The Montana Department of Livestock continues to play
hardball with bison leaving Yellowstone National Park despite
urging from federal agencies to let the animals roam. In mid-March,
state workers removed protesters blocking a Forest Service road
near West Yellowstone, Mont., and arrested six members of the
group, Buffalo Field Campaign. That cleared the way for the state
to set up a new pen to capture migrating bison.
Up to this point, federal officials have treated the state gently,
encouraging Montana’s livestock department to allow bison that pose
little threat of spreading brucellosis to cattle to roam outside
the park (HCN, 12/22/97). But the latest action drew stinging
criticism from the Department of the
Interior.
“The state of
Montana has chosen not to exercise any flexibility and decided to
force the bison issue when there was no apparent threat to public
safety or health,” said Interior spokesman John Wright. “We don’t
feel the state’s actions were necessary to protect the state’s
brucellosis-free status and we really don’t understand why the DOL
is doing what they are doing.”
The U.S. Forest
Service has shown more flexibility. It modified cattle-grazing
permits on the park boundary to keep bison and cattle
separated.
“The Forest Service
deserves enormous credit,” says Greater Yellowstone Coalition
spokesman Jon Catton. “It’s a tangible conflict-reducing step
they’ve taken. With that goes any justification for killing
buffalo.”
In March, the Montana Legislature’s
agriculture committee tabled a bill that would have stripped the
state’s livestock department of its authority over low-risk bison
bulls, calves and non-pregnant females. The state has killed 45
bison so far this winter.
*Rachel
Odell
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Montana won’t bend for bison.
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