BFC & WWP Defend Bison's Room to Roam

Buffalo Field Campaign and Western Watersheds Project File to Intervene
in Lawsuit to Defend Bison's Room to Roam Beyond Yellowstone National Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 14, 2011

Press contacts:
Darrell Geist, Habitat Coordinator Buffalo Field Campaign: 406-646-0070; z@wildrockies.org
Jon Marvel, Executive Director Western Watersheds Project: 208-788-2290; jon@westernwatersheds.org

Lewistown, MT:  Buffalo Field Campaign and Western Watersheds Project filed today to intervene in consolidated lawsuits by Park County and the Park County Stockgrowers Association to stop a plan by the state of Montana to permit bison some room to migrate within Gardiner Basin outside Yellowstone National Park.

The groups say Gardiner Basin provides critical winter habitat and is a key corridor for the migratory species to roam in Montana.

"This reconnection of buffalo and the land on which they belong is a long overdue first step," said Daniel Brister, Executive Director of Buffalo Field Campaign.  "Local Montanans welcome the buffalo's migration, have learned to live with buffalo, and desire to see the wild species return."

Gardiner Basin encompasses a small portion of the bison's northern winter range originally reaching 40 miles beyond Yankee Jim Canyon into Paradise Valley along the Yellowstone River.

Park County residents who filed affidavits in state court say the bison need a break from wasteful taxpayer funded government hazing, capture, and slaughter operations that harms their interest in co-existing with the wild species in their native range.

"Yellowstone is one of a very few nearly intact ecosystems on the planet and is considered a world treasure," said Fred Baker, who owns property the bison migrate onto along the Old Yellowstone Trail. "To not support free roaming Bison in my opinion is an American travesty."

"I found this winter very special in viewing bison up and down the Gardiner Basin," said Gardiner, Montana resident Scott Hoeninghausen. "A limited amount of tolerance created an unlimited amount of beauty."

The plan agreed to by Montana would permit some bison to temporarily occupy some winter range in the Gardiner Basin.

Bison migrating beyond Yankee Jim Canyon would be subject to shooting by state officials, an action which the groups and residents deplore.

"It is long past time for bison to be able to return to their historic range in Montana," said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project. "WWP welcomes the opportunity to support the State of Montana."

District Court Judge E. Wayne Phillips of Lewistown has scheduled a hearing for the consolidated cases in which BFC and WWP seek to intervene in the fall of 2011.

Judge Phillips replaced Park County District Court Judge Nels Swandal who was removed from the case after Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks petitioned for a new judge.

Before he was removed from hearing the suit, Judge Swandal granted a temporary restraining order to the stock growers and the county thwarting Montana participation in the new agreed upon plan.

TAKE ACTION to SAVE BUFFALO

I just wanted to post the links to where you can submit letters to Ken Salazar and Montana government agencies.

• Defenders of Wildlife pre-written letter

          https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1991

• Natural Resource Defense Council pre-written letter

          https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2129& s_src=fb

• If you're feeling creative and/or want to tell Montana's government what to do and where to go, here is the link to email legislators and the committees.

          http://leg.mt.gov/css/sessions/62nd/legwebmessage.asp

Young bulls at West Entrance

BISON TO BE SLAUGHTERED-ACT NOW!!

BFC Photo

Yellowstone Park Rangers captured 340 of America's last wild bison this week, including the one in this photo. Park officials say they will send some of the buffalo to slaughter and hold some in the pens until spring. 

Please take action now and urge the Park Service to set the buffalo free:
CONTACT: Acting Superintendent Colin Campbell
PHONE:    307-344-2003
EMAIL:    colin_campbell@nps.gov

From a Montana "Native"

This is a letter my mother wrote to the Acting Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, Colin Campbell.

My name is Julia Vincent. I live in Helena, Montana. My grandparents were Montana homesteaders. My mother's family settled on Indian Lands in Daniels County. My father's parents homesteaded along the north fork of the Flathead river. My grandfather, Ray Vincent, was acting superintendent of Glacier National Park. My father, John D. Vincent, was a foreman and a ranger in The Park.

More genetically pure bison are being sent to slaughter. Continued reduction of the size of the herd is weakening them through inbreeding. In the 1800's, the D.O.I. was complaining that Indians and Buffalo are taking grassland away from cattle. This mentality remains in control to this day. The attacks on genetically pure bison are fueled by fear, not by reality. Taxpayers' money continues to be misused to fund an archaic, racist war. Giving Yellowstone Bison to Ted Turner while refusing to give them to local indigenous nations was borne out of the live$tock indu$try's fear that Indians are going to bring back the Buffalo.

And, as you already know, there is not even one documented case of bison giving brucellosis back to the cattle who brought it here to begin with. More taxpayers' money being spent on a lie.

Get out of the 1800's. Let the genetically pure buffalo roam.

Here's BFC's update on the current situation with the Yellowstone Buffalo.

There are at least 64 buffalo in the Stephens Creek trap currently, and with all the snow accumulation there will likely be more captured. There's a large mixed group of at least 50 that were hazed to Powerline Flats yesterday.... YNP & DOL agents have also been hazing other groups of buffalo into the Hunt Zone, and buffalo have quickly been shot after being hazed there. At least 80 buffalo have been killed by hunters so far.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION! Contact Yellowstone's Acting Superintendent Colin Campbell and tell him not to allow any buffalo slaughter and to set the buffalo free!

PHONE: 307-344-2003

EMAIL: colin_campbell@nps.gov

Our supporters that have already called have told us Yellowstone is saying they never "promised" not to slaughter, but that's a game of semantics. They said they would not. They are also telling people to contact APHIS, but they are simply trying to pass the buck. This is Yellowstone's decision to make. Put the pressure on.

Also, you should know that the some of the 25 buffalo that were hazed through RTR lands have already left! They have crossed the Yellowstone river, and have already been hazed a few times. Right across the street (Hwy 89) from Cutler Meadows is one of the Corwin Springs quarantine pastures with buffalo in it - surely the RTR buffalo went to visit some quarantined relatives. This RTR scheme was doomed to fail, and the buffalo are letting these agencies and NGO's know that you cannot box them in. Who knows what will become of them... we are watching and will let you know.

31 Bison Captured Inside Yellowstone, Hunting Tragedy

Buffalo Field Campaign


Yellowstone Bison

Update from the Field

January 6, 2011
------------------------------

* Update from the Field: 31 Bison Captured Inside Yellowstone, Hunting Tragedy

Shame on Yellowstone! Wild bufalo confined in pens at Stephens Creek trap, inside Yellowstone National Park. NPS file photo. Click here for larger image.


Hazing operations have been taking place nearly every day along migration routes north of Yellowstone. Early Tuesday afternoon, Yellowstone National Park and the Montana Department of Livestock began capturing wild buffalo at the Stephens Creek buffalo trap, inside Yellowstone National Park, for the ill-conceived Royal Teton Ranch (RTR) land scheme, which BFC refers to as the Corridor to Nowhere. The RTR land scheme is a $3.3 million agreement between the Church Universal & Triumphant (CUT), Yellowstone National Park, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and the National Parks Conservation Association. CUT has been given private and taxpayer money in exchange for removing their cattle for only 30 years and allowing just twenty-five bison temporary access to small portions of public lands on Gallatin National Forest and CUT lands.


BFC patrols in Gardiner report that a total of thirty-one buffalo have so far been captured. Yellowstone intends to capture between 60 and 80 buffalo for their experiment.


The $3.3 million RTR land scheme - paid for with public and private money - is falsely described as a step towards "increased tolerance" for wild buffalo in Montana. It is utterly incongruous to say that this experiment holds any benefit for wild buffalo, it is simply one more way that Yellowstone, Montana and certain conservation groups compromise the wild integrity of America's last wild bison by managing them as livestock.


The buffalo hazed into the trap will be held in confinement for an unknown period of time, placing them under a great deal of stress and, based upon similar operations in the past, causing serious injury and even death to some of the captured animals. Family groups will be separated, mothers from calves, brothers from sisters. They will then suffer squeeze chutes, blood tests, and highly invasive pregnancy tests. Yellowstone and Montana will randomly choose twenty-five buffalo from this test group that have blood-tested negative for exposure to brucellosis, and then further torment them by forcing them to wear ear tags, radio collars, and - for pregnant females - vaginal telemetry devices. These twenty-five buffalo will then be pushed through a small Corridor to Nowhere, encompassing less than 2,800 acres, surrounded by electric fencing and cattle guards, where they will be expected to stay until spring before they are eventually hazed back into Yellowstone.

Don't believe the spin you hear from proponents of this RTR experiment! Please read BFC's press release to learn more details about this ill-conceived Corridor to Nowhere.

For nearly six weeks, this family group had found safe refuge in the no-hunting area of Yellowstone Vilalge, a buffalo-friendly neighborhood, until they were chased out by hunters, who killed three. BFC file photo by Stephany.


More buffalo have been killed by hunters just outside of Yellowstone National Park, raising this winter's death toll to forty-six. A family group buffalo that had been living safely inside the buffalo-friendly private lands of Yellowstone Village, where no hunting is allowed, were pushed off of private property by a Confederated Salish-Kootenai hunting party. They were chased by the hunters with snowmobiles and on foot onto Gallatin National Forest land, and three of them - two adult cows and a young bull - were shot. Consequently, two calves were orphaned, and after the incident, one of the calves, lost and confused, was later struck by a vehicle and killed. These buffalo had found a safe haven in Yellowstone Village, and had been there for more than six weeks, but the refuge they had during the hunt was violated. Local residents and BFC have been deeply heartbroken and disturbed by this tragic event. We contacted Tribal officials, who were likewise very upset to hear this news and have opened an investigation. We are working together with the Tribe to make sure that such incidents do not happen again.


BFC co-founder Mike Mease was interviewed on CNN's Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell
Watch it here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/12/23/jvm.buffalo.being.forced.out.hln

Charges Dropped Against BFC Volunteers!

This is from the BFC update

Volunteers Exonerated for Illegal Arrests by Government Agents
Court Dismisses Charges Against Buffalo Field Campaign Volunteers

Last week two Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers were cleared of criminal charges stemming from a June 2, 2010 arrest in the Gallatin National Forest outside Yellowstone National Park. The two volunteers were videotaping wild Yellowstone bison that were attempting to follow their ancient migration route out of Yellowstone National Park and onto public land in the Gallatin National Forest.

Government agents on horseback, employed by the Montana Department of Livestock and other agencies, were hazing the bison down a road toward Yellowstone National Park. As the two volunteers attempted to videotape the hazing operation, a government agent ordered them to get inside their vehicle. When the volunteers questioned the legality of the order, they were arrested. Their preliminary hearings in Gallatin County Justice Court were set for the end of August. Before those hearings could occur, their charges were dismissed by the judge "for good cause shown" on August 16, 2010.

The Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers were represented by attorney Summer Nelson and cooperating Civil Liberties Defense Center attorney Rebecca Smith. In response to the dismissal of the charges, Smith stated, "we had a video recording of the incident so it was undisputed that these two volunteers were simply standing on public land trying to videotape a government operation. They were not in an area closed to the public; they were not blocking the movement of the buffalo or the agents; and they spoke to the agents and police officers in a respectful manner. They simply weren't willing to relinquish their constitutional rights to be present on open public land and film a matter of public interest." She continued, "Buffalo Field Campaign has been videotaping and publicizing these hazing operations for 13 years. We didn't need a trial to establish that these volunteers didn't break the law."

Lauren Regan, attorney and Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center added, "It is extremely unfortunate that public officials abused their power in an attempt to chill the lawful constitutional rights of citizens. Monitoring government operations, especially cruel and unnecessary ones like this, is a basic tenet of our democratic duties as citizens. The government agents in question should be provided some training on the Constitution and Bill of Rights as soon as possible so that this type of travesty does not occur again."

Buffalo Field Campaign Executive Director Dan Brister stated: "After years of frivolous arrests and trumped up charges against our volunteers, it is refreshing to see that the courts are capable of delivering real justice."Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field and on the policy front to protect America's last wild buffalo and their habitat.

Contact:
Rebecca Smith, Missoula, MT, 406-531-8133
Lauren Regan, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Eugene, OR, 541-687-9180