PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070 phone (406) 646-0071 fax
buffalo@wildrockies.org
www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Gallatin National Forest Destroyed Files Sought by Bison Advocates
AGENCY CONFIRMS IT DESTROYED FILES FROM $13,000,000 LAND CONSERVATION AGREEMENT IN YELLOWSTONE
FOR Immediate Release, Thursday June 23, 2005
Contact Information:
Darrell Geist, Darrell Geist & Associates (406) 531-9284, dgassociates@wildrockies.org
Dan Brister, Buffalo Field Campaign (406) 726-5555, dan@wildrockies.org
Bozeman, MT: Gallatin National Forest officials have confirmed that they removed and destroyed public records sought by bison advocates in a $13,000,000 land conservation and wildlife protection agreement near Yellowstone National Park.
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), a nonprofit bison advocacy group based near West Yellowstone, Montana has been researching government files since June 2004 to gather information on land use within the Yellowstone bison herd's native and historic range.
"We want to know what records the Gallatin National Forest destroyed, " says Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "What we do know, from the records we have been able to see, is that six years after this land agreement was finalized the Forest Service has failed to come up with the Bison Management Plan called for in the agreement."
Approval of a Bison Management Plan would open up critical winter range for Yellowstone's native migratory bison herd.
American taxpayers funded the $13,000,000 land deal in 1999 to acquire and conserve habitat for one of the largest migrations of native ungulates in North America: wild bison, elk, pronghorn antelope, mule deer and bighorn sheep. Habitat is also present for threatened species including grey wolves, grizzly bears, bald eagles and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
The land is situated in a wildlife corridor along the Yellowstone River in the Gardiner Basin of the Gallatin and Absaroka mountains just outside Yellowstone National Park. The land deal includes the purchase of land and a conservation easement. Devil's Slide conservation easement encompasses 1,508 acres of habitat. 5,262 acres of land on the Royal Teton Ranch were acquired from the Church Universal and Triumphant.
Gallatin National Forest officials blocked access to its Royal Teton Ranch files in late February of this year and canceled a visit arranged to review public records with Ken Britton, District Ranger for the Gardiner Ranger District.
The group was informed March 30 by Bob Dennee, Lands Staff for the Gallatin National Forest, that he had removed files from the Royal Teton Ranch project record at the agency's offices in Bozeman and Gardiner. A June 1 letter from Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Rebecca Heath confirmed that the agency had indeed destroyed files sought by Buffalo Field Campaign.
