Testimony on HB 482

Dear Chairman Washburn and Members of the House FWP Committee,

On behalf of Buffalo Field Campaign I am submitting testimony on HB 482, The Montana Wild Buffalo Conservation and Management Act of 2011. Please enter this testimony into the hearing record and transcript. Thank you.

Buffalo Field Campaign is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo herd, protect the natural habitat of wild free-roaming buffalo and native wildlife, and to work with people of all Nations to honor the sacredness of wild buffalo.

Our members, who come from all walks of life and from places all around the world, envision a life for buffalo in which they thrive within a state of inherent wildness. We also envision a world in which buffalo and all other native wildlife are given precedence on public land, and where buffalo herds remain as a self-regulating sustainable population, and a viable genetic source for the future evolutionary potential of the wildlife species.

The Montana legislature needs to stop the wasteful, taxpayer funded harassment and slaughter of America's last wild buffalo in Gardiner and Hebgen Lake basins, and wherever wild buffalo roam in Montana.

In particular, the Montana Deptartment of Livestock has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars harassing and slaughtering wild buffalo, only to have cattle contract brucellosis that Montana's state vet says was not caused by wild buffalo.

Even the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the current management scheme has wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a boondoggle that has only led to the destruction of America's last wild migratory buffalo and has not protected Montana's cattle.

What has Montana gained for more than $45 million dollars spent to date on the Interagency Bison Management Plan?
If there is a valid disease concern, address it by managing cattle.

Recently, Hank Rate who has been running cattle along the Yellowstone river for 40 years said: "We can live with the animals. Buffalo are part of the overall picture," he said last week. "If you don't want them, go get a farm in Iowa."

"As long as the IBMP is in the state it is now, I see no resolution because it's been crafted such that it's impossible to allow buffalo to do anything but come out and be shot," he said. "IBMP" is the Interagency Bison Management Plan currently costing taxpayers over $3 million dollars annually to harass and harm wild buffalo on their native habitat.

And Montana has yet to acknowledge the game changing rules by the U.S. Department of Agriculture APHIS governing brucellosis:
* The threat of out of state sanctions against Montana cattle is gone;
* The threat of whole herd depopulation of cattle is gone.
* In its place is a localized commonsense approach to managing cattle with some of these costs paid for by American taxpayers.

Wild buffalo are ecologically extinct in Montana in part because of state law. Our duty and trust to this valued indigenous wildlife species must be met and upheld for future generations. HB 482 is a good start in that direction.

Buffalo Field Campaign supports HB 482's provisions repealing MCA 81-2-120 "Management of Wild Buffalo for Disease Control" which gives Montana Department of Livestock authority for all migratory populations and MCA 87-1-216 coupling Montana's hunt of wild buffalo for disease control purposes. The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) has no business being in charge of managing America's only continuously wild population of bison. In fact, as an agency tasked with protecting the economic interests of Montana's Livestock industry, the DOL's authority over wild bison is a glaring conflict of interest.

Is the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks ready and committed to wild buffalo in Montana? Based on their track record, we have our doubts. However, as an agency whose employees have backgrounds, education, and training in the wildlife sciences, FWP is better equipped to act in a responsible manner as stewards of the Yellowstone bison population than the Department of Livestock.

The people who look after and care for the buffalo should be biologists, scientists, people trained in traditional ecological knowledge of wild buffalo, people who have an open mind about what the buffalo can teach our culture: nurture strong family bonds, show a willingness to look after one another in a population, share the hardships in breaking trail to find new food sources, fend for the lesser among your group, traits that have served the wild species well.

Buffalo Field Campaign endorses HB 482's "recognition of the cultural heritage and treaty rights of sovereign tribal nations," and supports amending HB 482 to support the development of a cooperative framework to conserve wild buffalo across jurisdictions to make more habitat available for free roaming populations.
Buffalo Field Campaign supports amending HB 482 to direct Montana's engagement of all federal land management agencies to cooperate in making habitat available year-round that serves the long-term needs of the wild buffalo.

As Montanans we have an obligation to conserve, protect and restore wild American bison and prevent ecological extinction of a valued indigenous wildlife species.
The prevalence of fenced, domesticated buffalo as livestock is widespread in North America; only one population of migratory wild buffalo remains in Montana.
Buffalo descended from the Yellowstone population are a gift to Montana, our Nation, and our natural heritage. We have a duty to future generations to commit ourselves to the conservation, preservation and restoration of the wild American buffalo in Montana today.

Wild buffalo have been missing from Montana's landscape for well over 100 years. It's time for Montanans to make a generational commitment to conserve, protect and restore wild buffalo in their native habitats for the next 100 years to come.

Sincerely,
Dan Brister
Executive Director
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758