the survival of Yellowstone's bison population. Such factors
include a currently proposed Montana state bison hunt, an
effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its state
agency counterparts to develop a new, more deadly, plan to
eradicate brucellosis from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,
and other threats that, if not stopped, will drive America's
most unique and scientifically important bison population
to extinction.
If the federal and state agencies responsible for the
ongoing destruction of Yellowstone's bison would accept the
overwhelming scientific evidence and bother to listen to the
public as we demand that bison be protected, this Endangered
Species Act listing would not be necessary. The agencies’
disdain for the evidence and disregard for the will of the
people has put the bison’s future at risk. Protecting
the herd under the Endangered Species Act is necessary to
prevent the endangerment and extinction of the magnificent
bison.
This
listing petition is being compiled and filed by the Buffalo
Field Campaign, Cold Mountain Cold Rivers, the Ecology Center
Incorporated, and the Fund for Animals. |
