Yellowstone Bison: More room outside of park?
What's Happening: More good news for Yellowstone bison in early March — the State of Montana and federal government were negotiating an agreement to allow bison to roam freely throughout the Gardiner Basin north of Yellowstone National Park. This is the same area where a settlement allowed 25 bison to migrate north of the park this winter. What Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer termed a buffer zone would extend 13 miles north of Yellowstone, to the head of Yankee Jim Canyon. The area is about 10 times larger than the space currently afforded to the 25 bison allowed to migrate to a place called Cutler Meadow on the Gallatin National Forest.
About 600 Yellowstone bison were in corrals north of the park, awaiting their fate. In mid-February, Schweitzer issued a stay of execution for more than 200 of those bison, which had been tested positive as brucellosis carriers. He issued an order preventing bison from leaving Greater Yellowstone, citing brucellosis fears. In effect, Schweitzer was prohibiting bison from being transported in livestock trucks to slaughter.
Even the assault on the last significant herd of genetically pure bison by the Montana Legislature took a surprisingly positive turn. Three bills — SB 174, SB 144 and HB 318 — that would dramatically set back our efforts to restore wild bison to appropriate public and tribal lands were tabled. The upshot of all three: No free-roaming bison in Montana, except on the National Bison Range.
Meanwhile, more than 500 bison have been herded into the Stephens Creek corrals north of the park after migrating out of Yellowstone in search of forage. More than 200 were marked for slaughter for testing positive for brucellosis antibodies. Until Schweitzer's 90-day moratorium, it was possible that this year's slaughter of this iconic symbol of the American West would have rivaled the record winter of 2007-08, when more than 1,600 were lethally removed. The 525 in the corrals as late February represented about 13 percent of the entire population of Yellowstone bison — the last significant remnants of the genetically pure herds that roamed the plains by the millions in the mid-1800s.
The Montana legislative news comes barely a month after a landmark day in which wild bison were allowed to leave Yellowstone without fear of hazing or slaughtering. On Jan. 18, when the National Park Service pushed 25 bison onto new lands west of the Yellowstone River. These animals were free to roam up to nine miles north of the park, to a place called Cutler Meadow. Their freedom was even supported by the two ranchers who run cattle in the Gardiner Basin. As one pointed out, bison are part of the landscape in the basin, and those who don't like it should "buy a farm in Iowa."
Three years ago GYC and others negotiated an agreement to allow bison to leave the park — 25 the first year, 100 in ensuing years — but these iconic symbols of the West were mostly content to stay put due to mild winters and modest snow depths. With heavy snows this winter, the bison began moving toward easier access to forage in December, and the Montana Department of Livestock hazed some back into the park. But now, for the first time, drivers on U.S. Highway 89 between Livingston and Gardiner might be able to see wild Yellowstone bison grazing on public lands and the Royal Teton Ranch.
Even this accomplishment hasn't come without its challenges, however. All of these bison have mixed with other migrating animals; some are back in the park and others are in the pens at Stephens Creek. Nevertheless, the migration is one small step for these bison and one giant step for the future of the last significant genetically pure wild herd in America. Even as the current crop of 25 has mixed with other wild Yellowstone bison, the governor of Montana was talking about the prospects of allowing more animals into the Gardiner Basin next winter.
In addition, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks also announced that it is looking at new ways of managing bison. A key component of the effort is to find appropriate places — such as wildlife refuges and tribal lands — where disease-free Yellowstone bison that leave the park in winter can be relocated. FWP announced in January 2011 that it is looking at state land to relocate bison quarantined at Corwin Springs near Gardiner. The state has identified the Marias River, Beartooth and Spotted Dog wildlife areas as places suitable for bison. National wildlife refuges and tribal lands also are being considered for future relocations.
The Issue: Bison are the only animal in the U.S. largely confined by the boundary lines of a national park. Each winter, when they leave the deep snows of Yellowstone in search of forage, they are harassed back into the park or rounded up for slaughter by the Montana Department of Livestock because of fears of transmitting brucellosis. In 2007-08, nearly 1,600 perished, about one-third of one of the last genetically pure herds in America. In the spring of 2008, GYC and its allies along with the Montana FWP, Yellowstone National Park, the Royal Teton Ranch and others negotiated a deal to allow some bison to move up to nine miles north of the park each winter in search of forage. The agreement calls for 25 bison the first year and as many as 100 in following years to disperse across the Royal Teton Ranch to public lands west of the Yellowstone River. The winter of 2008-09 was to be the first year bison were allowed to migrate without fear of hazing or slaughter, but relatively mild winter conditions enabled them to stay in the park.
Greater Yellowstone Coalition---Our mission: We are working to allow bison to roam freely on appropriate public and private lands through buyouts of grazing allotments, negotiations with landowners, and discussions with state and federal agencies. Bison need champions at the highest of levels to ensure the are restored to many of their historic grounds.
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