| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 1/27/05 |
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Montana
outdoors: Wyoming quietly offers well-run bison hunt
Mark Henckel
Billings Gazette
1/27/05 |
While
Montana simmers, stews and boils over at every mention
of a bison hunt, Wyoming has cooked up an effective, well-run
and quiet bison hunt over the years at Jackson and, more
rarely, at Cody.
There are no protesters. There is good hunter response.
It is fair chase. And if the National Elk Refuge and Grand
Teton National Park at Jackson ever get done with their
environmental review, the hunt may be even bigger in the
years to come.
Considering the firestorm that accompanies Montana's every
mention of a bison hunt, how has Wyoming managed to harvest
47 bison in 2004, 42 in 2003 - a total of 180 bison since
2000?
"One of the things that helped us is when we came
out initially and when the (National Elk) Refuge was doing
the assessment of the bison herd at Jackson, we went to
great lengths to involve the local conservation groups
and local communities," said Mark Gocke, regional
information and education specialist for Wyoming Game
and Fish at Jackson.
"We all sat around the table and talked about the
issues. Everybody agreed that hunting was a necessary
tool to control the population and protect the habitat
we have. We needed a manageable number of bison,"
he said.
"Only one group opposed - the Fund for Animals -
and they're opposed to all hunting," Gocke said.
Some problems
That process began in 1985. The first public bison hunt
took place in 1989 with 12 harvested. Since then, there
have been some bumps in the road.
In 1990, a group called Legal Action for Animals sued
over compliance with the National Environmental Policy
Act because the hunt was being conducted on federal land.
The Jackson bison hunt was shut down because of the complaint.
In 1994, a management plan was developed for bison leaving
Yellowstone National Park and wintering on the North Fork
of the Shoshone, west of Cody. It allowed for 15 bull
bison to winter there and no cows, due to brucellosis
concerns.
In this small wintering population, 12 bull bison were
harvested in the winter of 1995-96 and 14 bulls, one cow
and one calf were taken in 1996-97 when the 15-bull management
goal was exceeded.
After legal hoops were negotiated at Jackson, the hunt
there resumed in 1999 on private land, state land and
Bridger-Teton National Forest land.
EIS long delayed
And that's where things still sit today, with an Environmental
Impact Statement still in the works after five years of
work on it by the National Elk Refuge and Grand Teton
National Park.
Craig Sax, a Game and Fish warden at Cody, said Wyoming's
approach to a hunt is clear and simple.
"This is a bison reduction program, a bison management
program, where you set population objectives and try to
harvest the excess," Sax said. "We need the
essential management tools of bison reduction where necessary."
The wintering ground on the North Fork of the Shoshone
typically attracts few bison, except during really tough
winters. It's during those years, when more bison come
out of Yellowstone, that hunters who apply for permits
are notified and hunts are held.
At Jackson, the bison hunt has been an every-year affair
since 1998.
At first, hunters were divided into five time periods.
They would attend one of five classroom orientation sessions.
"We talked about a lot of things - shot placement,
boundaries of the hunt, safety, ethics and did shooting
proficiency tests to make sure hunters came with sighted-in
rifles," Gocke said. "It was a pretty labor-intensive
hunt.
"But we've been moving toward a more normal big game
hunt like the rest of the big game species in Wyoming,"
he said.
Regulations call for a Sept. 1-Nov. 30 season. All the
classroom orientation materials are sent to hunters. Hunters
can come when they want. Last fall, there were 25 bull
tags and 50 cow/calf tags. Hunters who were successful
in the drawings were notified by mail that they were eligible
to purchase a tag.
Bull bison tend to go to the areas where the hunt is held.
Cows and calves are more likely to stay in the lowlands
on the National Elk Refuge. As a result, hunter success
on bulls last fall was 100 percent. Only 32 percent of
the cow/calf hunters filled their tags.
According to Sax, the resident application fee (to get
on the bison priority list) costs $9 and if you are drawn
to participate, the license is $331. The nonresident application
fee is $17 and if you are drawn to participate, it's a
$2,101 license.
One of the big misconceptions about the bison hunt is
that it's not a fair chase hunt, Gocke said. That's not
true.
"These are not dumb animals," he said. "We're
not even hunting them very hard. Yes, as these animals
are hunted, they are definitely wary and wily. It's just
like any big game species. Sometimes you have an easy
hunt. But we have cases where you're peeking over a ridge
250 yards away, and they're already off and running from
you.
"It's not like you're driving through Yellowstone
National Park and are having these animals right next
to your car," Gocke said. "It's a fair chase
hunt, and these are wild bison."
Gocke said that the bison herd at Jackson is still far
from its management goals. The population objective is
400 animals. Currently, the herd is at 800-plus.
"What's limiting us now is how many bison are going
to be potentially available on our hunting area and how
many hunters can be put in the field without conflict,"
he said. "The number of bison we're taking now is
not curbing the growth of the population."
That could change if Grand Teton National Park and the
National Elk Refuge complete their environmental study
and the hunting area can be expanded.
In the meantime, the hunts go on.
"We haven't had any disputes in the field,"
Gocke said. "We haven't had big protests. In a way,
we're staying under the radar. But it's also because we
went to great lengths before the hunts, and people recognized
that hunting was needed to control the population and
protect the habitat."
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