| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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News
Article 12/25/08
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Cattle
industry aims to stop park bison from roaming
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
12/25/08 |
Attorneys
for Montana's cattle industry on Wednesday asked a state
court to block a new agreement that would allow more bison
to roam freely outside Yellowstone National Park.
In the last two decades more than 5,000 bison leaving
the park have been slaughtered by government agencies
and shot by hunters, to prevent the spread of the disease
brucellosis.
An agreement reached Dec. 17 between Montana and federal
agencies could slow the killing. It would let bison -
including some that carry the disease - migrate to limited
areas outside the park as long as cattle were
.
The agreement broke a longstanding impasse on how to manage
Yellowstone's estimated 3,000 bison, one of the largest
surviving herds of a species pushed to near extinction
in the 19th century. But the cattle industry says the
balance has now tipped too far in favor of bison, putting
livestock at increased risk of disease.
Industry attorneys submitted court filings asking state
District Judge Loren Tucker of Virginia City to block
part of the new agreement.
They are opposed to unlimited numbers of bison roaming
during winter on about 10,000 acres west of Yellowstone
park.
The area in contention, known as Horse Butte, no longer
has cattle ranches but is adjacent to rangeland where
cattle graze in the spring.
Montana Stockgrowers Association attorney Jim Brown said
brucella, the bacteria that causes the disease, can survive
for months in the remains of aborted calves.
"By allowing an unlimited number of bison and untested
bison the exposure to the brucella increases substantially,"
Brown said.
Attorneys said that in a Wednesday teleconference with
Tucker, the judge set a late January deadline for legal
arguments but no date for a hearing.
Brucellosis causes cows to prematurely abort their calves.
It has been wiped out nationwide except in the Yellowstone
area.
No direct bison-to-cattle transmissions of the disease
have been recorded. Infections found in seven cattle herds
in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana in recent years were all
linked to elk - although those elk could have been infected
by Yellowstone bison.
The Stockgrowers request for an injunction did not extend
to pending bison management changes on the north side
of the park, where 25 disease-free bison will gain access
this winter to about 2,500 acres of Forest Service land.
Other plaintiffs in the case are Sitz Angus Ranch and
rancher Bill Myers.
They first sued Montana officials and the Montana Department
of Livestock last spring, claiming the state was not enforcing
the Interagency Bison Management Plan. That 2000 document
governs the bison capture and slaughter program. The Dec.
17 agreement altered the document, to relax rules for
bison.
Even before that change, state and federal officials had
shown more tolerance for bison in the Horse Butte area.
Montana livestock officials were no longer testing all
bison for disease as called for in the 2000 plan.
Christian Mackay, executive officer of the Montana Department
of Livestock, said his agency has tried to walk a fine
line between satisfying cattle interests and showing more
tolerance for bison.
"We've got a pretty sound plan in place," Mackay
said. "We have not had a transmission from bison
to cattle. We've maintained a wild, free-ranging herd,
as outlined under the IBMP (Interagency Bison Management
Plan). And as a result of that, nobody's happy."
Conservation groups and members of Congress from outside
Montana had pushed for the more relaxed management rules
adopted last week. Groups including the Natural Resources
Defense Council contended the changes did not go far enough.
The environmental law firm Earthjustice has intervened
in the Stockgrowers lawsuit to defend the government's
increased flexibility on bison.
"We're going to oppose the Stockgrowers' efforts
to stop those reforms," said Earthjustice attorney
Tim Preso.
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