Harsh Winter Conditions May Lead to Repeat of 2008 Slaughter


HELENA, MONTANA - A coalition of conservation groups, Native Americans, and Montanans filed an urgent motion for injunctive relief in federal court today to prevent a repeat of the 2008 slaughter of over 1400 wild bison captured on public wildlands near the border of Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Many of the same factors that contributed to the mass slaughter in 2008, including heavy snowpack, bison population size, and the continuing agency intolerance for migrating bison, are in place this year as well.


With the Stephens Creek bison trap inside the Park already near capacity, and more bison migrating toward their natural winter range in Montana to forage at lower elevations, Park Service Spokesperson Al Nash indicated that the agencies may begin sending hundreds of bison off to slaughter whether they carry the disease brucellosis or not.  While it is concern over the possible transmission of brucellosis to cattle that is the justification offered for preventing bison from utilizing their winter range in Montana, at the present time there are no cattle present in the bison’s winter range corridor, and no risk of transmission.  And that, according to the Plaintiffs challenging the bison management plan in federal court, perfectly illustrates why the plan needs to be scrapped.


“One of the twin goals of the bison management plan is 'to ensure the wild and free-ranging nature of American bison',” said Tom Woodbury, Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project, “but ten years into the plan, there is still zero tolerance for bison being bison on our public wildlands.”


The Plaintiffs have been waiting for a final decision from federal Judge Charles Lovell on the merits of their lawsuit since September.  Their main contentions are that the Forest Service is legally obligated to allow bison to inhabit the Gallatin National Forest outside Yellowstone National Park, that bison management is based on politics and not science, and that repeated slaughters of substantial portions of the bison population threaten its genetic integrity.  Plaintiffs are asking the court to enjoin or restrain the agencies from lethal removal of bison in and around Yellowstone National Park, as well as the continuing use of capture facilities like the one at Stephens Creek to capture bison for the purpose of either confining them for extended periods or processing them before shipping them off to slaughter-houses.


According to one of the Plaintiffs’ experts, long-time Gallatin area resident Glenn Hockett, "The alternative to slaughter that they've ignored is habitat." If freed from the trap and allowed to access their winter range, according to Hockett, bison would pose little or no real problem.


“There is no good reason to slaughter these magnificent creatures when substantial conflict-free winter range habitat is available to these bison outside the Park at this time both on public and private land,” Hockett, a professional range ecologist and Volunteer President of Gallatin Wildlife Association said.  Hockett informed the court that “thousands of acres of cattle-free, critical winter range habitat is available to bison in the direction the trapped bison are migrating towards on both public and private land, near Dome Mountain,” including more than 5,000 acres on the Gallatin National Forest, 5,000 acres on the bison-tolerant Dome Mountain Ranch, and nearly 5,000 acres in the Dome Mountain Wildlife Management Area.  Hockett also informed the court that the only two ranchers with cattle in the area this time of year, Hank Rate and Bill Hoppe, are not opposed to free-roaming bison.


“Who exactly are the agencies serving by repeating the senseless slaughter of 2008?” Hockett asks.

Rosebud Sioux tribal elder Rosalie Little Thunder, chairperson for Plaintiff Seventh Generation Fund, expressed the Native American perspective on the prospective slaughter. "The continuing slaughter of wild buffalo by the National Park Service is an affront to indigenous peoples,” Little Thunder said, “and an abrogation of the government’s trust responsibilities to the American people and American Tribes."


According to the motion filed Wednesday in Helena:


“Years of mass bison removal  led Park Service biologists to register concerns about the adverse impacts the removals and population fluctuations have on the genetics, social structure, and population demographics of the bison population, and they have warned that continuing those removals could result in irreparable harm. The Park Service further documented stress, injury and harm to bison when they are held in confinement at the Stephens Creek trap for release months later.”


Attorneys for the federal agencies have indicated to Plaintiffs that they will file a response on Monday, and the Court is expected to rule promptly thereafter.  Should Judge Lovell deny their request, Plaintiffs have the option of proceeding immediately to the Circuit Court of Appeals for emergency relief.


The Yellowstone bison population includes America’s last continuously wild herds, and is the last population that still follows its migratory instincts.  As unique native herbivores that evolved across the North American continent, scientists believe bison can help restore the native grasslands, sagebrush steppes, and prairie ecosystems that are considered to be some of the most endangered habitats in the world.