~by Mike Mease, BFC Winter Ops, Gardiner, MT

Big Bull in Gardiner, 2025

Monday night patrol was a hard one.  When I finally got to go home (aka Gardiner base camp) at 7:45pm, 10 Buffalo were in Beattie Gulch, the hunt zone.  Another 70 Buffalo were around the trap.  Tossing and turning all night from my worst fears about those Buffalo, I awoke with them still present when my alarm sounded at 6am.

Filling my thermos and cup of tea, I headed out to face reality.  I arrived at the trap vista first and saw a sight I had never seen before; 3 horse trailers and 5 law enforcement vehicles just inside the gate, all stopped and waiting.  As I looked up the road, I could barely see as first light had not yet arrived.  Four park rangers on horses were pushing over 30 Buffalo towards the trap. Well, on this great morning, the Buffalo were having none of it! They ran off at full speed in front of the line of trailer trucks and kept running south, further into the park and away from the trap.  Yes, I was cheering with an ear to ear smile! I drove down to Beattie Gulch to check on the ten I had seen near there last night.  I was extra happy to see they were a half mile back in the park and safe.

I headed back to check on the self-liberated Buffalo and they had joined up with the other half of their herd and headed up the mountain for their journey to their calving grounds and back into the interior of Yellowstone National Park.

I am sad to say there are not enough of these days and almost always hard ones.  These rare moments keep me strong and strengthen my commitment to always be here for the Buffalo.

With the Buffalo,

Mike

Two Pregnant Mama’s Killed on Horse Butte Near Rainbow Point Campground

This week in the field in West Yellowstone, we unfortunately had two female Buffalo, who we believed to be pregnant, killed by native hunters. Despite the attempts of local residents to keep them safe, they succumbed to an unfortunate fate; being shot and killed on the national forest down the road leading to Rainbow Point Campground.

Members of the community have grown to love the Buffalo, and these two mommas in particular.  It is sad to see things like this happen. We hope for a future in which Buffalo are not forced to sit in people’s yards to remain safe when leaving Yellowstone. A future where wild bison are welcomed into the state of Montana, like all other wildlife, so that they can set up satellite herds and, if hunted, it is in fair chase with ample habitat for them to recover and build their numbers.

Buffalo Pollinator Garden

This past week in Gardiner, MT Mike Mease gave a talk at Jim Halfpenny’s Tracker School... 

Residents of the area came to hear BFC's Campaign Coordinator & Co-founder, Mike Mease,  discuss Buffalo, the work we do to protect them, and the importance of tribal co-stewardship in creating change in this issue.

Many people attended in person as well as via Zoom and became animated as Mike shared
stories about various instances in which we had saved an individual Buffalo from an untimely demise and promoted themes of unity and making the world a better place.

Outreach, and positive outreach in particular, is an extremely important element of the work we do at Buffalo Field Campaign. In this day and age, with all of the divisiveness, anger, and fear that seems omnipresent, it is important to remember the positive. That the outsiders we may fear are still human, just like ourselves, and that we can still come together, find commonalities, and be friends. That even in the darkest of circumstances, there is still
the possibility to enjoy life and to come out of it stronger. That is what the Buffalo teach!

When we do outreach, we not only bring light to the darkness in our world, we also inspire people to do what they can to help create positive change. If all we do is focus on the negative without any ability to remain positive and believe in the possibility, all we do is become part of the problem, or even make it worse.

So let us all hope for a better world, one with large, sustainable herds of free roaming bison, and an appreciation for sustainably managed stewardship.

For the Buffalo,

Jacob Faye, BFC Volunteer Coordinator

Animated Mike at Halfpenny's Tracker School, Gardiner, MT