News from the Field
March 13, 2003
In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* What Can You Do to Help?
* Rally for the Yellowstone Bison, Sat March 15 in Gardiner
* Thanks for the Support
* Track Legislation Affecting the Buffalo
* Last Words
* Update from the Field
Buffalo Supporters,
Coming back to Gardiner, Montana jarred haunting memories of the 1997 slaughter. The land here still screams of death. The humans on this side of the Park show no mercy for ungulates, unless they happen to be hunted species like deer and elk. Everywhere I go in Gardiner, even in town, elk are all over. Some locals cry out loud how all of THEIR elk are being killed by the horrible wolves, saying "they never used to be here." The reality of selective species prejudice sets the tone of the week ahead.
We arrived to do a field trip with our friend George who is a local here and a member of the Bear Creek Council. He wanted to show us around and give us a feel for the migration routes of the buffalo. As we were driving out to the Stephens Creek trap, located one and a half miles inside Yellowstone National Park, we came across a herd of 20 buffalo by the road. We stopped, got out the video camera, and started to film. We then noticed a bull buffalo with a broken or severely damaged back leg. We stayed with them for a while and then continued toward the buffalo trap. On our way we passed Rob Tierney, the head of the slaughter program for the Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL). His jaw almost fell off when he saw us. His presence always means death, and we soon found out that 110 buffalo were in the trap.
The next day the MDOL began transporting the buffalo to slaughter. I had been in touch with the Park Service to go into the trap on a media tour. They called back and told me that it was cancelled that day but that I could go the following day. That day marked the shipment of 47 buffalo to slaughter and the capture of over 100 new buffalo. Some of the captured buffalo that day were the 20 that had been with the injured bull the day before. For some bizarre reason they captured all but him. As the rest of his family paced fretfully inside the trap, as he rounded the area looking for a way to join them. As the sun began to set he bedded down outside the trap separated from his death sentenced herd.
The next morning I was not allowed into the trap. The MDOL called me a security risk because of a previous arrest related to protesting the buffalo slaughter. We went to meet the Park people anyway and asked why I couldn't go in the trap. I explained that this is my livelihood and that expressing my first amendment right to protest should not be held against me. After seeing that there was no chance of changing their minds, we asked if someone else from our group could film in my place. The park officials agreed. In front of all of the other reporters, they took his ID card and did a background check. After he cleared that hurdle, he was searched and padded down, humiliating him again. Finally they allowed him on the press tour. My misdemeanor arrest had halted me, but the BFC still prevailed in obtaining footage to educate the world. That day 86 buffalo were sent to slaughter. The caravan of seven MDOL horse trailers, filled with buffalo and more law-enforcement than a Presidential motorcade, paraded through the town of Gardiner.
The next day ten more buffalo were captured and 51 were sent to slaughter, no more media tours were given to anyone. Friday the final 47 in the trap where sent off to death.
The grand total for the week was 231,the most buffalo killed since 1997. The buffalo that were not captured, but were in the unsafe area of Yellowstone National Park started heading further back into the Park. Our injured friend was still in the area of the capture facility, hoping to reunite with his family. Three big bull buffalo walked up to him and took him into their clan. They walked slowly with him back into the Park and his pain and suffering continues. I still don't understand why he was the only buffalo not sent to slaughter. My head hangs low with sadness for what my species has done.
The weather has warmed again and the buffalo are heading deeper into the Park, where we think, hope, and pray they are safe. We are heading up in the air today to recon the area with the help of our friends at Project LightHawk. For the time being all looks good in Gardiner.
In the coming month we will see the spring buffalo migration in West Yellowstone. I am guessing that between 300 to 400 buffalo will head out onto National Forest lands. With the Park setting a precedent of slaughtering without testing, the MDOL are sure to kill all that come out. These buffalo are our national treasure, not Montana's toy. Please voice your outrage to the Park. Let them know such slaughter is not acceptable. Stand up for the ones without voices and let's leave something behind for future generations. If you have ever wanted to come out and be part of BFC's field efforts, now is the time. Change will come, but only when the people demand it.
With the Buffalo,
Mike Mease
BFC Coordinator
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* What Can You Do to Help?
Last week the National Park Service (NPS) slaughtered 231 wild bison inside Yellowstone National Park. Buffalo near the northern boundary of the Park were hazed into the Stephens Creek Trap where they were held until slaughter. At least one night there were 175 wild bison caged in a trap built for 125. Numerous injuries were documented as trapped bison gored each other in confinement. These operations mark a return to darker days for Yellowstone park rangers, who haven't killed buffalo in six years.
A group of six bull bison escaped from Stillwater Packing Plant in Columbus, MT. The bulls escaped the slaughterhouse only to be gunned down by the Department of Livestock. Perhaps that is the only way that wild bison can die free in Montana.
This slaughter has brought renewed attention to how Yellowstone bison are "managed". Coalitions with many conservation groups are growing. Even the ranking member of the House Resources Committee, West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall is calling on the National Park Service (NPS) to justify capturing bison within Yellowstone National Park and sending them to slaughter. In a letter to Park Service Director Fran Maniella, Rahall asked for detailed information on why the agency continues the slaughter. "The slaughter of wildlife unique to a National Park is so antithetical to the NPS mission that detailed information regarding the justifications for this activity is required," Rahall wrote.
There is much you can do to help. If you can't join our ski patrols on the park boundaries, you can support us with donations of food, gear, clothing, or money. We are a true grassroots campaign and couldn't be here without support from people like you.
We need your help right now to change the policies behind the buffalo slaughter. Montana livestock interests are dictating the fate of America's buffalo heritage inside Yellowstone. We need to show park officials that the buffalo have a strong constituency among the American people. Use your pen, phone, and computer to urge our public officials to uphold their duty to protect Yellowstone's wildlife. Tell them to stop killing the last wild buffalo. Letters to the editor of your local paper are also a great way to spread the word about this atrocity. Explore our web site www.wildrockies.org/buffalo, get informed, and become an advocate for the buffalo!
Flood the offices of the following officials with mail, faxes, phone calls and emails. Tell them to stop slaughtering the wild creatures we've entrusted them to protect!
Gale Norton
Secretary, United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240-0001
fax: (202) 208-6956
phone: (202) 208-7351
email: gale_norton@ios.doi.gov
Fran Mainella
Director, National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
fax: (202) 208-7779
phone: (202) 208-6843
email: fran_mainella@nps.gov
Suzanne Lewis
Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone, WY 82190
fax: (307) 344-2005
phone: (307) 344-2002
email: yell_superindendent@nps.gov or
suzanne_lewis@nps.gov
Possible points to make to the NPS: * Withdraw for the Interagency Bison Management Plan. If the Park really doesn't want to slaughter bison, encourage them to withdraw from the Plan that requires them to do so, and develop a better plan that addresses the issues without killing bison. * Explore alternatives. Instead of killing wild bison, the Park could introduce live captured bison onto reservations as requested by the Intertribal Bison Cooperative. Or money could be spent to develop an effective brucellosis vaccine for cattle so that wildlife can remain wild. It's time that money being spent on the slaughter be spent to explore viable alternatives. * Protect America's natural heritage. The Yellowstone bison herd is a unique part of our natural heritage and deserves protection. Encourage the Park to fulfill its mandate to preserve our natural environment for future generations. * Challenge the Park's population target of 3000 as not protecting the genetic viability of this unique last herd of free ranging wild bison.
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* Rally for the Yellowstone Bison, Saturday March 15 in Gardiner
Come to a rally for the buffalo of Yellowstone National Park this Saturday March 15, at 12:00 Noon at the entrance to Gardiner, Montana on the sidewalks of the bridge spanning the Yellowstone River. Bison supporters will gather with banners and costumes. Speeches will follow. The rally brings together the National Parks Conservation Association, The Humane Society of the United States, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, The Bear Creek Council, the Buffalo Field Campaign, Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers, the Ecology Center, and other national and regional organizations in support of the buffalo. We are holding this rally to call attention to the Park Service's recent actions and as a show of support for the surviving members of the herd, who face an uncertain future.
On Friday at 7PM in the Gardiner School, the Bear Creek Council and the Buffalo Field Campaign will host a video presentation and discussion of footage shot by the National Park Service and the Buffalo Field Campaign. The footage was shot in and around the Stephens Creek Capture facility during the loading and shipping of bison to slaughterhouses last week.
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* Thanks for the Support
Thank you to Project LightHawk for the invaluable information gained during our recent flyover of the western and northern areas of the Park. You truly are the environmental air force.
Thanks as well to the good people of Boise, ID and Bozeman, MT who have helped BFC recently by organizing and attending two wonderful benefits for the buffalo.
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* Track Legislation Affecting the Buffalo
You can now track legislation affecting the buffalo on our website at: www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/politico/mtlegis03.html
There are currently two bills working through the Montana legislature: SB395 to allow sport hunting of bison as a management tool and HJ15 which calls upon the federal government to step up brucellosis eradication. We'll keep you updated, but in the meantime you can follow their progress online.
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* Last Words
The following words, written in 1875, could just as easily have been written to describe last week's slaughter of 231 buffalo by the National Park Service.
"It is an outrage and a crying shame that this indiscriminate slaughter of the large game of our country should be permitted. The act of Congress setting aside the National Park expressly instructs the Secretary of the Interior to provide against the wanton destruction of the game and fish found within the limits of the Park, and against their capture or destruction for merchandise of profit...unless some active measures are soon taken looking to the protection of the game, there will be none left to protect...How is it that the Commissioner of the Park allows this unlawful killing?"
--William Ludlow "Report of a Reconnaissance from Carroll, Montana Territory, on the Upper Missouri to the Yellowstone National Park, Made in the Summer of 1875"
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
buffalo@wildrockies.org