Gov details sweeping bison plan

By JENNIFER McKEE - IR State Bureau - 01/18/05

HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer outlined a plan Monday to permanently eradicate a troubling disease from Yellowstone National Park's bison herd that involves slowly depopulating the park of bison, destroying the sick ones and reintroducing a healthy herd.

‘‘The grand plan is a permanent, sustainable solution to brucellosis,'' Schweitzer said in an interview with the State Bureau. ‘‘Hazing bison back into the park? What the heck is that?''

He was referring to the current system Montana and the federal government use to manage park bison. It involves hazing the animals back into Yellowstone when they leave the park. If the bison cannot be pushed back, they are rounded up and tested for brucellosis. Those that test positive are destroyed and healthy animals are released.

Yellowstone's 4,200-head bison herd is the last vestige of the enormous herds that once dominated the American West and Great Plains. As such, they are celebrated for their wild, uniquely American nature. But many of the animals also carry brucellosis, a disease that can cause cattle to abort their calves.

Montana is currently classified as brucellosis-free, a status that allows Montana's cattlemen to easily export the state's No. 1 beef product: live, young animals bound for feedlots and slaughterhouses out of state. If even a handful of Montana livestock develop brucellosis, the state could lose its brucellosis-free status, and stockmen fear that would make it much more difficult and expensive for ranchers to sell their cattle.

Consequently, the current bison-management plan was designed to maintain Montana's brucellosis-free status, with an eye on eventually eradicating the disease from bison. But Schweitzer said that plan may never result in a healthy bison herd and Montana will long be stuck with the headache and controversy of protecting a beloved American animal, while safeguarding the state's ranching industry. Plus, he said, a true, fair-chase bison hunt may never be possible as long as bison carry the disease and cannot freely roam the state like other big-game animals.

Schweitzer's plan is a significant departure from the way the state has managed bison for many years. It would do the following:

n Create pockets of public land on the northern and western border of Yellowstone where the animals can freely range right now. This would require paying ranchers who currently use some of that land for pasture not to run livestock there. Schweitzer said he hoped to come up with the money using a combination of federal and private funds.

n Build a quarantine facility. The National Park Service at one point promised to build such a facility, but so far has not. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., recently secured around $860,000 to study building the facility.

n Slowly run every bison in Yellowstone through the facility. Healthy animals will be adopted to American Indian tribes or private landowners. Diseased animals will be hunted or destroyed if they cannot be hunted. Schweitzer said he anticipated this process to take several years. No animals processed through the quarantine would be released into Yellowstone.

n Use a more precise brucellosis test than the one currently used. The common brucellosis test results in too many false results, Schweitzer said.

n Monitor the bison adopted out to make sure they stay genetically pure and do not interbreed with cattle or non-Yellowstone bison.

n Encourage Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal to close the National Elk Refuge feeding grounds near Jackson Hole, Wyo. Artificially concentrating elk at the feed grounds is believed to be responsible for the high incidence of brucellosis in park elk, particularly those in the southern part of Yellowstone.

At some point, all the bison will be moved through the quarantine and Yellowstone will temporarily have no bison. Then, the herd will be reconstituted, either with the actual animals that were adopted out or with their offspring. The result will be a bison herd completely free of brucellosis.

Schweitzer said he'd been thinking about the plan ‘‘for a long time,'' before he was elected governor. He said he wasn't sure if every part of the plan would work, but he'd like to change course from the one the state is currently on and will start talking about his plan with the federal and state agencies, as well as those closest to the bison controversy soon.

To enact the plan, Schweitzer would have to change the Interagency Bison Management Plan, an agreement among the state and a host of federal agencies.

‘‘This plan gets us to our objective:'' healthy, free-ranging bison and a healthy cattle industry, Schweitzer said.

The plan, which is still in its earliest stages, won some approval from both bison activists and cattlemen.

‘‘We do share many of his goals and expectations, beginning with what I hope is an overall eradication of this dreaded disease within the Yellowstone National Park bison herd,'' said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Pilcher said he didn't support the idea of expanding the winter range for bison now because the animals carry the disease. Plus, it would required ranchers not grazing their traditional pastures.

Mike Mease, campaign coordinator with the Buffalo Field Campaign, a pro-bison group in West Yellowstone, said he applauded Schweitzer's use of better brucellosis tests, but wondered if family structure of the Yellowstone herd could be maintained if the population was scattered about and later reconstituted.

‘‘No one has studied family structure,'' Mease said. ‘‘One of the things that makes these animals unique is that they haven't been domesticated.''

Still, Mease said he was ‘‘really excited the governor is looking into this. I think he's on the right track.''

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/01/18/montana_top/a01011805_02.txt

Why did you guys in Montana elect a Democrat?

Is he going to propose we do the same thing with all of the elk in the park and surrounding areas...give me a break.

Anyone have any other ideas for creating and maintaing a disease free herd in Yellowstone?
Look, it is one thing to try to create wild disease free herds in locations not currently housing bison or elk (this is also expensive....just look at Canada's Wood Bison Management Plan) but quite another to create a disease free herd in currently utilized habitat while maintaining the genetics of the same area. If people want a Brucellosis free herd in Yellowstone that is genetically the same as the herd currently there, quarantine, vaccination of elk and bison, and reintroduction are the only real options. The question really becomes, how important are the genetics? Are they important enough to justify the costs of a bison quarantine process or could the parks department simply wipe out the whole herd and then reintroduce disease free animals once the disease is under control in the elk population? Neither option is going to make everyone happy.

Best,

JohnTheGreek

Most likey the elected this guy the same way they kept electing a Anti gun senator for years.

Don't know how they get elected .... probably by the anti gun anti hunter transplants from other states! This idiot governor is a real "piece of work" !!