New West Network

Let’s work together to solve bison management challenge

By Glenn Hockett, New West Unfiltered 2-18-08

As a hunter I remain optimistic we can and will solve the current bison management challenge. Irrational government harassment, hazing, capture and slaughter of bison within and near the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park is neither economically or ecologically sustainable. This subsidized house of cards will eventually fall.

A growing and diverse constituency has shared many win-win economically efficient and ecologically sustainable ideas with policy makers and the 5 agency members of the interagency bison management planning team. One simple idea to avoid this needless slaughter includes fencing to protect the few cattle that occur along the bison migration corridors in the Upper Yellowstone and Upper Madison Valleys. The points of conflict are small and manageable, while the solutions are of a landscape scale, habitat based and efficiently and respectfully sustainable.

People are learning that hundreds of thousands of acres of conflict-free habitat are already owned by the public in the Upper Yellowstone, Gallatin and Madison valleys. Places such as Cedar Creek, the OTO and the Dome Mountain Wildlife Management Area in the Upper Yellowstone Valley - Public lands all specifically purchased for big game habitat. Furthermore, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of historic and conflict-free bison habitat both within and outside the Park in the Upper Gallatin Basin framed by the magnificent Taylor Fork watershed and the Porcupine or Gallatin Wildlife Management Area.

If bison must be captured to prevent commingling with a few susceptible cattle in the Yellowstone or Madison Basins then let’s transport them to the public land winter ranges in either Teepee or Dailey Creek within the Upper Gallatin watershed where there are never any cattle. This is an excellent alternative to the needless government slaughter the Department of Livestock (DOL), the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and now the Park Service are relentlessly waging on this critically important gene pool of wild bison.

Increasingly, the public is becoming aware and sincerely disturbed by the ongoing dealings of the DOL, APHIS and more recently the Park Service. As well, the politicians who federally earmark the funding which feeds these wasteful capture and slaughter operations are being exposed (Formerly Senator Conrad Burns and now Senator’s Max Baucus and Jon Tester in Montana). Will “diseased” elk be the next big game species harassed, captured and relentlessly sent to slaughter by DOL, APHIS and the Park Service and the policy makers who needlessly fund their budgets for such activities?

Instead, let’s instruct the policy makers and cooperating agencies to immediately begin fencing projects to protect the few pastures being used by susceptible cattle in the Upper Yellowstone and Madison basins. As well, we know too much not to encourage or just allow bison movements to conflict-free habitat areas on both public and bison friendly private property outside the Park where sufficient forage is currently available to sustain a spectacular restoration and conservation effort that will be envied by the world.

Win-win cost effective solutions abound. We can work together to protect a few cattle while respecting and protecting public and private property rights on both sides of the issue, thus allowing the bison, like other wildlife in the area, to access the conflict-free habitat that exists today. The current “Plan” and its supporters are living in a house of cards that will eventually crumble due to the forces of nature and an increasingly informed public.

Glenn Hockett is Volunteer President of the Gallatin Wildlife Association, a regional sportsmen’s group in Bozeman Montana