New West Feature

Yellowstone Bison Corralled For Release Outside Park

By Kate Whittle, 1-08-11

	Photo by Flickr user Murky1.

Wildlife officials corralled 23 bison near Gardiner, Mont. this week as part of a goal to allow bison to roam outside Yellowstone National Park boundaries. Officials want to collect at least 60 buffalo, test them for brucellosis and select 25 healthy animals to be released onto loaned land outside Yellowstone, park spokesman Al Nash said.

The 25 bison would be marked, tagged and allowed onto some private land to reach Gallatin National Forest. Nash said the move is part of a process to eventually allow up to 100 bison to roam outside the park, though the timetable remains indefinite. Bison are currently kept within Yellowstone park boundaries with hazing, hunting and occasional slaughters.

Park officials estimate about half of its bison population has been exposed to brucellosis, which can cause cattle, bison and elk to have health problems including abortions. While it’s not proven whether wild bison transmit the disease to other species, preventing contact between bison and cattle is a primary tenet of bison management.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes are one of the groups involved in the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Tom McDonald, a Fish Wildlife and Parks division manager for the tribes, hopes the plan will increase tolerance for letting bison move freely in Montana outside park boundaries. McDonald hopes people will say, “OK these bison don’t have brucellosis. Let’s let ‘em out of the park.”

To get to their designated national forest area, the bison will move through private lands as result of a $3 million lease deal. The Church Universal and Triumphant agreed to remove their cattle for 30 years to allow bison on their Royal Teton Ranch property. Officials don’t have a plan for what will happen once the lease expires, Nash said.

Not everyone is pleased with the bison management. The nonprofit Buffalo Field Campaign issued a press release slamming the Interagency Bison Management Plan, calling it “ill-conceived.”

Buffalo Field Campaign organizer Mike Mease calls the Royal Teton Ranch land a “corridor to nowhere.” Keeping the bison in close proximity at Stephens Creek, a bison capture area inside the park, will increase stress and disease, he said. He believes brucellosis fears are unfounded, since scientists have yet to conclusively prove that bison can pass brucellosis to cattle.

“It’s a prejudice solely placed by the cattle industry on the bison,” he said, “and somehow our park service, with our tax dollars, buys into the hysteria.”

Mease doesn’t think letting 25 bison graze outside park boundaries will make much of a difference. “Now they can go three more steps out of the park,” he said.

A Buffalo Field Campaign press release quotes Yellowstone biologist Rick Wallen as saying that confining bison in close quarters is likely to spread disease in the group. When contacted about his quote in the release, Wallen said he didn’t want to comment on it.

But he added, “We’ve had this [Stephens Creek] facility for 10 years and haven’t had a problem.”

Nash said Yellowstone National Park staff are well-versed on bison health issues, and they’ve taken every precaution to limit harm to the animals.

“We see this to be a very promising evolution,” Nash said. “We have a lot to learn about bison and bison on the landscape.”

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