Missoula, MT- The Montana Department of Livestock is withholding information from the pubic in violation of Montana's Constitutional Right-to-Know and the State's "Sunshine" laws.

Montana citizens, the Buffalo Field Campaign, The Ecology Center, Inc. and Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers say that their recent and repeated requests for records of Montana Department of Livestock activities have been denied. The groups are seeking information on the agency's management activities affecting Yellowstone's native buffalo herd.

The Montana Department of Livestock hazes, captures, slaughters and shoots wild buffalo that roam outside Yellowstone National Park. The agency spearheads a $45 million dollar, 15-year plan to eradicate brucellosis in and around Yellowstone. That Plan centers around buffalo management while other wildlife that test positive to the disease, like elk, are allowed to roam free.

The wild Yellowstone buffalo are the only herd left in the United States that have continuously occupied their traditional native range. Since 1984, 3,182 free roaming Yellowstone buffalo have been shot or shipped to slaughter.

In a lawsuit filed this spring, the groups detail numerous violations of federal laws by the Montana Department of Livestock, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the U.S. National Park Service. The groups claim that the government's Yellowstone Bison Management Plan illegally harms bald eagles, trumpeter swans and their habitat. The Complaint is online: .

"Unfortunately, the Montana Department of Livestock is wasting taxpayer dollars defending their denial of our rights," says Jim Coefield of The Ecology Center Inc. "But we are taking action to protect Montanan's Constitutional Right-to-Know as embodied by our State Constitution. The opinion of a rogue state agency does not trump the rights granted to us by the State Constitution. Obviously they have something to hide."

The Montana Department of Livestock is withholding agency records because they claim the state's right-to-know law has been "modified" by the federal civil lawsuit brought by the groups.

"There is no provision in either state law or Montana's Constitution that gives the Montana Department of Livestock the discretion to modify the public's right to know," states Darrell Geist of Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers.

At this week's public Board meeting, citizens were denied the ability to ask questions of Board of Livestock members and Department of Livestock employees.

"The Montana Department of Livestock is getting bad advice from their attorneys," states Dan Brister of Buffalo Field Campaign. "If the agency's activities cannot stand public scrutiny -- then they need to step out of the hole they are digging themselves into."

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The Montana Constitution states that:

"ARTICLE II, Section 9. Right to know. No Person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure."

Montana Code Annotated states that: "MCA 2-6-102. Citizens entitled to inspect and copy public writings. (1) Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing of this state .... (3) Information that is constitutionally protected from disclosure is information in which there is an individual privacy interest that clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure, including legitimate trade secrets .... and matters related to individual or public safety."

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