| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 3/10/04 |
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| Eight
more bison killed near Gardiner
By Nick Gevock
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
March 10, 2004
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Buffalo
continued to wander out of the northern end of Yellowstone
National Park Tuesday, prompting officials to haze nearly
200 of them back across the park boundary.
The hazing follows the capture of seven bull buffalo Monday
at the Stephens Creek corral in the park, just west of
Gardiner, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said. Those
bulls will be sent to slaughter without being tested for
brucellosis.
Park officials also killed a bull buffalo within the park
Monday that had grown increasingly aggressive, Matthews
said.
Officials had hazed the bulls numerous times throughout
the weekend, she said.
"It had just become ineffective and unsafe, especially
for the one that we had to lethally remove that had become
quite aggressive," Matthews said. "We are not
holding the big bulls this year, mainly because of safety
concerns not only for the personnel, but also for the
other buffalo in the holding facility."
Matthews said all management actions are being carried
out according to the Interagency buffalo Management Plan,
adopted in December 2000. The plan calls for three federal
agencies and two state agencies to keep buffalo away from
cattle outside the park.
The buffalo are moving through the Reese Creek drainage
onto lands owned by the Church Universal and Triumphant,
which has cattle grazing on the land.
"You do have domestic livestock that are immediately
adjacent to the edge of the park at this time of year,"
Matthews said.
Josh Osher, a spokesman for the nonprofit Buffalo Field
Campaign, decried the situation. He said the federal government
spent $13 million to buy conservation easements on the
CUT Ranch that were supposed to set the land aside for
wildlife.
Matthews said officials will continue hazing buffalo back
into the park, in hopes that spring grasses will eventually
convince the animals to stay put.
The eight bulls killed brings the total of buffalo slaughtered
this year to 153. Federal officials are still holding
154 buffalo in the Stephens Creek facility that will be
returned to the park this spring.
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