| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 3/18/04 |
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| Purchase
of CUT land never meant to solve bison/cattle issue
by Scott McMillion
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer
March 18, 2004
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The
number of bison killed by Yellowstone National Park officials
this winter is more than double the number of cattle living
within 10 miles of the park.
A total of 216 bison have been killed this winter, with
42 more going to slaughter in a day or two. Most of the
the cattle living just north of the park belong to the
Church Universal and Triumphant, which in 1998 was given
$13 million for land and conservation easements intended
to provide wildlife habitat.
In all, the government bought 5,262 acres from the church,
along with 1,508 acres of conservation easements. The
church retained about 6,000 acres of its Royal Teton Ranch.
Some people maintain bison should be allowed to use the
now-public land.
"The (church) received more than $13 million in 1998
for land and conservation easements intended to provide
winter range for native buffalo," the Buffalo Field
Campaign maintained in a press release. "However,
about 180 cows continue to graze there, while wild buffalo
are slaughtered to protect them."
That statement contains some errors.
Cattle no longer graze the land the U.S. Forest Service
purchased, although they are still on some of the conservation
easement land. There are about 105 cows on the ranch,
and the deal was never meant to end conflicts over wandering
bison.
"The intent was never to totally solve the bison/cattle
issue," said Bob Dennee, lands specialist for the
Gallatin National Forest and one of the principal architects
of the transaction. "We wrote briefing paper after
briefing paper saying exactly that." Rather, the
goal was to protect wildlife habitat from development,
allow for recreation and provide "some flexibility"
in bison
management, Dennee said.
That flexibility has yet to be exercised, although over
the past 20 years the church has come up with a variety
of ways to deal with bison and the interest groups involved
with them.
In the 1980s, it worked with the Fund for Animals in a
futile effort to fence bison inside the park.
In the 1990s, it proposed allowing limited numbers of
bison to roam its land. But that plan never got off the
ground and for the past several years, the church has
been raising cattle on its private property.
The church's two presidents, Kate Gordon and Lois Drake,
were out of state and unreachable by phone this week.
Ken Britton, the district ranger for the Forest Service
in Gardiner, said he met with church officials Tuesday
and they told him they plan to continue grazing cattle
on their private land. "We don't have any indication
they're planning to do anything different," Britton
said Wednesday.
But even if the church sold all it's cattle immediately,
it might not change how Yellowstone's herd of 4,200 bison
is managed under a complicated state/federal plan implemented
in 2000.
"It really doesn't have anything to do with the cattle
there," said Karen Cooper, spokeswoman for the Montana
Department of Livestock. "It has to do with the fact
there is disease in the herd." Private property rights
also are a concern, she said.
The same plan applies in the West Yellowstone area, where
bison are killed every winter, although cattle don't graze
there until summer. The National Park Service is now holding
in pens 198 bison that have tested negative for exposure
to brucellosis. That number won't grow.
"We have reached capacity," park spokeswoman
Cheryl Matthews said. All other captured bison will be
shipped to slaughter without testing them for the disease.
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