| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 5/15/05 |
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| Thinking
big about bison
By Scott McMillion, Bozeman Daily Chronicle
5/15/05 |
DAILEY
LAKE - When it comes to Yellowstone National
Park bison, nothing's ever easy.
Now, things are getting even more complicated.
State and federal officials want to build a 400-acre brucellosis
quarantine facility just south of this Paradise Valley
lake popular with both people and wildlife, on state land
that was purchased for elk winter range.
If it works, the quarantine project could, in about three
years, produce certified disease-free animals that could
be used to establish wild and free-ranging bison herds
in various locations around the West. Across most of their
native range, bison are "ecologically extinct."
Yellowstone bison, if proven disease free, are perfect
for such restoration projects, said Keith Aune, head of
research for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife
and Parks.
Unlike most of the nation's 500,000 bison, most of which
are captive livestock, they've never interbred with cattle.
They've got the broadest genetic diversity of any herd
in the country. Their numbers are robust, although their
range is restrained by political boundaries.
While it isn't the only factor at play, natural selection
has strengthened the herd.
However, a Bozeman-based wildlife advocacy/hunting group
opposes the plan. So do nearby ranchers.
"I'm not against research," said Franklin Rigler,
former owner of the Dailey Lake property. "I'm against
where you want to put it. I didn't sell (the land) for
people to come up here, bring their families, and see
trapped-in animals."
If built, the facility will center around a 150-acre irrigated
hay meadow, a parcel that is managed to produce feed for
wintering elk.
Richard Kinkie, who ranches a few miles away and farms
the meadow under a lease with FWP, panned the idea of
a quarantine facility here.
"It seems to me it's going to cause more commotion,"
he said Wednesday during a tour of the area.
Loss of the hay is not that big a problem, he said, but
he fears the tall fences the bison would require could
push elk to nearby private lands.
A small percentage of those elk have brucellosis, too,
and sometimes up to 1,000 elk mingle with cattle on his
land. Brucellosis has appeared in Wyoming cattle in places
with infected elk, he noted.
The Gallatin Wildlife Association, a group of conservation-minded
hunters, organized Wednesday's tour. Members of that group
said they saw no benefit in the quarantine program for
Montana hunters.
"Montana sportsmen are getting nothing out of this,"
said Bill O'Connell.
FWP can't yet say where any disease-free bison would go.
Indian tribes are a possibility, but so are public lands,
including some as far away as Canada and Mexico.
Aune urged patience. Private groups are hoping to establish
wild bison herds in northeast Montana, he noted, and if
there is to be a possibility of establishing new wild
herds anywhere, they must be free of brucellosis first.
Brucellosis causes cattle to abort their calves and has
been eradicated from most of the nation. Strict state
and federal rules ban transplants of possibly infected
animals.
GWA President Glenn Hockett wants FWP to focus instead
on finding places near Yellowstone where bison, diseased
or not, can be allowed to roam and be hunted.
Focusing energies -- and up to $4.4 million in federal
money -- on quarantine facilities will draw attention
away from finding a solution for greater Yellowstone,
where there is more public land and fewer cattle than
almost anywhere in the country, Hockett said.
However, fierce arguments have raged over the park's wandering
herd for at least two decades. Solutions, if they come,
could be far in the future. The current status quo --
killing or hazing most bison that leave the park -- could
last a long time.
"Let's not put all our eggs in the Yellowstone basket,"
Aune urged.
He said nobody is yet committed to a facility here at
Dailey Lake, but it's the best site his team could come
up with. A variety of entrenched bureaucracies divide
legal authority over bison. Existing federal rules say
any quarantine must be "adjacent" to the park,
though nobody has defined that word. (Dailey Lake is 14
miles from the park.)
The National Park Service declined to operate a quarantine
inside the park, Aune said. Putting one adjacent to cattle
is unacceptable. Wyoming has offered nothing, and deals
on nearby private land couldn't be worked out.
"I don't care where we proposed to do this facility,
it will have some controversy," Aune said.
"We are wiggling between constraints on every side,"
added Jack Rhyan, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colo.
With Aune, he is co-leader of the project.
Hunters and wildlife advocates around the country advocate
for free-ranging bison. Habitat for them exists, in places
from Nebraska to Alberta. If Yellowstone's herd was brucellosis-free,
letting them roam might be possible here.
Eradicating the disease is possible scientifically, Rhyan
said. But political obstacles are huge, and eradication
would entail killing thousands of bison and elk.
The whole quarantine experiment might not work, Aune noted,
but it's worth pursuing.
"If we want to bison to be wildlife," he said.
"We'd better step into the game."
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