The Yellowstone National Park Ecosystem is home to the last wild and “free” roaming buffalo in the world, a universally cherished but imperiled remnant of a species that once dominated the North American landscape. In 2000, governmental agencies adopted the Bison Management Plan (BMP) “to ensure domestic cattle in portions of Montana adjacent to Yellowstone National Park are protected from brucellosis… and to ensure the wild and free-ranging nature of the bison herd.” Though it has been a spectacular failure on both counts, it remains stubbornly in place — the wildlife equivalent of apartheid, a notoriously racist South African social policy that emphasized territorial separation and police oppression to control natural resources.
Bison being rounded up near Yellowstone. Photo: NPS
While paying lip service to free-roaming buffalo, the over-arching purpose of the BMP is to protect the “brucellosis-free” status of Montana’s cattle industry. To borrow a military term, this has been carried out with “extreme prejudice.” During the winter of 2008, 1447 bison foraging in the lowlands near the park’s border were killed by government agents, reducing this precarious population by over a third. The death toll under the BMP to date is over 3000 bison, equivalent to the entire population today of a species that once numbered 60 million.
In spite of this cruel zero tolerance policy, Montana lost its brucellosis-free status in 2008. None of the infected cattle had any contact with bison. With all signs pointing to elk as the source of infection, Montana’s wildlife managers have assured the public that they have no intent to test and slaughter elk. Unlike with elk, there has never been a single confirmed case of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle. Which raises the obvious question: Why is our government intent on slaughtering bison?
Bison in a capture facility near Yellowstone National Park. Photo: NPS
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commissioner Vic Workman recently provided the answer to this question: “[T]he issue in the bison controversy is not brucellosis, but whether bison should be kept off rangeland that livestock producers want for their cattle.”
Just as apartheid was inhumanely enforced for half a century in order to secure Dutch control of diamond mines, we are slaughtering the last wild bison to protect fields of grass on public lands for welfare ranchers — at an annual cost to taxpayers of approximately $2.5 million — not to mention the ecological damage done by livestock! This fraud is now coming under heavy criticism from reputable scientists, government watchdogs, and principled Congressmen.
A 2009 study in the Journal of Applied Ecology quantified the actual risk of disease transmission associated with free-roaming buffalo. Authored by two scientists from the University of California and one from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, the study found that for about half the annual cost of the BMP, all the affected ranching interests could be fairly purchased (or condemned), thus eliminating any risk of transmission. That’s because there are only about 1440 cows at risk! Alternatively, it was determined that Montana could create a special brucellosis management zone, as recently proposed by Governor Schweitzer, and pay for all the necessary testing of those cattle at a cost of only about $5,000 a year! The study found that even if nothing was done, there would be zero risk of transmission during most years, and even during unusual years the risk would be highly localized.
According to a 2008 Report from the Government Accountability Office, the BMP “does not have clearly defined, measurable objectives.” It provides “no sound basis for making decisions or measuring success” and “the agencies lack accountability among themselves and to the public.” It should come as no surprise, then, that when Western Watersheds and others formally requested the agencies to reconsider the wisdom of the BMP in light of all this new information, we were informed that the Plan was working just as intended.
There is no good reason why bison should not once again roam free along the front range of the Northern Rockies north of Yellowstone, joining grizzlies, wolves, lynx, wolverine, pronghorn antelope, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, sage grouse, mule deer and elk in an American Serengeti of unrivaled biological diversity. In order to realize this vision, however, we need to educate the new administration while continuing to work with our fervent allies in Congress.
This year marks the beginning of an aggressive campaign to scrap the BMP by any means necessary. You can help. Visit the Buffalo Field Campaign’s web site, click on “Take Action”, and let President Obama know the kind of change you expect to see. As Congressman Maurice Hinchey says, “[t]he bison is a precious American icon and we must do everything we can to protect the species for its own good as well as for the enjoyment of millions of Americans and other visitors who travel to Yellowstone each year to see these magnificent animals.”
Give us a home where the buffalo roam…
Tom Woodbury is WWP’s Montana Director. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
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Tags: bison
Tom……Would like to see this as an “oped” in Montana’s newspapers. Have you submitted it?
Jerry: Sorry for the belated response — been kinda swamped! I do intend to follow up with an oped for distribution to Montana’s newspapers, and maybe even U.S. Today, but probably not in this present form. I was actually thinking about turning it into an open letter to Schweitzer for this purpose.