The Montana Department of Livestock chased 14 bison out of Montana and back to Yellowstone National Park Thursday, the first significant hazing operation since last spring. Two animals, a cow and her newborn calf, were not hazed, DOL spokeswoman Karen Cooper said, even though fresh birthing materials are the primary method of spreading brucellosis, the disease carried by some bison and the reason for DOL's aggressive attitude toward the animals. "The only other option was lethal means and they chose not to do that at this time," Cooper said. "Because the calf was new it could not be hazed." Nine people from DOL, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office and the National Park Service participated in the hazing, which was conducted on snowmobiles.

Actions like those that took place Thursday hurt the state's tourism industry, the Buffalo Field Campaign said in a press release. BFC is a protest group that monitors DOL actions. Its members sometimes interfere with the operations and several have been arrested.

The Governor's Conference on Tourism begins Monday at Big Sky, about a half hour north of the hazing operation. "People spend thousands of dollars to travel to Montana and see wild buffalo," said BFC volunteer Dan Brister. "Today's actions are a slap in the face to the tourism industry and reveal Governor (Marc) Racicot's pandering to the livestock industry." Cooper said that during Thursday's hazing, "the protesters did interfere but no arrests were made." Bison wandered from Yellowstone only occasionally during the mild winter now ending. They traditionally leave the park's western border near West Yellowstone in large numbers in the spring, seeking green grasses that appear there earlier than they do in the park.

DOL has the options of hazing bison, shooting them or capturing them in one of two traps north of West Yellowstone. Captured bison are tested for exposure to brucellosis. If they test positive, they are slaughtered. If they test negative, they are marked and released. In past years, DOL has relied more heavily on hazing in the spring. Though bison often return to Montana just hours or days after being hazed, once green grass appears inside the park they tend to stay there.

State and federal officials have dickered for years over a new long-term bison management plan, so far without success. Federal officials say Montana can safely give bison more breathing room in Montana. State officials refuse to do so without guarantees of safety. More than 2,000 bison have been killed in Montana over the past dozen years, including nearly 1,100 of them in the winter of 1996-1997. There are about 2,500 bison in Yellowstone now. Cooper said between 70 and 100 of those animals are now clustered along the park's boundaries.

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