NEWWesterners: INTERVIEW with Bob 'ACTION' JACKSON
Former Controversial Yellowstone Ranger Becomes Bison Rancher
By Todd Wilkinson, 9-19-07
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Bob Jackson knows that viewed from any angle, he is a living, breathing enigma. During his three decades of civil service as a seasonal backcountry ranger in Yellowstone National Park, Jackson cultivated a mystique—and generated controversy—for his maverick approach to confronting big game poachers in the remote Thorofare section of the park and for allegedly treating his living quarters there as a personal fiefdom. His vigilant stewardship earned him rousing praise from regional conservation groups. His outspoken opinions netted him scorn from superiors in the National Park Service, which imposed a gag order on him, preventing him from talking with the press.
No matter what one thinks of Jackson, any Westerner who has ever met him quickly realizes they are staring into the eyes of an American original.
Following his high-profile exploits and departure from Yellowstone, Jackson has been active as a bison rancher in his native Iowa and yet still spends a lot of time in the Rocky Mountain West. He strongly believes that if bison herds, both domestic and wild, were managed with a focus on keeping family units together, there would be more harmony and less conflict on the landscape. Jackson’s provocative ideas have earned him meetings with everyone from bison managers for Ted Turner and Tom Brokaw to animal rights activists, Indian tribes, and federal biologists in Yellowstone. Among Jackson’s other theories is that there remains a distinct subherd of Yellowstone bison living in the Pelican Creek drainage in the middle of the national park that have maintained their original behavioral characteristics. Last summer, Jackson gave a presentation of his philosophy as a bison rancher at the International Bison Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Not long ago, Jackson sat down for an interview. His responses to five questions will appear at NewWest.Net over the next few days. They are certain to both inspire and rile the sensibilities of readers. —Todd Wilkinson
NEW WEST: Bob, you are best known for your legendary role as Yellowstone National Park ranger Bob “Action” Jackson who combated poachers and manned the cabin in the remote Thorofare region of the park. But the fact is that you’ve also been a bison rancher back in Iowa for many years. What is the nexus between your years as a ranger and your observations about animals that were once the most populous large mammal on the Great Plains?
BOB JACKSON: My dual career in bison and backcountry rangering happened because of one defining incident early on. I saw my retiring district ranger boss, at the acknowledged pinnacle of rangerdom, steal a big box of toilet paper as his very last official act in Yellowstone. This was a sturdy, tall, deep-voiced and well measured man, the type of ranger tourists imagined. He had spent his life as a ranger at the envied Big Five of Western national parks and it was the life I strived for upon coming to Yellowstone. As I watched this empty shell of a man struggle to get his long arms around the taxpayers’ 128 rolls of wipe so he could put it in the back of his station wagon, I knew then and there I didn’t want a career that ended on a toilet seat.
This incident happened about the same time my star was rising in Yellowstone. I was catching poachers where none had been caught before and folks there wanted me to go permanent [as opposed to remaining a seasonal ranger]. On further assessing my choices, I couldn’t remember a ranger retiring as anything other than bitter, frustrated or apathetic … or, in this case, pathetic. I asked myself, “Why would they want me to join them at a desk, or still more important, why would I want to join THEM at a desk?” I decided I didn’t want this career, one where the best I could hope for was playing a role for the public based on the illusion of what a park ranger once was.
What was I to do? I had a Fish and Wildlife degree and a farm boy’s life-long desire to have a life in the outdoors? I knew I didn’t want to look at fish scales under a microscope like my first bosses did all winter at Yellowstone’s Bureau of Sport Fisheries.
Should I stay a seasonal ranger and spend the winters on the beaches of Mexico or slopes of the ski areas?
I was already doing that, and though fun, I was ready to put some meat to my life. There was always the family farm in Iowa. I loved parts of it but life there would be fairly static.
That is why I began thinking of “raising” buffalo. They were said to be an animal that could take care of themselves. I thought, “Yes, I’ll spend summer and fall living a prehistory lifestyle in Yellowstone’s backcountry catching present day poachers and then the rest of the year I could be farming with exciting animals.” The only trouble was, I found out bison ranchers had lots of caretaking chores to do, the same as my dad did with his cattle. There had to be a better way. I had spent a lot months at a time living in and riding the backcountry of Yellowstone, learning about and using animal behavior to lead me to poachers. But I knew I had to learn a lot more about this animal if I was to raise them without giving them the bottle all the time.
What I learned was that efficiency and environmental compatibility in nature for large grazing animals was based on the support systems that unmanaged “herds” used for their very survival as a species. It had all to do with infrastructure, the same infrastructure companies strive for to be successful.
As individuals, each bison has distinctive roles in the herd and this herd consists of families, extended families, bands, clans and tribes, the same as all indigenous peoples. Families also meant they have to have homes and homes meant they, as extended family groups, had territories to live in and defend. I found out they did not make these homes in areas disruptive to family life development, i.e. watering holes, travel routes and mineral licks used as common ground by all extended families. Environmentally, this meant these herd animals did not overgraze and negatively impact sensitive riparian areas like panicked dysfunctional animals with no home. Functional herds also grazed close together because they wanted to be close together. Range Science’s perpetual degradation (of) range problem of domestic cattle, bison and sheep spreading out and “grazing the best and leaving the rest”, and science’s labor intensive solutions such as Management Intensive Grazing, were being carried out by Yellowstone’s bison without the fences.
Plus, what I saw in Yellowstone was bison with a vibrant and complex life, something I never saw in domestic or managed public herds. The life of these non-managed herds was full of emotion and play. They had Culture!! And the herd with the most culture was the Mirror Plateau- Pelican Creek bison herd. Their core herd couldn’t care less about the bison in Hayden or Lamar valleys and they led exciting lives with only 200 members.
If they could do it with those numbers, I realized, I could do it on a farm. I could raise this number of bison developing this CULTURE. I realized I didn’t need the millions of acres biologists said was needed to make bison populations vital again.
Thirty years later, after a life of saving Yellowstone’s animals from poachers, I have 400 buffalo in five fully functioning family groups on our Iowa farm. I wouldn’t trade any of it for a desk job and 128 rolls of toilet paper. I no longer work in Yellowstone but I have not forgotten its bison.
Stay tuned here to NewWest.Net for the next dialogue between Todd Wilkinson and Bob Jackson.
NEXT TIME: Bob Jackson responds to the questions: “When did you first start noticing “Bison Culture”? How did you study it and then apply it to what you were doing on your ranch?
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Comments
It was nice to be reminded of it again.
Bob is the new ranger for the National Bison Refuge? Yes? I'm not sure from the piece, but I'm thinking that's what you are referring to...
We have presented these ideas at a multi-county County Commission meeting held in Livingston a few weeks ago and to the Board of Livestock just yesterday. If the first link isn't hot you can view the document at: http://www.gallatinwildlifeassociation.org/
and then clicking on the bison management suggestions link.
Have either of you read Buffalo for the Broken Heart? Great book.
Glenn: You and Gallatin Wildlife Association and your strong support among sportsmen and women have long been advocates for creatively addressing the brucellosis challenge by proposing bison management through time and space, i.e. allowing Yellowstone bison coming out of the national park to have room to roam during the winter when private cattle are not on wildlife winter range on public lands....as opposed to test and slaughter and ecosystem-wide innoculation of bison (and elk), which, of course, given the current technology, is not feasible. Having written about the conflict over bison for almost 20 years, it's obvious to me that status quo approaches have not worked, at least to the extent of recognizing Yellowstone bison as being wildlife that are going to wander during the winter. It's part of their nature. While the concern over brucellosis is very real for ranchers, many scientists, including those working for ag, have told me that the risk (from bison) has been exaggerated. Look at Wyoming: The culprit there has not been wandering bison but management actions that every winter have congregated elk on quasi feedlots. I have not read Buffalo for the Broken Heart but hope to get a copy. Glenn, you may want to offer a synopsis to NewWest.Net readers on what Gallatin Wildlife Association proposes and the reception it has received from Montana Gov. Schweitzer.
I'm a fellow GWA'er, recently conscripted to present our suggestions to the Board of Livestock, as Glenn was off moose hunting with his Dad. I not only made it out of there alive, but am kind of encouraged that some constructive dialog took place.
I know Wilkinson's interview with Bob Jackson is fascinating stuff, and I think he nails it.
Thanks Todd...another good piece - I look forward to the rest of it.
The National Elk Refuge, btw, just initiated its first bison hunt this week. <a href = "http://jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=2213">Link</a>.
Pathetic, IMO...given that the only actual transmission incidences of brucellosis have been linked to elk(not bison), and Wyoming's feed grounds contribute immensely to the problem.
I hope you ask Bob about his thoughts on the bison issues in the West Yellowstone and Livingston area.
Protecting and Connecting Critical Habitat in Southwest Montana – Establishing the Scientific Minimum: A series of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) have already been purchased and protected with sportsmen’s dollars in southwest Montana. These WMAs provide crucial winter ranges used by elk and other wildlife and include the Dome Mountain WMA in the Upper Yellowstone basin, the Gallatin WMA in the Upper Gallatin watershed and the Wall Creek WMA in the Upper Madison valley. As well, the Forest Service owns important habitat in the Lee-Metcalf and Abaroka-Beartooth wilderness areas, where elk and other brucellosis-exposed wildlife roam freely. Private landowners in the area, many which own no susceptible livestock, especially some of the larger landowners have a keen interest in wildlife recovery and conservation (the Dome Mountain and R & D Ranches in the Upper Yellowstone and the Sun and Three Dollar Ranches in the Upper Madison valley). They are important partners in this effort and their tolerance and/or appreciation for helping restore and conserve wild Montana bison is critical. These areas in the Upper Gallatin, Madison and Yellowstone basins represent critical habitat, the scientific minimum if you will for viable and sustainable bison recovery and conservation in southwest Montana.
A core question regarding the future of wildlife management in this region is whether or not brucellosis can be reasonably eradicated from all the wildlife dependent on the Greater Yellowstone Area. I urge all concerned to understand brucellosis is eradicated by capturing, testing and slaughtering exposed animals. Think about that for a moment – capturing, testing and slaughtering all the exposed wildlife within the vast and remote 18 million acre 3 state Greater Yellowstone Area. Please realize elk and bison are not the only brucellosis-exposed wildlife species in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Grizzly and black bears are known to be exposed as well. The extent moose, bighorns, mule deer, white-tailed deer, antelope, rodents, coyotes, wolves, birds and other wildlife are exposed remains uncertain. The questions of how, when, where, by whom and at what cost this immense federal undertaking will take place remain unanswered. While most admit such an undertaking will be extremely costly, extremely problematic and result in severe consequences to wildlife, significant questions remain about whether such an undertaking is even possible.
To get a sense of what it would take to attempt to capture, test and eradicate brucellosis from all the wildlife species within the 18 million acre Greater Yellowstone Area one must contemplate a huge federal government takeover of state’s rights over wildlife. The infrastructure, logistics and costs necessary to conduct such a massive wildlife hazing, containment, confinement, capture, vaccinate and/or slaughter program across the Greater Yellowstone Area is daunting even to imagine. This vast and remote landscape includes 2 National Parks, 6 National Forests, 3 National Wildlife Refuges, 6 Wildlife Management Areas in southwest Montana, at least 22 feedgrounds in Wyoming and Idaho, the Wind River Indian Reservation and a variety of other public and private lands. Some of the most important habitat occurs on private land. Will the federal government be willing to force its way onto private lands in an attempt to accomplish this goal?
I will state for the record it is my professional opinion the answer to the question can brucellosis be eradicated from the wildlife dependent on the Greater Yellowstone Area in a reasonable fashion is NO! If you disagree, please seriously consider the scientific, economic, environmental, social, political and private and public property right consequences of pursuing such a policy in and around our first National Park.
Instead, the GWA Board suggests we can all work together to better protect private property rights, better protect Montana’s brucellosis-free livestock status and better manage (restore and conserve) native wild bison as valued and viable wildlife in Montana by recognizing the elk habitat model described above as the scientific minimum for establishing a viable and huntable year round population objective for wild bison in southwest Montana.