Essays (opinion or Informational)

The partners in the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) are meeting in Bozeman Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 6 and 7 at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks offices at 1400 S. 19th Ave. from 2 to 5 PM on Aug. 6 and 8:30 AM to 2 PM on Aug. 7. There are public comment periods at the end of each day - each person gets 2 minutes each.

FWP has posted a tentative agenda online at http://fwp.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=34611 (pdf). The main point of the meeting is to discuss the U.S. Government Accountability Office report and recommendations (which were extremely critical of the IBMP), consider the last season under the plan (where more wild buffalo were killed than at any time since the 19th century), and consider short-term and long-term adjustments to the plan.

Buffalo Allies of Bozeman has called for partners in the IBMP to pull out of the plan and end the hazing and slaughter of wild buffalo while simultaneously increasing habitat for buffalo into Montana. For our complete mission, please see http://buffaloallies.org/node/22.

editor's introduction: Julie Lehman has written a provocative essay that could raise a challenge not only to friends of the livestock industry but also to wildlife advocates as well. She argues that we should take down some of the abstract barriers that have us see buffalo and cows as fundamentally different kinds of beings.

And once we start murdering buffalo in order to protect the ranchers' rights to cows whose selfhood has been utterly devalued, we begin to see that rather than being enemies, the cow and the buffalo have the solidarity of being pawns in a system which doesn't value either of them, except as property, or as obstacles to the maximizing of property.

Appearing in today's Missoulian, Billings Gazette, and Helena Independent Record, Lee Newspapers reporter Jennifer McKee misrepresented the press release of Buffalo Allies of Bozeman.

I wrote the following letter to McKee in response.

Ms. McKee,

I am writing on behalf of myself and not the group I am a member of - Buffalo Allies of Bozeman - regarding your article today that appeared in some newspapers on the brucellosis issue as it relates to corriente roping cattle. Though I am writing for myself alone, I am quoted in the press release that we sent out, and I helped edit and distribute the release.

This editorial is written by Jim Bailey, a board member of the Gallatin Wildlife Association and a retired biologist. We have printed this with his permission.

Violating Yellowstone Policy

With all the furor over slaughter of 1600 bison from Yellowstone National Park, we are overlooking a serious issue. The Interagency Bison Management Plan and Yellowstone Superintendent Lewis are violating mandates and policies of the National Park Service.

Congress mandates retaining Park resources “in their natural conditions” and leaving them “unimpaired for future generations.” Park Service policy is to “maintain processes of naturally evolving ecosystems” and to minimize “human interference with evolving genetic diversity.”

It is likely that genetic diversity of the Park’s bison was lost to slaughtering in 2008. Moreover, natural selection has largely been replaced by human intervention. Coevolution of the Park’s animals, plants and microorganisms has been sidetracked, along with bison adaptation to their physical environment.

sent out by member Glenn Hockett. Update: Unfortunately, we have confirmed that the nine bulls have been sent to slaughter. All the same, please let these officials know your extreme displeasure at the breaking of the promise that the slaughter was over for the season.

All:

YOUR URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED: Nine trophy Montana bull bison are currently captured and being held in the Duck Creek bison trap, located just outside of Yellowstone's western boundary. The Department of Livestock says they intend to truck these wild Montana bull bison to slaughter soon.

Over 1600 bison have been removed from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem this winter/spring due to inadequate habitat planning by the governor of Montana and the various interagency bison management planning members that carry out his adopted PLAN. The current PLAN is nothing more than a license to eradicate free ranging wild bison from Montana. It is time to stop the B.S. and demand common sense action.