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Update From the Field
As we gather our firewood and make ready for the approaching
winter a few small groups of bull bison have begun their
annual migration to lower elevations and another season
of Montana's bison intolerance has begun. As we write
this, a hazing operation is underway. BFC patrols are
out in the field keeping a close eye on things, as we
also prepare for the impending hunt.
We know it will be a most difficult season and that
we will witness buffalo being gunned down before our
eyes. Regardless, we will be in the field with the buffalo,
with major national and state media organizations, and
we will document and tell the world what this buffalo
"hunt" really looks like.
With the need to set up an additional camp in Gardiner
so we can monitor and document the hunt in both locations,
we need additional cameras, radios, and food to maintain
our presence. Your support is critical at this critical
time.
Take a moment today to contact Governor Brian Schweitzer
and tell him you strongly oppose this bison hunt. He
can be reached at: 406-444-3111 or governor@state.mt.gov
With the Wild,
Buffalo Field Campaign
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* Volunteers Needed for Woodcut Weekend this
Weekend!
Live in or near Montana? Join BFC for our 9th Annual
Woodcut Weekend. New and returning volunteers will gather
at BFC headquarters in West Yellowstone starting tomorrow
to cut and stack the many cords of firewood that will
keep our volunteers warm this coming winter. For more
information call (406) 646-0070 or email buffalo@wildrockies.org
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* East Coast Road Show Underway
Mike and Josh have returned home safely from their successful
adventures on the West Coast Road Show, and the baton
has been passed: the East Coast Road show is officially
underway.
We left Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone on
Saturday and arrived in Asheville, North Carolina on
Tuesday night.
With the truck loaded up with outreach materials, we
made our way through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National
Parks, where we got to spend time with the very buffalo
whose stories we'll share with audiences from North
Carolina to Vermont.
The journey across this enormous country has been a
telling one. As we made our way east through Wyoming,
Nebraska, and Missouri, surrounding us were the massive
expanses of the Great Plains. We found ourselves in
the middle of hundreds upon hundreds of miles of open
prairie: the native range of the wild buffalo. Sadly,
these lands are now entirely devoid of their presence.
We felt a great emptiness. We tried hard to imagine
what it was like 150 years ago, when these lands were
thick with buffalo, and teeming with elk, wolves and
grizzly bears. All we could see was the plains spotted
with livestock. Haunted now, the landscape screams out
for the welcome return of the mighty buffalo.
We did encounter a few herds along the way. In Nebraska
we visited Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, where
the buffalo and elk live within fenced borders, and
where managers proudly tout their heavy-handed management
that includes the routine use of an elk and bison capture
facility.
We visited Fort Robinson, and stood on the very earth
where Crazy Horse left this world, killed by U.S. soldiers
because he refused imprisonment. Crazy Horse's "crime"
was defending his people and their buffalo-based life
ways from foreign invaders.
From Nebraska we didn't encounter another buffalo until
we reached the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation
Area on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. While this is
another intensively managed herd, it was refreshing
to see buffalo on their eastern range. Buffalo belong
on this continent, not just in small pockets here and
there, but all over the landscape.
Everything we've experienced thus far points strongly
to the importance of protecting the Yellowstone herd,
the only living link that can fill these empty spaces
once again. The people of North Carolina whom we spoke
with last night agree. The buffalo are not the West's
alone, yet it is there where the last wild ones remain.
The country belongs to the mighty buffalo, and our work
is to return to them what is rightfully theirs.
As we head up the old buffalo trails to places they
once roamed we find inspiration in the people we meet
along the way who share our vision of a continent that
is home to truly wild buffalo herds whose hoof beats
once again drum the Earth.
Thank you, Asheville, NC: Aaron, Malaprop's Bookstore,
Scott and Laura for making us welcome and for your work
on behalf of the last wild buffalo. If you live in the
East, please check our schedule and join us for one
of our presentations. After sending this update we'll
be travelling to Boone, NC along the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Tonight's presentation is at Appalachian State University.
Please join us if you're in the area. The show starts
at 7:00 PM in Sanford Hall, Room 406 (Anthropology Building).
Contact Katie: kkleighig@gmail.com for more information.
BFC's complete East Coast schedule can be viewed at:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/aboutus/roadshowseast2005.html
Spreading the word to save the herd,
Dan, Stephany, and Jasmine
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* Last Words
"One day, the buffalo will return to these mountains.
When the buffalo return, our people will be healed."
--Cherokee prophecy
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