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Update from the Field
Dear Buffalo Friends,
Thank you all for responding to so many calls to action
in defense of the buffalo. We must press on with endless
pressure, endlessly applied. Please continue to contact
your members of Congress to share solutions and urge
them to stop the senseless slaughter and take proactive
steps to defend the migratory freedom of the last wild
buffalo herds.
* Write your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
* Write your Rep: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Now that Yellowstone and Montana have conducted the
worst wild buffalo slaughter since the 19th Century
- having killed 1,181 buffalo, or more than a quarter
of the population, Yellowstone National Park has announced
that they will "transition" operations at
the Stephens Creek bison trap and begin holding captured
bison until spring green-up. While this means some of
the buffalo may not be shipped to slaughter, their wild
integrity is still at risk since those that remain in
the pens will be confined and fed hay like livestock.
The stress placed on the captured buffalo could also
- as it did two years ago - result in pregnant buffalo
having miscarriages, and pen-related deaths. So far
this season at least three wild buffalo have died as
a result of being captured and held for slaughter.
Yellowstone also just announced that they will begin
testing bison calves for exposure to brucellosis. Thirty-seven
calves were shipped this morning. Up to 100 calves could
end up being sent to the Corwin Springs bison quarantine
feasibility study, better known as a livestock assimilation
program. Only calves testing negative for exposure to
brucellosis will be sent to this prison. Calves that
test positive for exposure, meaning those that carry
antibodies to fight brucellosis, will be shipped to
slaughter. In all of Yellowstone's press releases during
capture and slaughter operations, the Park claims they
do not want to hold bison because they don't want to
domesticate them, yet domestication will be the fate
of all the orphaned calves.
Along the western boundary of Yellowstone, things in
the field have been relatively quiet. Of course, the
local Department of Livestock agent, Shane Grube, makes
his daily runs up and down the highways and onto Horse
Butte, wasting time and taxpayer money, scouting for
"rouge" buffalo. But, thus far, the heavy
spring migration has not yet begun. Of course, with
so many buffalo already killed, we wonder how many we
will see making their way along the Madison River corridor
to calve on Horse Butte.
We are pleased to report that the family group of buffalo
we wrote about last week, the ones in the buffalo-friendly
Yellowstone Village neighborhood, are still alive. They
are currently in a safe place and we can only hope they'll
hold out there long enough to survive this season.
Roam Free,
~Stephany
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* Unfortunate Opportunity: BFC Sees Inside Bison
Trap
This week I had the unfortunate opportunity to go on
a tour of Yellowstone National Park's Stephens Creek
bison trap, where nearly 1,000 buffalo have been captured
and shipped off to to slaughter so far this year. On
Tuesday morning, instead of going out on morning patrol
to monitor the Park Service's hazing and capture of
bison I got to sleep in a little later than usual. At
7 AM I arrived at the north entrance to Yellowstone,
right next to the big stone arch, to meet Al Nash from
the Park's public affairs office, and representatives
from several environmental groups and media organizations
(including the New York Times). From there we caravaned
several miles down to the Stephens Creek trap. After
driving through several miles of land that has had its
native plant communities exterminated by agriculture
before being incorporated into the Park, we turned down
a road I never thought I would be driving down. The
road to Stephens Creek is marked with large signs warning
the public not to go down the road, though the only
sign indicating what happens there says "corral
operations." If I had turned down that road on
any other day I would have been arrested. After passing
through rows of snowplows, junk cars and assorted debris,
we arrived at the bison trap.
We arrived just in time to see bison being loaded into
a semi trailer designed to haul cattle. In order to
move the bison through the facility into the truck there
were park employees up on catwalks above the bison with
whips and cattle prods. Of all the park employees present,
I don't think one was a wildlife biologist (or trained
in anything related to wildlife), they were law enforcement
rangers, maintenance workers, and horse wranglers. Watching
the bison being loaded into the truck was one of the
saddest sights I have seen, just days earlier these
buffalo had been roaming free, looking for the first
shoots of green grass, and now they were being loaded
into a big metal box, to be trucked hours away to a
facility designed for handling cattle, and then they
would be slaughtered. As they moved through the trailer
they rubbed against holes in the side of the truck and
large chunks of hair were sheered off their flanks and
fell to the ground. Throughout the loading of the bison
we're not allowed to approach closer than 15 feet to
the truck or the facility; the Park's reason for this
was that *we* would traumatize the bison. After two
trailers had been loaded with bison, they formed a convoy
with several other trucks from various law enforcement
agencies and headed off to the slaughterhouse.
Once the loading had finished the wranglers who had
been loading the bison headed off to go get their horses
and head out to haze more bison. Later that day they
captured 10 more bull bison. At that point we were taken
on a tour of other parts of the facility, including
the larger pens where approximately 160 bison were still
being held awaiting their fate, including calves who
later in the week after being tested for brucellosis
would be shipped of to quarantine, where they would
be separated from there families and domesticated in
the name of science. Throughout the tour we had time
for questions and answers with Al Nash, our tour guide
from the Park. At one point Al said one of the most
disconcerting things I have heard from a Park employee
about bison management. He said that deciding when to
send bison to slaughter is "an art, not a science."
I guess that explains the lack of biologists on the
scene.
At the end of the tour I headed back to the BFC trailer
in Gardiner to go pick up my patrol partner and head
back into the field to document and bear witness to
yet another bison hazing and capture operation.
For The Buffalo,
Jesse Crocker
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* Comment by April 2 on Horse Butte Bison Trap
In 1998, the U.S. Forest Service issued a special use
permit to the Montana Department of Livestock to operate
a buffalo trap on America's public lands on Horse Butte
for the next 10 years. The current permit expires December
31, 2008.
The U.S. Forest Service is currently accepting public
comments during a scoping period on a plan to renew
the livestock agency's trap for another 10 years. The
Forest Service is likely to renew the livestock agency's
permit through a categorical exclusion - pre-empting
any analysis of the trap's environmental impacts.
The notice is available online at http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin/?page=projects/horse_butte
TAKE ACTION!
Please comment on this plan and help us stop the U.S.
Forest Service from allowing this madness to continue
for another 10 years. Comments are due on April 2, 2008
and can be emailed to hebgen_lake@fs.fed.us
or mailed to:
Gallatin National Forest
Attn: Horse Butte Capture Facility Special Use Permit
PO Box 120
Bozeman, MT 59771
Here are some suggested points to include in your comments:
* Why give a livestock agency a 10-year permit to trap
wild buffalo on public lands?
* Conditions on Horse butte have changed significantly
in the past 10 years, thus it is necessary for the public
lands agency to conduct a full environmental impact
statement.
* Cattle no longer graze on public or private land on
Horse Butte Peninsula, 24,000 acres of critical wildlife
habitat, and thus there is no justification for harassing,
trapping and removing wild Buffalo from Horse Butte.
* The Department of Livestock has not used the Horse
Butte for three of the last four years but has still
successfully implemented the IBMP without it. The Department
of Livestock also maintains a permanent capture facility
on private land, and has used a temporary facility on
already heavily impacted state owned land. If the IBMP
can be successfully implemented using other capture
facility sites with less impact, why use the Horse Butte
site?
* Horse Butte is home to three breeding bald eagle nests.
The livestock agency's trap is located within .5 miles
of one of the eagle nests, and in prime foraging habitat
for other bald and golden eagles that frequent the Madison
River and Hebgen Lake. The Montana Bald Eagle Management
Plan and the Greater Yellowstone Bald Eagle Management
Plan direct that developments which may increase human
activity not be permitted within .5 miles nest sites.
A standard is a standard and not a loophole to permit
the livestock agency to disrupt bald eagle habitat.
* Horse Butte is grizzly bear and wolf habitat. Moose,
elk, black bear, coyote, and a lot of other wildlife
depend on managing public lands on Horse Butte as wildlife
habitat.
* Hebgen Lake, which surrounds Horse Butte, is critical
habitat for migratory birds, including trumpeter swans.
* Increased development on private lands on the north
side of Horse Butte has degraded available wildlife
habitat, making the south side where the trap is located
even more critical for wildlife.
* The amount of livestock inspector and law enforcement
vehicle traffic associated with the trap is far higher
than predicted in the U.S. Forest Service's initial
analysis.
* The original analysis called for the Department of
Livestock to perform soil reclamation including planting
native grasses on several acres impacted by the trap.
This promise has not been kept, resulting in degraded
forage.
OTHER ACTION YOU CAN TAKE TO PROTECT HORSE BUTTE
FOR BUFFALO: If you haven't already, please
join the over 20,000 wild bison advocates who have signed
on to the letter addressed to the people in charge of
bison management requesting that wild bison be allowed
to range on Horse Butte without being harassed, trapped
and slaughtered by government agents.
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0708/pressreleases0708/0304082.html
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* Church Universal and Triumphant Land "Deal"
Bad Deal for Wild Bison
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, National Parks Conservation
Association, Montana Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife
Federation, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have
announced a $2.8 million dollar bid to negotiate a 30
year land lease with the Church Universal and Triumphant
removing cattle from private lands west of the Yellowstone
River in the Gardiner Basin. Taxpayers are being asked
to fund their bid.
The 30 year lease offers little for wild bison. Initially,
only 25 bison would be allowed to range a portion of
Church and Gallatin National Forest lands but only after
being run through a tortuous gauntlet: forcing them
off their habitat into traps where blood is extracted,
wild bison tagged or collared, and for pregnant females,
implanted with vaginal telemetry devices. At most,
100 bison could roam there. Extensive fencing could
block a critical migration corridor that the bison share
with bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, and a distinct population
of pronghorn antelope.
The question arises what happens after 30 years? Why
re-visit this issue another generation from now when
the lease agreement expires?
U.S. taxpayers paid the Church Universal and Triumphant
$13,000,000 for wild bison to access these lands in
1999. Check out our web site to learn more about
the "safe haven for bison" that never materialized:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legal/rtr.html.
The Church and the Gallatin National Forest still have
an obligation to ensure that wild bison benefit from
the 1999 land deal. The only way to stop the bison slaughter
on Yellowstone's northern range is to buy the grass
in perpetuity for native wildlife.
If the U.S. Congress appropriates taxpayer funds to
benefit Yellowstone's wild bison, it must do so with
guarantees that the conservation value of protecting
habitat for wild bison will exist in perpetuity.
The migration corridor and habitat west of the Yellowstone
River from Gardiner, Montana to Yankee Jim Canyon is
an important link in the bison's migratory range.
Thousands of wild bison have been slaughtered in the
Gardiner Basin to make way for a few hundred cattle
to graze on the bison's native range. It's time for
the U.S. Congress to settle this matter and buy the
grass to let bison roam forever.
CONTACT CONGRESS NOW!
* Write your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
* Write your Rep: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
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* Photo of the Week
http://gallery.buffalofieldcampaign.org/v/photo_of_the_week/3-20-08.jpg.html
Captured wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park's
Stephens Creek bison trap.
Photo by Jesse Crocker.
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* Last Words
"I felt a deep sadness for the deaths of the buffalo,
but what really distresses me is the condition of human
beings. We see everything as a disposable commodity
already and that is not good. What we need to be seriously
concerned about is humanity's callousness towards an
entire species. Unchecked violence is happening again
here and that should send a strong message. It's not
a one time tragedy. It's not even an unfortunate necessity.
It's habitual cruelty. We can do it here and we can
go to other parts of the world and do it to other human
beings. The buffalo slaughter represents government's
capacity for unconscionable, habitual violence. That
is what is dangerously contagious. It sends a chill
through me."
~ Rosalie Little Thunder
Co-founder, Buffalo Field Campaign
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