Reply From Colin Campbell

Here is Colin Campbell's reply to my mother's letter word for word. He really side-steps the issue.

Yellowstone National Park and the National Park Service appreciate your recent email. You can find information on bison and bison management in the greater Yellowstone area by using the links listed below. At the Yellowstone National Park website you can find information on topics like bison ecology, adaptive management and an historic bison study. The link is:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/bisonqa.htm will take you to the Greater Yellowstone Science Learning Center, where you can find more facts, references and research on bison. http:/ibmp.info will take you to the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) information repository. The IBMP guides bison management and disease management of brucellosis in bison, in and around Yellowstone National Park. The cooperating agencies operating under the IBMP are the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Montana Department of Livestock, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council, the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes, and the Nez Perce Tribe. More information on the IBMP can be found at http://ibmp.info/.

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.