CODY, Wyo. -- 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.

There are no protesters. There is good hunter response. 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.

A firestorm of protest accompanies Montana's every mention of a bison hunt, justified by the state as a means of preventing the spread of the cattle disease brucellosis, which is found in Yellowstone National Park bison. So how has Wyoming managed to quietly 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.

That process began in 1985. The first public bison hunt took place in 1989 with 12 animals killed.
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 River, west of Cody. It allowed for 15 bulls 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.

And that's where things still sit today, with an environmental impact statement still pending after five years of work by the National Elk Refuge and Grand Teton.

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) is $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. "... 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."

Top of Page