BILLINGS, Mont. -- State and federal officials have recommended relocating a small herd of bison from Yellowstone National Park to a Wyoming Indian reservation -- part of a bid to restore a species that once numbered in the tens of millions.

The 41 animals are now being held in a federal disease quarantine compound in Montana. If Friday's recommendation is adopted by the state's wildlife agency, they could be moved to the Wind River Reservation by April.

Yellowstone contains the largest and most genetically pure bison in the country following intensive hunting that drove the animals to near-extinction in the late 1800s.

Because the park's herds have a high rate of the disease brucellosis, most bison attempting to leave Yellowstone in recent decades have been shot or slaughtered.

The bison to be relocated were captured in 2005 and 2006. Each has tested negative for exposure to the disease at least nine times.

"The last thing we want to do is create another endemically infected herd," said veterinarian Jack Rhyan with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the quarantine compound in Corwin Springs.

Rhyan said several more batches of bison now under quarantine could be relocated over the next three winters.

Fears a latent infection could pop up in relocated bison has stirred opposition to the program from cattle ranchers. Ranchers and farmers also say the bison would knock over fences and tear up crop- and rangeland.

"They get out destroying crops and neighbors' crops and what have you," said John Brenden, a state legislator and farmer in Scobey.

Brenden, a Republican, is drafting a bill to block the bison from being moved out of the quarantine. It has not yet been introduced. He added that he would not want the animals moved to Wyoming, either.

The Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations also have submitted proposals to receive bison from Corwin Springs. Jim Stone with the Intertribal Bison Cooperative said those reservations would hope to receive bison over the next two to three years.

Friday's recommendation came during a meeting in Bozeman with representatives of agencies including Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Agriculture.

State veterinarian Marty Zaluski declined from joining the recommendation, saying he did not want to signal any desire to ship the bison to Wyoming instead of keeping them in Montana.

The selection of the Wind River Reservation of the Northern Arapahoe Tribe was contingent on a site visit and more details from the tribe on how it would manage the animals.

I think they should release wild bison into the Red Desert, and send the damn wild horses to the Res.

I just wonder what exorbitant price the indians are going to be selling hunting permits on those bison for....

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I think they should release wild bison into the Red Desert, and send the damn wild horses to the Res.

At least they are a native species!

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wonder what exorbitant price the indians are going to be selling hunting permits on those bison for....

+1

I have a growing hatrid for the Indians. They claim to be Americans when it suits them and claim not to be American when it suits them.

The way I see it, you are either American or not. If you are not, and you are here you are a foreigner. If you are then you must respect all the laws and don't get special privilaged.

We give the indians enough shit already. Let them buy them outright. Or a better idea is to release them on a substantial tract of public land and let the hunter harvesta few. Been trying to draw the Henry Mts in AZ for years. Be nice to hunt some wild buffalo elsewhere.

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Originally posted by twilli:
Been trying to draw the Henry Mts in AZ for years.

Me thinks it will be many, many more years before you draw. The Henry Mts. are in UT.

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Originally posted by ddunn:
The way I see it, you are either American or not. If you are not, and you are here you are a foreigner. If you are then you must respect all the laws and don't get special privilaged.

+1.

Couldn't agree more. As a matter of fact, I seem to remember reading the almost exact same words before.

Oh, yeah; here's the quote:

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The way I see it, you are either American or not. If you are not, then you are here you are a foreigner. If you are then you must respect all the laws and don't get special privilages.

Red Cloud, translated from the original Lakota circa 1874, discussing the illegal activities of a foreign army and other miscreants trespassing in a designated Sioux national wildlife/hunting area.