And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Buffalo Field Campaign
formerly Buffalo Nations
P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758
Phone (406) 646-0070 Fax (406) 646-0071
E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Horse Butte Buffalo Trap Construction Nearly Complete
Migrating buffalo in imminent danger of slaughter by DOL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 22, 1999
Media Contacts: Mike Mease, Dan Brister, Sue Nackoney (406) 646-0070
WEST YELLOWSTONE: Construction of a new Department of Livestock operated
capture facility is nearly complete. The DOL will use the trap to capture,
test, and slaughter at least half of Yellowstone's bison who migrate onto
their critical winter habitat on the Gallatin National Forest on Horse
Butte. The facility has been permitted to operate during the winter for
the next ten years.
The Gallatin National Forest, particularly in the Horse Butte area,
provides critical winter habitat for Yellowstone wildlife, particularly
buffalo. Currently the warm south-facing slopes of Horse Butte provide the
most plentiful available forage for migrating buffalo. There are over 30
buffalo grazing on the exposed ground on the Butte within a half mile
radius of the capture facility.
Horse Butte is a peninsula on Hebgen Lake, NW of West Yellowstone,
and is an active bald eagle nesting site. Biologists with the Montana
Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks have been daily documenting eagle
nesting activity . The area also provides habitat for additional threatened
and endangered species such as the grizzly bear and peregrine falcon.
The facility is located within 1/4 mile of a bald eagle nest, which
is actively used by a pair of bald eagles. The Fish and Wildlife Service
issued a Biological Opinion authorizing a "take" of the nest, which will
allow the impact of operating the facility to displace eagles from nest
site and render the site inactive. However, the permit to the nest was
issued assuming that construction of the facility would be complete during
nesting season, which began February 1. Construction of the facility
involves heavy machinery, soil disturbance, a generator and floodlights
that illuminate the area at night.
"Hazing operations are likely to seriously impact the viability of
the nest site near the facility, as well as two other nest sites on Horse
Butte. Buffalo Field Campaign will be making sure that the DOL follows all
hazing restrictions designed to protect the eagles required by the permit,"
stated Pam Uihlein, Eagle Monitoring intern with the Ecology Center in
Missoula.
"The land on Horse Butte was originally protected in the 1926
Gallatin Land Agreement as winter range for buffalo and other Park wildlife
due to the foresight of legislators who understood that the boundary of
Yellowstone Park does not reflect the ecosystem boundary. Yet we are
seeing the protections for wildlife fall by the wayside in order to protect
cattle interests. There is no reason why buffalo, eagles, bears, and all
other wildlife should not be able to exist on these lands without
interference by the Department of Livestock," stated Sue Nackoney, Buffalo
Field Campaign spokesperson.
"The DOL are placing unfair restrictions on the area, local
residents have been threatened with arrest for walking out to see what is
harping to their backyard, and volunteers have been arrested by DOL agents
for walking buffalo down the 610 road, all in the name of building an
unnecessary and intrusive new capture facility," stated Mike Mease of
Buffalo Field Campaign. "Buffalo Field Campaign will be here as long as it
takes to remove the DOL as overseers of wildlife and until the buffalo are
given the freedom they deserve."
Recent modifications to grazing allotments on the Gallatin National
Forest prohibit the return of cattle until 30 to 60 days after buffalo
leave the allotments, and no earlier than June 15. The summer grazing on
Horse Butte amounts to 172 cow/calf pairs. This grazing allotment brings
in less than $800 to the U.S. Treasury.
The state of Montana has requested up to $500,000 per year from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the operation of the bison trap
for the purpose protecting its brucellosis-free status (a status given by
the USDA to states which have no brucellosis in their cattle herds).
However, the USDA does not have the legal authority to revoke Montana's
status based solely on the presence of potentially exposed wildlife in the
state.
The facility will capture and test buffalo who migrate to the
peninsula. The agencies claim that the operation of the capture facility
will help with the "urgent need" to reduce bison mortality. However, in the
winter of 1996-1997, the use of these facilities sent hundreds of buffalo
to slaughter. All pregnant females, regardless of whether they test
positive for brucellosis, will be shipped to slaughter. All other buffalo
testing positive will be shipped to slaughter.
More than half of the buffalo captured in a similar trap at Duck
Creek this year by the DOL have been slaughtered while only 13% have
actually carried brucellosis.
"Just as humans vaccinated against polio will develop anti-bodies
without ever actually having had the disease, an animal exposed to
brucellosis may develop anti-bodies and test positive under the tests
administered by the DOL , without ever having developed brucellosis," said
Buffalo Field Campaign spokesperson Cris Mulvey.
Only culture tests determine if an animal is actually infected with
brucellosis. Such tests are conducted at the slaughterhouse by the US
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). According to APHIS,
only 2 of the first 17 buffalo slaughtered this winter actually carried the
disease.
Of the 65,000 public comments submitted on the Draft Environmental
Impact Statement for long-term bison management, the majority were not in
support of government policies of trapping migrating buffalo. The decision
to build the capture facility will commit resources to a 10 year plan,
although management agencies have not yet decided upon an action
alternative from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for long term
bison management. Only the government's preferred action alternative
includes plans for building a capture facility on Horse Butte.
Video available upon request. Scanned still photos available.
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
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Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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