n the 100 years since concerted restoration efforts returned healthy numbers of bison to the plains of Wyoming, the animal has become as much a part of Yellowstone’s landscape as the geysers and sulfur springs that dot the terrain. But in recent decades, bison have been treated less like wild animals and more like livestock.
By 1902, the number of bison in the Greater Yellowstone had dropped below 30, a far cry from the days when more than 30 million bison grazed on western lands. That year, Yellowstone officials brought back a few dozen members of the original herd that had been shipped out of the state years earlier.
In the hundred years since, bison numbers have increased dramatically: Last summer, nearly 5,000 buffalo roamed throughout the park.
But today that tally is now closer to 4,000. This winter the Park Service sent more than 900 bison to slaughter, ostensibly because of the risks the animals pose to cattle grazing on adjacent lands. Bison and many other wild animals such as bear, elk, and coyotes are all susceptible to brucellosis—a disease that causes animals to abort their first young; once the animal builds up antibodies, further complications are rare.
The issues concerning Yellowstone bison and brucellosis have been the source of contentious debate and even protests for more than 20 years, as bison advocates have urged the Park Service to seek out more practical and effective long-term approaches. In 2000, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service joined with the Park Service, Forest Service and several state agencies to draft the Interagency Buffalo Management Plan, an 841-page document that did little to put the issue to rest. The most disconcerting part of the plan is its narrow provision for solving the spread of the disease, namely, dictating that bison that cross the boundary should be harassed and coerced into returning to the park, or killed. The Park Service slaughtered 900 animals this year, second only to the 1,084 killed in the winter of 1996-97. This year, none of the animals were even tested for brucellosis before being shipped off to slaughter. What’s more, there isn’t a single documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild bison to cattle.
“The Park Service has a responsibility to manage the north boundary of Yellowstone, to eliminate the risk of bison commingling with cattle,” says Rick Wallen, a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone. “This year we tried really hard not to let that happen, but when animals persistently go to the park boundary, we have two choices: push all the animals back to the interior of the park or round them up and decide what to do with them. This year our field staff just wasn’t able to keep up with the number of animals—bison were turning right around and leaving the park—it’s all correlated with the population abundance that we’re dealing with right now.”
Are bison simply the victims of their own success?
“This is a habitat question, not a numbers question,” says Tim Stevens, NPCA program manager for the Yellow-stone field office. “It’s not surprising to anyone that bison are moving on to their traditional winter habitat outside the park. Regardless of whether there are two animals or 2,000 animals, bison that are neck-deep in snow will move to the lower elevations north of the park to seek out their traditional winter range, where they can still graze.”
So what’s the solution?
“We’ll never be able to eliminate brucellosis from all of Yellowstone’s wild animals,” says Stevens. “Elk and other wildlife carry the disease, too, and nobody’s considering similar management plans for those animals. NPCA and many other organizations are calling for a different approach. We agree with the need to separate the wildlife and the bison so they don’t intermingle, especially during critical periods like calving. But there has to be some level of tolerance for bison outside the park. Some of the affected lands are private property, and in those cases the government clearly needs to work with the owners. But much of the adjacent area is public land, and, frankly, these critical areas should be open to wildlife from our national parks.”
The most contentious part of the equation is securing land north of the park where bison can roam and graze in winter months. In 1999, U. S. taxpayers ponied up $13 million to secure 7,000 acres of land and conservation easements in and around the Royal Teton Ranch, owned by the Church Universal and Triumphant. But the Department of Interior balked at the $3-million price tag associated with buffalo grazing rights, so the land is essentially open to all wildlife but bison.
But change may be about to come. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a cattleman himself, has stepped into the fray and acknowledged the problem.
“We’ve started what we hope is a new era of better cooperation between the park and the state of Montana,” says Hal Harper, chief policy advisor for Governor Schweitzer. “The Park Service has these animals 95 percent of the time, and the state of Montana only 5 percent of the time, but we have to deal with the problems when they [leave the park]. So we’ll be working with land owners in the affected areas—we currently have negotiations underway for grazing easements on the Church’s land. And we’ll be looking for beneficial changes to the management plan to make it cheaper for the taxpayer and less threatening for the bison, while protecting our brucellosis-free status.”
If Montana is going to manage bison as a wild animal, then the governor will clearly expect hunting to be one part of that equation. But rather than allow hunters to simply line up at the park boundary and take aim at bison, future game management would include a limited, fair-chase, public hunt that ensures a sustainable bison herd for yet another century.
If you want to make sure that Yellowstone’s bison are safe next winter, thank the governor for his leadership and encourage him to follow through with his proposal by writing a letter to Governor Brian Schweitzer, Montana State Capitol, P.O. Box 200801, Helena, MT 59620-0801 or governor@mt.gov.
In the 100 years since concerted restoration efforts returned healthy numbers of bison to the plains of Wyoming, the animal has become as much a part of Yellowstone’s landscape as the geysers and sulfur springs that dot the terrain. But in recent decades, bison have been treated less like wild animals and more like livestock.
