Buffalo Slaughter in Montana: Just Like Them Good Ol' Days

Once again, this winter the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) and Yellowstone National Park officials will slaughter wild buffalo who leave the Yellowstone National Park in search of food.

In one of this century's greatest conservation victories, the National Park Service and the park's earlier military caretakers undertook a concerted bison recovery effort. As a result, Yellowstone's wild bison population, once nearly extinct, numbered approximately 3,400 animals in the fall of 1996. But now the goal is to reduce the heard to 450 bison. Despite enormous public outcry, over 1,000 buffalo were slaughtered last year.

This insane slaughter has been going on in different forms and facets for over 10 years. The same agencies that have been killing the buffalo are still controlling the slaughter in and around the park. These agencies have spent nine years delaying a much-needed long term management plan. Even though the Park recognizes 10 tribes as having land rights in Yellowstone, Native Americans have never been invited to participate in any meetings to determine how (let alone whether) the buffalo will be managed.

Particularly appalling is the fact that most of this trapping for slaughter is being carried out inside Yellowstone National Park itself, by National Park Service personnel. As part of this "interim plan," the Park Service is also planning to shoot male buffalo within park boundaries. Rather than being a wildlife sanctuary, Yellowstone National Park has become a stockyard, complete with holding corrals filled with bison waiting for trucks to ship them to slaughter.

The survival of the last wild bison herd in the lower 48 states is dependent upon the genetic viability of the population. The 1,100 buffalo killed by the DOL and Park officials last winter were among the genetically superior members of the herd. These were the buffalo strong enough to make it to their winter forage ground. Approximately 800 to 1,000 more died of natural causes during the harsh winter. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement to address these problems will not be issued by the agencies until January at the earliest.

Allegedly driving Yellowstone's bison slaughter is the fear by Montana's ranchers that bison will give their cattle brucellosis, a bacterial disease that causes cattle to abort their first calves. While perhaps understandable, such fears are scientifically unfounded. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has been strongly critical of the bison slaughter because, according to government biologists, there are no known cases in which brucellosis has been spread from wild buffalo to cattle. Moreover, bison and cattle never even share the same range because bison migrate from the park only in the winter, when cattle are not present in the area. Babbitt, whose department includes the National Park Service, has criticized the bison-killing, calling it "an overreaction and unnecessary."

Perhaps the real reason for this slaughter is due to range war. The DOL claims the bison are a nuisance and that there isn't enough food on public lands to support them all. Farmers are concerned that the buffalo are eating the grass that their cattle need. 44 Native American tribes are willing to pay the bill to relocate live buffalo to their tribal lands, restoring traditional culture and economy. This would end the range war; instead, the DOL--doing what white guys on the range have always done best- -insists on slaughtering the buffalo as the answer to the problem. Apparently, as also evidenced by the Clinton Administration's despicable sell-off of publicly owned resources at places like Headwaters, Escalante Canyon, and Yellowstone itself, no place--not even the world's first national park--is worth enough in its pristine state to avoid being sacrificed to economic interest.

Last March, protester Delyla Wilson rushed into a high school cafeteria in Gardiner, near Yellowstone National Park, where U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, Montana Governor Marc Racicot and Montana's two U.S. senators, Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Conrad Burns, were holding a meeting with residents to discuss the bison controversy. Wilson ran into the room with a five-gallon bucket containing rotting bison innards and splashed the contents over all four of them. A couple of months later, Governor Racicot signed a bill allowing for the commercial sale of Yellowstone National Park bison.

This year, volunteers with Buffalo Nations will make sure that last year's slaughter of buffalo will not be repeated. Buffalo Nations, a coalition of Native American traditionalists and grassroots activists, is monitoring the buffalo who have already left the park and will shepherd them to safe areas. For the last three weeks Buffalo Nations volunteers have patrolled the Park boundaries for buffalo. If you can help out and want to spend a week or more in Yellowstone contact Mike or Jeremy at: Buffalo Nations, P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758; phone 406-646-0070, fax 406-646-0071; e-mail: buffalo@wildrockies.org. Food and lodging is on them, but donations are greatly appreciated.

Stump Talk is put out every other week by a few ecofreaks. If you want to help out, contact NW Forest Action Group, 206-632-1656, e-mail can@scn.org.