Judge Orders Feeding Plan For Park Bison

The National Park Service must do more to keep diseased bison from leaving Yellowstone National Park this winter, including possibly feeding the hungry animals when the park is blanketed in snow, a federal judge said Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Charles C. Lovell ordered Yellowstone officials to develop plans for artificially feeding bison. He also ordered contingency plans drafted for closing roads and trails that bison use to migrate from the park in search of forage.

He said the contingency plans are due Dec. 29. He gave no indication when or under what circumstances they might be implemented.

Lovell’s order came a day after he limited the number of bison that can be killed this winter without court approval.

Park officials said Superintendent Mike Finley would have no immediate comment on the judge’s new order.

But a Bozeman lawyer for a conservation group suing the federal and state governments over their bison management plan said the idea of feeding bison inside Yellowstone probably is illegal.

Federal law dictates that “the park is supposed to be a wildlife sanctuary where natural processes occur,” said Doug Honnold of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.