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Spring is here and the bison are migrating back into the park

© Connie Troutman

It's been a long and interesting month around my house and if any of you have teenagers, then you can relate. I'm hoping to have a fresh article by month's end, but in the meantime I've included yet another bison update. I would love to post photo's of wildlife so if you have any then please send them to me. With any luck, I'll be snapping pics of squirrels or deer or something over the next couple weeks:) Can't do the bear photo's quite yet but I assure you, I'll get one before summer's end!

Spring is here and the bison are heading back into the park. For now they will be out of harms way. On May 30, a federal judge halted livestock grazing on Yellowstone National Park's western border, known as Horse Butte. You can read the story here.

This stretch of land is frequently used by bison that leave the park during the winter. And it is also the same stretch of land that the Department of Livestock has set up a facility to capture bison that leave the park.

The U.S. Forest Service never completed a required environmental assessment before re-issuing a 10-year grazing permit for the Horse Butte allotment.

"With this ruling, there should be no reason to continue killing bison," said Michael Scott, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. "It sends the message that the public's land is available for the public's wildlife."

Conservation groups are pleased with this decision as it gives the bison a bit of a break from the DOL and their hazing techniques. But before this ruling, 29 more bison were sent to slaughter.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 22, 2002
Contacts: Dan Brister (406) 726-5555; Mike Mease (406) 646-0070

Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, Mt. 59758
Phone (406) 646-0070 Fax (406) 646-0071
E-mail buffalo@wildrockies.org.
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo

West Yellowstone, MT: Without even testing them for brucellosis the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) slaughtered 29 bison today. The animals were captured Monday in the Duck Creek capture facility and confined for 36 hours before being shipped to slaughter. It is uncertain why the animals were held so long inside the capture facility.

Since the last week of April the DOL has slaughtered 133 bison, more than the combined kills of the previous four years. Montana hasn't slaughtered as many bison since 1996-'97, when the state killed nearly 1,100 buffalo that migrated out of Yellowstone National Park.

"The current slaughter has nothing to do with brucellosis," said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "The livestock industry has zero

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