| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 4/08/08 |
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OUR
OPINION
Bison plan a total failure that needs fixing
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
4/08/08 |
If
any of the state and federal bureaucrats involved still
doubted that this winter's slaughter of roaming Yellowstone
Park bison was a situation run amok, they now have the
authority of the federal Government Accounting Office
to further convince them.
The GAO issued a scathing report last week that faulted
both federal and state agencies for not letting bison
roam out of the park in areas that were set aside for
just that purpose in an interagency bison management plan
adopted in 2000.
The report cited a significant lack of progress on this
thorny issue, despite the fact that $16 million has been
spent on bison management since 2002. Some $13 million
of that was spent on land and conservation easements where
bison typically roam outside the park, according to the
report, even though bison are still prevented from venturing
onto these parcels of land.
State officials slaughtered 1,400 bison this winter -
a record. This wholesale slaughter has been prominently
featured in animal-rights activists' TV ad campaigns that
have tarnished the state's reputation nationwide - something
that a state that depends on tourism for a substantial
portion of its economy can do without.
The GAO report just stands as further evidence that the
much-touted and longawaited interagency bison management
either, a) has never been fully implemented, or b) was
never up to the task it was designed for.
Either way, Gov. Brian Schweitzer would be well advised
to use the clout his predecessor, former Gov. Marc Racicot,
exercised and reconvene the interagency bison committee
that originally formulated the management plan.
That committee should be directed at the very least to
enforce the bison management plan as it was conceived.
A management plan that controls bison numbers effectively
without any intervention from government agencies is probably
a ways down the road.
But we won't know what further tweaking the plan needs
until plan adopted in 2000 is fully implemented. And it's
apparent that hasn't happened yet.
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