*
BREAKING NEWS: BFC Files Suit to End Bison Slaughter
Buffalo mama with some of her family travelling through
Gallatin National Forest, where currently their presence
is met with harassment, capture and slaughter by state
and federal agencies. BFC file photo.
We have very exciting news, which some of you may have
seen or heard in the media this week: On Monday BFC,
together with other bison advocates, filed suit against
the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service for
their shameful role in the harassment and slaughter
of the Yellowstone bison, America's last wild population.
These federal agencies are both signed on to the Interagency
Bison Management Plan. The Park Service is named in
the suit for violating its mission to leave unimpaired
for future generations the wild bison inhabiting their
native range including Yellowstone National Park. The
U.S. Forest Service is also named in the suit for failing
to manage habitat for viable populations of wild bison
and sage grouse on the Gallatin National Forest. The
groups are asking the federal courts to forbid the Park
Service and Forest Service from participating in or
permitting actions that would lead to the slaughter
of wild bison, including trapping for transport to slaughter
houses and quarantine facilities.
Read the legal complaint, press release, supporting
information and learn about the plaintiffs here.
The media had a field day with the release of this news,
and the story has appeared in papers, on TV, and radio
nationwide. Here is a sampling of the stories that have
come out:
11/10/09, Jackson
Hole News & Guide (WY)
11/10/09, Pacifica~Uprising
Radio
11/9/09, Associated
Press
Many deep, heartfelt thanks to Western Watersheds Project,
Gallatin Wildlife Association, Tatanka Oyate Project,
Native Ecosystems Council, Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation
and the citizen plaintiffs - Dan Brister, Meghan Gill,
and Chuck Irestone - for being part of this amazing
and powerful proactive step in bison defense.
------------------------------
* Update from the Field
BFC volunteers demonstrate their views at an event in
Helena, Montana. BFC file photo.
Patrols are back in the field, monitoring bison migration,
and preparing for another busy season as opening day
for Montana's bison hunt approaches. Wild bison are
still prevented from accessing year-round habitat outside
Yellowstone's boundaries, so hunters participating in
this management scheme are simply assisting the Montana
Department of Livestock's efforts to eliminate native
bison from the grounds that are their birthright in
Montana. The hunt will run from November 15 - February
15. BFC opens our Gardiner camp this weekend as well,
so the eyes of the world will be watching everywhere
wild buffalo roam.
As we make ready for this coming season, we can use
your help to ensure that patrols have everything they
need to stay warm, dry, fed and effective in the field.
Please visit BFC's
Wish List for a list of items we are always in need
of. Please make a tax-deductible contribution to support
the hard work of BFC today.
In this centuries-old range war, we are making progress
for the buffalo and their right to roam. We would not
be here working in their defense without your support.
You are the ones who make it possible. Thank You!
Roam Free!
~Buffalo Field Campaign
------------------------------
TAKE ACTION! Help the Buffalo with Your Comments to
APHIS
More buffalo advocates have submitted comments to the
Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
about their Bovine Brucellosis Program, which maintains
the status quo of harming wild bison and elk in the
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Comments are being accepted
through December 4, 2009, so if you haven't sent yours
in yet please do so today. If you have, thank you, and
please spread the word to save these herds! Learn
more and submit your comments today!
------------------------------
BFC Road Show: More Thanks to Give
As my old mind wanders it tends to forget things along
the way. With that lame excuse, I apologize for neglecting
to thank the following people for their invaluable help
with the West Coast Road Show:
Number one is my buddy and cohort Chris (aka "Jumbo")
for accompanying me and representing the buffalo with
passion every single night. Thanks so much, brother.
Thanks also to Lorin and Matt who set up a special show
on my way down to Los Angeles, and to Zach, one of the
newest members of our buffalo family who organized an
amazing night in Pasadena. Thanks also to the Galanis
Band, John Torris, Brian, and the Jameson Brown Coffee
House.
If you would like to help set up a show next fall on
the West Coast or in the Rocky Mountains, please contact
me at mease@wildrockies.org.
With the Buffalo,
Mike Mease
------------------------------
* Ted Turner Ranch Likely to Receive Quarantined Yellowstone
Buffalo
In a shocking turn of events, state and federal agencies
involved with the failed Bison Quarantine Feasibility
Study seem to have forgotten the intent behind their
nefarious scheme and are now recommending that Ted Turner's
Montana ranch receive dozens of orphaned and imprisoned
Yellowstone buffalo that were originally wild until
being captured within Yellowstone National Park. While
BFC vehemently opposes the quarantine study, the agencies
stated goal was to "create a disease-free herd"
for the purpose of "restoring" bison on public
and tribal lands in Montana and elsewhere. Yellowstone
National Park handed them over to these agencies for
that stated purpose, not for commercial purposes. The
agencies tried to sell this project to the public by
force-feeding us their vision that these were going
to be the first "wild" buffalo in Montana,
and now some of their offspring may end up on the menu
of Ted's Montana Grill. By even considering giving these
buffalo to Ted Turner's private Montana ranch, the agencies
are failing the public trust, utterly failing the buffalo,
and clearly demonstrating they are disastrously incompetent
in managing bison in any capacity. The Fort Belknap
Indian Reservation in Montana also applied to receive
the buffalo, so we are hopeful that Tribal voices will
rise in opposition to this latest scheme. Montana Fish,
Wildlife & Parks still needs to approve the decision
so you can make your voice heard by contacting the FWP
Commissioners at fwpcomm@mt.gov.
------------------------------
In Solidarity: Beehive Collective & Northern Rockies
Rising Tide Visits BFC
A sneak peak of the as yet unfinished portable mural
telling the story of mountain top removal.
Last night, BFC was graced with a visit from the Beehive
Design Collective and Northern Rockies Rising Tide as
they travel the country with their ultra-powerful presentation,
Mountaintop Removal: The True Cost of Coal. It's an
interactive, graphic-based picture-lecture that speaks
to the overwhelming and complex picture of energy, resource
extraction, and climate change as well as the small-scale
changes and actions we can undertake to build another
world. While many of us are familiar with the tragedy
of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, few are aware
that some of the same dangers are about to descend upon
Montana, in the Powder River Basin, where buffalo will
someday roam again. With a gigantic portable mural-in-process
teeming with intricate images of plants and animals
from the most biodiverse temperate forest on the planet,
the Bees and and Rising Tide will share (and seek) stories
of how coal mining and mountaintop removal affect communities
and ecosystems throughout Appalachia, here in Montana
and beyond. In solidarity for Mother Earth, we encourage
you to learn more about the Beehive
Design Collective and the Northern
Rockies Rising Tide and the work they are doing
with their graphics campaign-in-process as it unfolds.
For those in the region, you will have a chance to see
their presentation in person:
Missoula, MT, Nov 17th @ 7pm in the North Urey Lecture
Hall, UM
Pocatello, ID, Nov 18th @7pm in Wood River Room at the
Student Union, ISU
Thank you Emma, Brent, and Katie for coming to BFC and
sharing with us!
------------------------------
* Last Words
"The Park Service has slaughtered more bison
than the state of Montana. That's not their charge;
they have a different mission: leave the park and its
resources and wildlife unimpaired for future generations.
If park employees were caught peeing in Old Faithful,
do you think they'd still have a job?"
~ Rolling Mountain, wild buffalo advocate
Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to
bfc-media@wildrockies.org.
Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have
been sending; you'll see them here!
------------------------------
* Kill Tally
AMERICAN BISON ELIMINATED from the last wild population
in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 0
2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 0
2009-2010: Quarantine: 0
2009-2010: Shot by Agents: 0
2009-2010: Known Highway Mortality: 0
2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,702*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts,
highway mortality
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