Yellowstone bison roam into killing fields

February 17, 1997
Web posted at: 11:50 p.m. EST

From Correspondent Don Knapp

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (CNN) -- Bison already have been snatched back once from the brink of extinction. Now, because of conflicting state and federal policies, park rangers at Yellowstone National Park fear the shaggy animals may be headed that way again. (823K/21 sec. QuickTime movie Warning: contains violence)

Inside the Yellowstone boundaries, bison are protected by the federal government as part of America's national heritage.

But Montana ranchers and others shoot the animals if they leave the park and wander onto their properties, and state law doesn't prohibit the killing.

Yellowstone, the nation's oldest national park, straddles Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Victim of bad management?

Montana's Department of Livestock claims the bison are a nuisance and that there isn't enough food on public lands to support them all. Agency workers have killed bison found outside the park every year since 1990.

According to department director Larry Petersen, Montana is doing the park's dirty work.

"The sad part of this is, my department and the state of Montana are victims of the lack of management in the park with that herd, and we're doing population control for the Park Service by eliminating these animals," he said.

A joint state-federal management plan requires the National Park Service to kill bison that try to leave, or capture them and send them to slaughterhouses. As many as 20 percent of Yellowstone's bison may carry the disease brucellosis, which cattlemen say could infect their livestock.

Environmentalists: bison no threat to cattle

But now that nearly 1,000 bison have been killed, national park rangers are worried. And many people who have witnessed the shooting of bison, including Montana resident Sue Donkersgoed, want it to stop.

"They're such a majestic animal, we have no right to be treating them like this," Donkersgoed said. "It just kills you. These babies are just not even a year old that they are massacring. And the moms are pregnant, and it's really hard to take when you see that, because we all love the buffalo."

If officials were certain that the bison can infect cattle with brucellosis, it might be easier for Montanans to accept the slaughter. But environmentalists say there are no known cases of brucellosis being transmitted from a bison to a cow. They say the real issue is that ranchers fear they will lose some grazing land to the bison.

Slaughtering, shooting and the winter's severity will likely claim half the park's 3,200 head of bison.

"Our solution is to defer those leases (of public lands) for a year, this hard winter, and allow the bison on those lands where they can find more food," said Mike Clark of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

The solution doesn't sit well with rancher Brian Severin. He says park wild animals already eat a fair amount of his grass, and bison destroy his property.

"Bison don't know about fences. They just run through them and just demolish them," he said.

Hot springs may save some bison

Cold weather and heavy snow drive bison from the park looking for food to generate the warmth they need to survive. But some bison have found another way to keep warm -- they climb into Yellowstone's famous hot springs. The romp in the park's natural hot tubs may keep them alive, while their wandering relatives are caught, then shot.

However, some of the bison who leave the park may get a second chance. Those captured in pens at the park's edge are tested for brucellosis; if they are found disease-free, they may be considered for re-establishing bison populations on Native American lands, said Wayne Brewster of the National Park Service.

There is talk of finding other long-term solutions, like establishing a hunting season on bison, or putting them on birth control, or even buying out cattlemen's leases and allowing bison to roam. Nothing, however, will end the bison killings soon.

 

Related sites:

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• National Park Service
• The State of Montana homepage
• Yellowstone National Park (NPS)

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