Mild winters mustn't lull us into bison complacency A mild winter has given everybody involved with bison issues a little breathing space. But that doesn't mean it's time to relax. Hard winters will come again, with the prospect of 1,000 or more bison leaving Yellowstone National Park, trying to find something to eat in Montana.

That's what happened in 1996-97 and the resulting carnage left a stink that lingers today. State and federal officials need to prepare for a similar eventuality. Federal officials announced late last year that they no longer would work with Montana officials to develop a long-range bison plan. State officials are too stubborn and insist on killing too many bison "unnecessarily," the feds said. And the feds are right, but only to a point.

Gov. Marc Racicot's administration has for too long looked at bison from the point of view of a beef producer. It needs to take the blinders off. On the other hand, the feds can write any bison management plan they want but the document will do nothing but gather dust on a shelf unless Montana signs on the the dotted line. Without Montana's cooperation, any federal plan must confine itself to Yellowstone, which isn't where the ruckus arises.

Clearly, state and federal officials need to get back together and work out a reasonable compromise. That means deciding where bison can roam and when. Clearly, bison can be tolerated in some areas near West Yellowstone, especially since cattle grazing rules have been changed to make sure beef and bison don't mix on public land there. And more bison can be tolerated near Gardiner, especially since $13.5 million in public money recently purchased thousands of acres from the Church Universal and Triumphant.

We bought the land for wildlife. Let the wildlife have it. However, bison advocates have to realize that shaggy giants are not going to be allowed to recolonize the entire West. There are just too many people, cows, fences, roads and homes between Yellowstone and the Great Plains.

Imagine bison plodding along the shoulders of Interstate 90. Imagine your children dodging cantankerous bulls on their way to school. A safe and effective vaccine for brucellosis is several years away and until it arrives, society, through its government, must decide when and where bison can roam.

There is considerable speculation that both bison busters and buffalo huggers are waiting for new administrations, both in Helena and in Washington, D.C., to take office. Both sides are hoping to find more sympathetic ears come January. That's fuzzy thinking. No matter who is president or governor, bison will continue to spill out of the park during hard winters. And before it happens in large numbers again, we need to decide how we are going to react.

The mild winter is providing a little breathing room. Let's use it effectively.

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