| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 3/17/05 |
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| Second
bison capture facility planned
By Scott McMillion Chronicle Staff Writer
3/17/05 |
LIVINGSTON
-- State and federal officials are proposing to build
tall fences around as much as 500 acres in the Paradise
Valley as part of a quarantine program for bison from
Yellowstone National Park.
If it goes ahead, the $760,000 project would stand on
a state wildlife management area near Daily's Lake, about
35 miles south of here.
It would be used in conjunction with another quarantine
facility at Corwin Springs, which has already been approved.
And the future could bring yet a third facility.
The overall goals, according to a proposal the Montana
Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks released this week,
are threefold:
• Provide a source of brucellosis-free bison "for
the establishment of new public and Native American bison
herds."
• Research ways to conserve the unique genetics
of the Yellowstone herd by creating other herds in North
America.
• "Examine the feasibility" of running
a quarantine facility and of planting bison in large grassland
systems.
The project "could serve as a reliable source of
genetically pure bison" that don't have brucellosis,
the proposal says.
About half of Yellowstone's bison have been exposed to
brucellosis and about 15 percent have active infection.
For many years, the shaggy giants have been granted only
a sliver of Montana in which to roam because cattlemen
fear the disease will spread to their herds. Vaccines
are only partially effective.
The proposal calls for capturing up to 100 bison calves
as they leave the park, in existing traps along Yellowstone's
north and west boundaries.
Only animals that test negative for brucellosis would
go to the quarantine at the Corwin Springs facility, a
former elk farm that FWP has leased. There they would
undergo extensive and repeated tests to see if the disease
shows up later. Some would be slaughtered to assess the
effectiveness of live tests.
Surviving animals would then be transported after one
year to a "phase II" facility, to be built at
Daily Lake.
There, the animals would be bred and undergo more testing.
Phase III would happen -- possibly on land that might
be purchased a few miles to the north -- when the 3-year-old
animals give birth.
All that work would be expensive: $29,500 per disease-free
cow/calf pair, even without any land purchases, which
could run more than $2 million.
Privately owned bison generally cost less than $1,500
in the open market. But they often are not genetically
pure. Most of the nation's bison have cattle genes.
FWP unveiled the second phase this week and will be taking
comment through April 15. Money for the first two phases
already has been appropriated by Congress.
Some are wondering if the whole thing is even necessary,
and say the facilities are in the wrong place.
The Corwin Springs facility is the middle of a major elk
migration corridor between the park and winter range in
Paradise Valley, noted Glen Hockett, president of the
Gallatin Wildlife Association.
"It's in the wrong location," Hockett said.
He also noted that the plan makes no promises about where
the bison that pass all the disease tests eventually will
be shipped.
"I'm afraid they be behind a high fence or somewhere
with an ear tag, which means they're owned by somebody,"
Hockett said.
He said he is eager to see populations of wild bison,
which are available to hunt by the general public, but
wants assurances all the animals won't be shipped far
away.
The proposal is available online at http://fwp.state.mt.us.
Click on Recent Public Notices.
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