In this issue
* Update from the Field
* What Can You Do?
* Leading Biologist speaks out - buffalo disaster waiting to happen
Happy Spring! Please forward this update to friends. For the Buffalo!
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3/3/00
Friends of the Buffalo,
Montana's mild winter continues, giving reprieve to the Yellowstone buffalo
and the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) volunteers committed to their
protection. As of this writing, there is still only one buffalo--a
bull--out of the park, on the Gallatin National Forest. This bull has been
grazing in a meadow on the Madison River since mid-January. The Montana
Department of Livestock (DOL) tried hazing him five times, but were
unsuccessful each time. Facing a barrage of criticism for their needless
harassment of the bull in the local and national media, the DOL has left
him alone since 2/10.
Stories of the bull have been very prominent in the press. Newspapers in
Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena, and Missoula have been running articles on
the bull, and the major networks have devoted entire news shows to the
plight of the Yellowstone herd. In February, both ABC's Nightline and
A&E's Investigative Reports told the story of the current slaughter--and
our work to prevent it--to international audiences. Both shows relied
heavily upon video recorded by our volunteers.
It is our belief that by making our footage available to the widest
audience possible--and exposing the bison slaughter to the American
public--we can generate the popular opposition necessary to stop the
buffalo killing. While we do provide the networks with our footage, we
have no control over storyline or editorial decisions. We have received
criticism from some of our supporters for the way the shows presented the
issues. Such criticisms should be directed to A&E and ABC, not BFC.
Despite the warm weather, hundreds of buffalo are within a few miles of the
park boundary right now, moving toward Montana. When they come out of the
park they will fall victim to the state's management policy of haze, capture,
and shoot. The Forest Service has given the DOL approval to reconstruct
and operate a bison capture facility at Horse Butte, near West Yellowstone.
On April 14, 1999 the DOL captured 69 buffalo in its Horse Butte trap.
We are hosting a week of actions, from April 22 to the 30th, to honor the
buffalo slaughtered in recent years and to shut down the DOL this year.
If you have been wanting to help defend the Yellowstone buffalo, this is an
excellent opportunity. We are hoping to draw more than a hundred
volunteers for the action week and will need to feed and equip them for the
field.
Donations of food, winter gear, and financial support will go a
long way to protect the buffalo. All contributions are tax deductible.
Please contact us for more specific information. If you can't make it
during this week, you are welcome anytime.
During the summer months we maintain a table inside the park to raise
awareness of the issue among park visitors. We have openings for a summer
Campaign Coordinator and outreach volunteers. If you are interested in
either position or would like more information, please contact us at the
address below. Attn: volunteer cooridinator.
We are grateful to Bob Clark from the Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR)
for his informative and entertaining presentation on February 26. AWR's
work is instrumental in gaining long-term protection for the Northern
Rockies Ecosystem. NREPA is a critical bill for this ecosystem and
letters are needed regarding this issue. If you have a minute or
two, please check out the info at:
http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/nrepa99.html
KGLT in Bozeman donated studio and air time for our public service
announcement on the Yellowstone bison. Thank you Andy and Kate for being
so kind.
A big thanks to the many folks whose continued support makes our work
possible. We couldn't do it without you.
Buffalo Field Campaign
"the only group working 365 days a year with the buffalo!"
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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WHAT CAN YOU DO???
You can take 5 minutes and write just one heartfelt email or letter
(letters are better) for the buffalo! check here for all the folks
that you can write:
http://www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/politk99/speakdo.html
Warm Winter boots and ski boots needed! If you can help...Thanks!
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What appear to be good times may be disaster in making
By SCOTT McMILLION - Bozeman Chronicle
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- The bison here are fat and sleek right now.
Absent are the jutting spines and protruding ribs sometimes seen at this time
of year.
And so far during this mild winter, the shaggy giants are staying in the park.
Only one animal has left the boundaries.
While the guns have been silent and the traps stand inactive, winter is far
from over and things could change in the next couple of months if heavy snows
arrive.
A Jan. 30 flight over the area counted 2,410 bison, nearly half of them in the
western portion of the park. While an easy winter like this one means fewer
dead bison outside the park, it doesn't mean much in the long term, according
to Mary Meagher, a retired National Park Service biologist who has been
studying bison for more than 40 years.
Though there will be annual fluctuations, she predicts that bison numbers will
continue to drop from the high point of 4,000 animals seen in 1994.
"We're never going to see 4,000 bison in Yellowstone Park again," she said
Friday.
"A lot of times, things look pretty good until all of a sudden they go to
hell," said Meagher.
She maintains that the system of groomed roads in the park has so altered the
ecosystem that the park's bison herd can only decline over the long term. For
the past decade, she's advocated shutting down the winter travel system in
Yellowstone.
"What you see is deceptive," she said. "The bison can look great, but that's
not the ecosystem."
Meagher, who is now working on a complex project that involves the mapping of
bison densities and population analysis, calls the current situation "an
ecosystem disaster."
The most recent bison count found 1,123 animals, nearly half the total herd,
in the western portion of the park and almost 400 of them west of the Firehole
River.
In the early 1980s, when there were 2,000 bison in the park, they were never
found west of the Firehole, Meagher said, and though cow/calf groups
traditionally summered along the park's eastern boundary, they haven't done so
in years.
"We've driven the entire population westward," Meagher said. "That should be
telling people something."
The parkwide system of groomed roads, she said, "provides energy efficient
linkages between places where bison want to be."
Though there are isolated pockets of food on the west side of the park and
just outside its western boundary, there is no real winter range in the area
because of the snow depth, she said.
To find genuine winter range, bison would have to travel nearly to Ennis or
Bozeman, she said.
State policy won't allow that, because of fears the bison will spread
brucellosis. Nor will a proposed new federal policy, which calls for only
limited bison range on the west and north sides of the park.
Plus, the areas inside the west portion of the park, where soils are poor, are
suffering from too many bison during too much of the year, Meagher said.
"That's why we'll drive the population downward," she said. "We have an
ecosystem problem. It's not overgrazing. It's much more complex than that."
Elk herds often display what biologists call a "population density" reaction,
which means the number of births drops when overall numbers are high.
Bison don't do that.
Rather, Meagher explained, they respond to high population density by moving
to new areas.
"Bison are trying to adapt to changes we've created in the system," she said.
But when that means moving outside the park, the animals are shot, trapped or
hazed.
A couple more big snowstorms this winter could get bison moving, Meagher said,
but at least some of them are likely to move out of the park later this year
anyway.
In most years, bison head for the park's western boundary early in the spring
because grasses turn green there sooner than they do in the park.
The Montana Department of Livestock in the past several years has shown more
tolerance for springtime bison, choosing to haze them repeatedly until there
is enough green grass inside the park to hold them here.
What will happen this year depends on the weather, said DOL spokeswoman Karen
Cooper.
"It's determined on a case by case basis," she said. "But hazing will be the
first option."
http://www.gomontana.com/ - 2/27/00
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New info daily : http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
We still material for our art/thoughts/poetry section!
New photo albums up - Check out Buffalo Honor-
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/BuffaloHonor/index.htm
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BFC is the only group working 365 days a year in Yellowstone with the buffalo.
Please take the time to alert national media sources that you are
interested in them covering this issue.
_________________________________
Schedule a showing of the Buffalo Compilation Video in your
community. for more info: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Let us know if you will be showing it in your community during the
National Week of Action in April!
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