The buffalo know how to take care of themselves.

With little snow this winter, the buffalo have been keeping to the high country of Yellowstone National Park.

In Hebgen Basin, a few bull buffalo migrated to the National Forest just outside West Yellowstone where they were shot less than a mile from Yellowstone National Park. The ones that avoided the bullets fled the National Forest. None have come back since.

In Gardiner Basin, buffalo were lured by the recent green up and smell of grass and came down to fill their bellies. The first herd of 28 that came down the mountain were trapped inside Yellowstone National Park at Stephens Creek. The next herd made it by the park’s trap to Beattie Gulch on the National Forest where 5 were taken by hunters. The survivors retreated to Yellowstone National Park.

After more than 20 years, the government’s plan continues to exclude buffalo from millions of acres of public lands surrounding Yellowstone National Park. Like wild elk, buffalo can’t survive in the high country alone. To take care of themselves, they need freedom to roam. We the people must persevere and find a way to dislodge Montana and the livestock lobby from managing for the extinction of the sacred buffalo under the Big Sky.

With the Buffalo,
Mike Mease