What Are the BFC Road Shows?

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is a non-profit organization focused on protecting America's last wild, free ranging, genetically pure buffalo located in and around Yellowstone National Park. Although there are over 300,000 bison in the US only 15,000 are genetically pure. The rest have cattle genes. Of these 15,000 pure buffalo the Yellowstone bison are unique in that they have continually occupied their native range since the days when North America was inhabited by more than 30 million buffalo.

Montana has a "zero tolerance" policy for buffalo entering the state and has killed nearly 4,000 since 1985. The state blames the slaughter on brucellosis, although there has never been a documented transmission from wild bison to livestock. Ironically, the cows gave the disease to many species of wildlife and now only the buffalo are slaughtered. Elk have transmitted brucellosis disease to cattle yet elk are not even mentioned in the management plan as a problem.

With our country's infamous history of mass buffalo slaughter it is a bitter irony that 130 years later we are allowing history to repeat itself. Native American tribes have pleaded to take live YNP buffalo back to their reservations. The request has fallen on deaf ears. In a single week in March of 2003 the National Park Service slaughtered 231 buffalo from within Yellowstone National Park. In the year 2004 the Park Service killed 267 inside Yellowstone.

The Buffalo Field Campaign is working to gain protection under the Endangered Species Act for the herd. These buffalo are an American treasure and need all of our help to ensure their survival. The Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act (HR 2428) is currently gaining support in the US House of Representatives. We're traveling to gain support for these and other efforts to protect the herd.

Mike Mease (BFC's co-founder), Fishburn and Jumbo will be traveling out West visiting communities, events and Farmers Markets sharing stories, music, poetry, video and discussion about the Last wild Buffalo. We are honored to have family member and friend Goodshield back again this year at 3 shows, long lost friend Phoenix & AfterBuffalo doing a show in Berkeley and Seconds on End in San Francisco. Also thanks to everyone setting up these shows to spread the word and save the herd. Please come join us if you can.

Click here to view the schedule of BFC's 2007 West Coast Roadshow.

For more information on the West Coast tours,
email bfc-media@wildrockies.org or call (406) 646-0070.