Groups Ask Court To Stop Bison Killing Park Service Plan Aims To Keep Livestock Free Of Brucellosis

Five environmental groups have turned to a federal appeals court in their effort to stop the National Park Service from killing the buffalo that wander out of Yellowstone National Park.

The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund on Friday mailed an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, said Jim Angell, an attorney with the regional office in Bozeman.

“The heart of the case has do with what exactly national parks are for and how the wildlife within them must be managed,” Angell said. “Here we have Yellowstone National Park and its guardian, the National Park Service, trapping and shipping its wildlife off to slaughterhouses. That’s clearly outside the law. We hope to stop it.”

So far this winter about 450 Yellowstone buffalo have been shipped to slaughter or shot when they crossed into Montana. The most killed in a single winter was 569 in the winter of 1988-89.

Under a temporary bison management plan adopted by Montana and the federal government last year, bison that wander near the northern border of Yellowstone near Gardiner are trapped and sent to slaughter. At capture facilities near West Yellowstone, the bison are caught and tested for brucellosis. Those testing positive are shipped to slaughter and others are hazed back into the park. Bison in that area that bypass capture facilities and move into Montana generally are killed.

U.S. District Judge Charles C. Lovell of Helena refused on Dec. 19 to halt the plan.

The suit was filed Sept. 17 by the Sierra Club, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Jackson Hole Alliance for Responsible Planning and the American Buffalo Foundation.

The plan is an attempt to deal with the problem of a growing bison herd and the animals’ tendency to wander from the park in search of winter forage.

Some of the bison carry brucellosis, and the livestock industry fears they will infect cattle. Brucellosis causes cows to abort. It also can cause undulant fever in humans.

“What’s different about this plan, as opposed to plans in the past, is that for the very first time the park’s wildlife is being trapped inside the park by the National Park Service,” Angell said.