And now:Buffalo Folks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
BUFFALO NEWS AND MORE!!!
* Hot off the Press!
* Winter Campaign wrap up
* Summer Campaign kicks off!
* Illegal arrests are expensive
* Thanks to everyone!
* Bison controversy follows Racicot to Texas--- Contact Mr. Bush re:
Racicot and his track record with ignoring the public
(http://www.georgewbush.com/Contact/contact.html)
(& Thanks for your patience (& kind words) as I proved again that humans
make mistakes by my misspostings the other day!
For the buffalo! Su)
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As many of you know, now that you have received it via snail mail: the new
Bufalo Field Campaign newsletter is available! You can browse it by
downloading it as a 815k pdf at our website
(http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo).
Please send us a note requesting extra hard copies of it for yourself and
to distribute in your community. (Please also include some shipping money
as we are really scrambling to keep the phones on and the rent paid this
summer). Tell us how many you want and we'll get them to you.
Please accept our apologies that the National Day of Prayer article was
accidentally deleted. To err is human....but we know that the actual
prayers were the important part! ~smile~
Summer is a great time to schedule a viewing of the video "Buffalo Bull" in
your community. Get some library space, put up some fliers, pop some
corn and let folks know what is happening to the last wild buffalo.
Give them a newsletter to take with them and voila', one more voice rises
with us for the buffalo!
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* Winter Campaign Slows Down
Volunteers work 'til end to protect buffalo
West Yellowstone, MT-
Even in May, the winter in Yellowstone was just finishing up.
Even though most of the snow had melted, many buffalo were still roaming
outside the park. Buffalo Field Campaign still went on patrol daily with
the buffalo until they all decided to go back into Yellowstone Park
boundaries.
The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) still hazed once or twice a
week on ATV's, horse back and with the helicopter. The last of May, the
park assisted the DOL with the hazing operation using horses and a
helicopter.
The only thing they managed to do was scare off the majority of the buffalo
as they fired blank gun rounds from the helicopter. Since the DOL did not warn
traffic when the buffalo were pushed over highway 191, BFC stayed on the
highway to warn traffic and to document the DOL. Even though DOL activity
slowed down, BFC volunteers worked for the buffalo until they all went into
the park.
The stress of being harrassed all winter to young calves, pregnant moms and
the herd as a whole was brutally obvious.
Now the cows can come back in at the taxpayers expense for a whole couple
of months. (hardly makes sense...)
We couldn't have been so successfull in keeping the slaughter numbers of
the DOL down this year if it had not been for our great volunteers and
supporters! This is a true grass roots effort and your actions make a
difference!
Some of the volunteers that have been working dilently on this campaign for
the past two years are finally getting some time off this summer! So...
Thanks for all the work, guys, and get rested up for next winter! ~grin~
*****************************
* Summer Campaign kicks off
Buffalo Field Campaign started the summer campaign June 1. The summer
campaign will focus on public outreach and education to tourists and
travelers that go through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
There are volunteers setting up tables inside the parks to pass out our
newsletter and to talk with folks about the slaughter of America's last
wild herd of buffalo.
If you will be in the Yellowstone area this summer; please contact us. We
have food and board for only a limited number of volunteers due to our
budget, but can make arrangements to put up visitors for a night if they
have their own food. Please contact us a week or two in advance if you
would like to come out and volunteer or visit.
The summer campaign will wrap up around Sep 5 and then we can start working for
the up coming winter. So if you are going to Yellowstone or Teton, look
for the Buffalo Field Campaign table for more information or just to say
hello.
So, we are still alive and working hard for everyone's buffalo. Our
spirits are high and we will take our motivation into the summer. Good
things will come out of hard work...This is going to be a great summer for
the buffalo!!!
*************************************************
* We are still faced with the legal fees of last winter. With
all the illegal arrests, the court costs are sky high. A private citizen
started a Bison Legal Defense Fund which goes directly to paying the costs
of the arrested volunteers. If you are interested in helping with the
outstanding bill, you can make your cheque out to Bison Legal Defense Fund
and send it care of the BFC address.
*************************************************
THANKS!!!!!
It all makes it happen...
Boxes of cookies and toothbrushes, power bars and vitamins sent from afar...
Poems, prayers, cards and music...
Checks that bought a bag of beans & donations that covered half of the rent
bill
Local community fundraisers and those oh-so kind foundations
Emails, letters, faxes & calls to dry burecratic offices
Empassioned tears over a dying buffalo
Volunteers that pulled doubles in sub zero weather for days in a row
Folks that sat in cold tripods during -30 weather
Folks that wrote a letter to their local paper
& those that took a week (or a whole winter) from their families to come
and help
It all makes it happens...
Together we can make a difference...FOR THE BUFFALO!
More thanks....
*******************
Friends of the Buffalo:
My sister and I took a ride through the Yellowstone Park today. We went
over to West Yellowstone and then over to Mamoth. The snow has turned
into the powerful motion of water,moving towards the ocean. The blood of
the killed buffalo merges with the whale.The calves are red now and very
small. They walk close to their mothers and sometimes not noticing that
they have walked underneath their mothers.The grass is beginning to grow
and the struggle of the Buffalo field camp has saved many lives agin.
Thank you for your work,may you rejoice in many blessings
This year the writers wrote, the protesters protested, and life for the
buffalos moved like water into the cracks of the mountian.
Those of you who have been praying, thank you for your prayers, you
have saved our buffalo.
Spring is in the woods, get strong now and be at peace. The hardship of
winter here has passed. The song birds are announce the spring.
I will call upon you agin, when the leaves change colour and fall. When
the snow spreads accross the mountian tops and the fasting places
disappear.When the songs of fall rejoice in the color of life.I will
call out from this place,for you will be needed agin.
Rest now and get strong for the buffalo.
A HO Scott Frazier
**************************************************
A special thanks to Bonnie Raitt for her benefit work in behalf of the
Buffalo Field Campaign!
****************************
Bison controversy follows Racicot to Texas
By Tom Lutey - Bozeman Chronicle
An ad campaign blasting Montana's killing of Yellowstone National Park bison
is shadowing Gov. Marc Racicot's foray into national politics.
Racicot's arrival in Austin, Texas, last weekend to work on Gov. George
Bush's likely presidential campaign didn't make the capital city's
newspaper. The controversy surrounding Montana's bison policy did.
Posted in the June 6 Austin American-Statesman was an ad showing a horned
bison and the words, "Why is Montana killing me?"
When the ad appeared, Racicot, a handful of Bush campaign advisors and an
old business friend of Bush were in Austin discussing domestic policy
issues, helping the Texas Republican prepare for his first national campaign
swing.
The ad, placed by Manhattan resident Tim Crawford, appeared in the
upper-right-hand corner of a page reserved for national news in the
American-Statesman's main news section.
Crawford, a photographer with myriad interests, said he didn't want
Montana's Republican governor to leave the state's political baggage at
home.
"Basically, I have a very serious problem with the way they're managing
bison and I don't think we're getting straight answers from state
government," Crawford said last week. "It's not so much to embarrass the
governor. If he's embarrassed, that's not my problem. It's just to bring
more light to this issue."
The bison have been routinely driven from Montana or slaughtered during the
past several years, due to concerns that they would transmit the disease
brucellosis to cattle. Brucellosis is a bacterial infection that can cause
spontaneous abortions in animals and remittent fever in humans.
Beef producers fear allowing the bison to remain in Montana would hurt the
"brucellosis-free" status of the state's livestock industry.
Critics of state policy say the brucellosis risk bison pose to cattle is
minimal to nonexistent.
In April, Crawford purchased billboard space in Minnesota and Texas decrying
the Montana's bison policy.
Andrew Malcolm, Racicot's chief press aide, said the June 6 ad went
unnoticed by the governor's office, as did the April billboards.
"I would just say that it's a free country and he's not the first to
criticize the state's long-running policy," Malcolm said. "The governor is
determined to ride this issue to a reasonable, humane and scientific-based
conclusion."
The state contends that it corrals, tests and sometimes kills the bison for
lack of a better bison plan by the federal government, and that the federal
government backs Montana's treatment of the animals. However, in recent
months federal officials have asked Racicot's government to ease off the
killings.
Crawford advocates recreational hunting of the stray bison as an alternative
to the testing and killing, an option some sports people endorse.
He said Racicot is unresponsive to the wills of hunters and citizens opposed
to current state policy. Should Racicot be considered for a Cabinet position
in the would-be Bush presidency, his reaction to public opinion about the
bison should be an issue, Crawford said.
"If he's not responsive to the wishes of the sportsmen and the people of
Montana, and is more dutifully paying attention to the (state) Department of
Livestock, maybe that ought to be a concern at the national level," Crawford
said.
He said the one-day newspaper ad cost more than $1,000. Crawford plans to
purchase more advertisements whenever he can afford it.
**************************************************
Buffalo Field Campaign
(formerly Buffalo Nations)
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070 phone
406-646-0071 fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
___________________________________________________________
Please take 20 seconds and add your voice to those who speak FOR THE BUFFALO!
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffpet
Let 96 friends,family and groups around the web know about this petition
in honour of the 94 buffalo that were slaughtered slaughtered this year and
the 2 that died after being injured in DOL corrals! Can we stand by and do
nothing?
_____________________________________________
we have posted video clips for an "in the field" look at the buffalo and
their plight with the Montana Department of Livestock
Please stop by and see it! http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
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