Needless, Harmful, Disruptive, and Wasteful
Posted May 11, 2009 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The May 15th deadline for bison on Horse Butte that is - a deadline to protect cattle that literally don't exist.
Horse Butte is a peninsula that juts into Hebgen Lake on the west side of Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The butte has broad, exposed, south-facing slopes that green up earlier in the spring than much of the surrounding area. As such, some bison leave snow-covered Yellowstone and migrate to Horse Butte in the spring to graze and give birth.
But the five state and federal agencies that manage the Park's bison population - National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks - will haze bison off Horse Butte and back into the Park - with ATVs, helicopters, and horses - on May 15.
Why? Their justification is concern that wild bison may spread brucellosis - a disease that causes pregnant animals to abort - to domestic cattle in Montana.
Never mind that no documented case of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle has occurred in the wild. The real insanity with this May 15th deadline is there are no cattle on Horse Butte. None. Zip. Nada.
You're probably wondering why government agencies would spend the time, resources, and taxpayer dollars to haze (and endanger) bison and disrupt wildlife (and human lives) to protect cattle that don't exist from a disease that's never been known to transmit from bison to cattle in the wild.
Well, keep scratching your head because I don't have an answer for you. But if you're as frustrated as I am over this needless, harmful, disruptive, and wasteful deadline, then send a message to the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, urging him to cancel this spring's hazing of wild bison from Horse Butte.
Comments are closed for this post.
Comments
Brian Ertz — May 12 2009 03:02 AM
Thanks for bringing some much needed attention to this issue !
The Brucellosis fiasco is a fraud ~ Livestock interests (i.e. NPS, the aptly named Montana Department of Livestock, the Forest, all de facto surrogates of Livestock - especially the Stockmen) in and around the park masquerade behind this debunked justification to maintain control of the public landscapes for public land ranchers, these are incredible landscapes that belong to us all - to our children. The Gallatin NF is as complicit in this as any and need to be taught a lesson fast.
Over a year ago now the Forest opened up a scoping period for an EA that would evaluate re-issuing a permit on the Wapiti allotment - any meaningful analysis has been stale for years and years now - the scoping included a paragraph explaining that the Forest would not consider bison conflict issues in its EA - can you imagine ? a scoping process that used more paper pre-emptively restricting public comment that soliciting them.
So we had submitted 72 pages of scoping comment on an EA process then underway - fisheries, capability, suitability, riparian standards, and a fat throw-down on this unwillingness to consider bison issues pursuant to the '84 species viability regs (a forewarning) - stuff the Gallatin surely hasn't had to chew on relating to Livestock issues for quite some time.
A few months ago, we came to find out the scheduled EA - the one we spent time submitting scoping on - had been shelved.
Not a month ago we made a few phone calls to the Forest and found that the public land livestock permits on the Wapiti and Cache-Eldridge allotments (allotments that serve as a 'haze/kill zone' along and near the Wapiti/Sage Creek divide north of Hebgen Lake) had expired last December. Upon inquiring about what the Forest intended to do it became clear that they had planned on allowing livestock on the allotment absent a permit but sounded nervous.
I called back a few days later and found that the new permits under identical terms & conditions as before were on the supervisor's desk (the only way they could do so legally persuant to Rescissions - a rider that expires this October).
The best chance at recovering bison habitat is much the same as with wolves, sage grouse, brewers sparrow, desert tortoise, pygmy rabbit, and a host of other species that we must commit ourselves to providing quality habitat and robust populations in an ever warming west - we must remove livestock from public lands and put an end to the disproportionate influence that Livestock exercises over federal public land and wildlife agencies. Livestock is where the conflict with wildlife on public lands originates.
I am thankful for NRDC's contribution to raising awareness about wildlife issues throughout the West - you folk are among the best, I am hopeful that with your help Matt, we can find solutions and raise awareness about the true source of conflict - call it straight and put it out in the open, and begin to replace the livestock mythology of the west - of which bison is one among many flagrant examples - with a genuine and unapologetic pride for the wildlife that better characterizes our growing appreciation for valued public landscapes.
It's time to take it by the root and put Livestock on notice - publicly.