How not to save the bison
- From: chatnoir <wolfbat359a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 00:43:17 -0700 (PDT)
http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/political/2008/06/how_not_to_save_the_bison.php
How not to save the bison
Back in the early 1800s, an estimated 65 million bison roamed the
Great Plains; a century later, intensive hunting had driven the
lumbering creatures to the brink of extinction. Barely two dozen wild
bison survived the slaughter, hiding out in remote corners of
Yellowstone park; now their descendants - America’s only continuously
free-ranging bison herd - are under fire once again, thanks to
bureaucracy, bad management, and bullying cattle farmers.
The trouble is that besides being an iconic symbol of the vast
American plains, the Yellowstone bison are one of America’s few
remaining reservoirs of brucellosis, a disease that causes fertility
problems in cattle. There’s no evidence that bison can transmit the
disease to cattle, but ranchers in neighboring Montana don’t want to
take any chances: Over the past six months, thousands of Yellowstone’s
4,700 bison have been captured and killed after wandering across the
park’s fenceless border.
The butchery - the biggest kill-off since the 19th century - is the
upshot of a botched deal between the USDA, the National Park Service,
and local livestock and wildlife agencies. The plan, hatched in 2000,
was supposed to use capture-and-kill as one prong of a wider strategy
that would have seen cattle-free buffer zones created along
Yellowstone’s borders, with the park’s bison herd being gradually
vaccinated against brucellosis.
In fact, despite spending some $2 million a year on the plan, the
agencies have failed to meet even their preliminary goals: According
to a scathing Government Accountability Office report, capture-and-
kill has become the default tool for controlling Yellowstone’s bison
herds, and the agencies have no idea when or if they’ll be able to
implement alternatives.
That’s outraged greens and park officials, who say the bison herds are
one of Yellowstone’s star attractions - and worry that continuing to
slaughter the supersized ungulates could ultimately threaten the
herd’s future. Already, bison sightings in the park are at their
lowest levels for 14 years: “It’s been a horrible, horrible year for
bison,” one activist told the Christian Science Monitor.
Fortunately, there’s a ray of hope on the horizon. Two weeks ago,
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer ordered a halt to the slaying of
Yellowstone bison; now he’s working to secure new land for the bison
on the park’s borders. “I favor a common sense solution,” he said.
“Frankly, it’s common sense that’s been lacking.” That’s a good start
- but with Montana’s powerful cattle lobby pledging to fight
Schweitzer all the way, the Yellowstone bison aren’t out of the woods
just yet.
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