Tolerance: Living With Bison and Change on the Brink...

 

 

After another long day of invigorating meetings on behalf of Yellowstone Country Guardians in Livingston and Bozeman, my return trip home to Gardiner was enhanced by a band of approximately 12 bull bison in the Cutler Meadows 14 miles north of Yellowstone National Park.  These bulls have been utilizing the winter range and forage in the Cutler Meadows which border the mighty Yellowstone River and Yankee Jim Canyon for over a week now. 

In any other year this would be a cause for false panic and would certainly warrant the deployment of a large brigade of federal and state agents in attempt to haze, capture and in far too many instances, slaughter these bison simply following their ancestral instincts.  While the bison have been under oppressive persecution since the 19^th century, the last two decades in and around Yellowstone National Park have led to a wildlife tragedy of epic proportions. 

Ever since Governor Brian Schweitzer placed a stay on the bison slaughter, halting the slaughter of Yellowstone bison for 90 days, the Gardiner Basin has been a less oppressive and depressing place to spend the winter.  I say this because over 3,800 Yellowstone bison have been shipped to slaughter over the last two decades which makes winters in the Gardiner Basin difficult, emotional and disheartening.  And while many criticized Gov. Schweitzer for his reported reasoning for sparing the lives of over 400 (now well over 500) wild Yellowstone bison the traumatic trip to a slaughter house, we certainly hoped and believed this was the sign of progress for bison.  When the Associated Press reported that Gov. Schweitzer,  “worried the shipments could spread the disease brucellosis - now largely confined to Yellowstone's wildlife - to livestock,” several of us believed this was as much of a smoke and mirror reason not to send bison to slaughter—appeasing the cattle interests—as slaughtering bison because of brucellosis. 

Since the February 15^th decision to block the shipment of Yellowstone bison to slaughter, we have seen a fraction of the hazing efforts of winters past.  Instead we are seeing bison on the east and west side of the Yellowstone River and Highway 89.  On a daily basis we are seeing bison in the same places that elk, deer and bighorn sheep winter each and every year, without the hovering presence of Montana Department of Livestock agents constantly harassing and frustrating their movements. 

With his seemingly rogue decision to build a cattle guard at the mouth of Yankee Jim Canyon a few weeks back, after his bold decision to stop the slaughter of bison, Gov. Schweitzer appears to be ushering us into a new day of bison management.  For the last six weeks we have lived with bison, the same way we live with elk in the Gardiner Basin.  It has been inspiring, uplifting and powerful to see the bison ranging throughout the basin and it is clear that in these last few weeks we have developed a foundation that we can indeed live with buffalo.

We can only hope that today’s news that the members of the Interagency Bison Management Plan are close to signing a deal that would open 75,000 acres of habitat in the Gardiner Basin comes to fruition. 

Click to read the Billings Gazette article: Agreement Close to Allowing Bison to Roam

For the buffalo and wildness...

~Michael Leach, Director and Founder

Comments

[Kaite]

Hey coach.... I love your Passion and spirit.... it keeps me going for what I believe in and it makes me a stronger person... keep up what your good at... keep preaching and reaching out to others to believe like we do..... I have been working on my writing and hope to send you it when it is finished.... I hope it helps people see what we do.......

Love Always,

Kaitlyn Alberti, member of the Yellowstone Country Gardians.....