Montana, feds deadlock on bison exodus
Governor says he’ll block shipments
PRAY, Mont. – Federal and Montana agencies hit an impasse Thursday on what to do with bison leaving Yellowstone National Park – even as biologists predicted this winter’s migration could top 1,000 animals.
Park officials on Thursday offered a proposal to kill or remove up to 360 bison that enter Montana to keep the population in check and help prevent disease transmissions to cattle.
But Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he will block the shipment of any of those animals to slaughter – as he did last year – because of concerns such actions could spread the brucellosis disease.
Schweitzer said he has gotten mixed messages from federal officials regarding whether some bison that have been moved out of the park were diseased. Until that is resolved, the Democratic governor said, “nothing changes.”
“We’ve got to know what is and what isn’t disease-free,” Schweitzer said.
Even before Schweitzer’s Thursday comments, a decision on the park proposal already had been delayed until mid-January. That came after Montana officials said they had not determined how widely the animals can roam outside the park.
The uncertainties leave agencies without clear direction on how to handle bison heading into what is predicted to be a cold, wet winter. If the forecast bears out, it could trigger a large migration of bison seeking to graze at lower elevations in Montana.
Despite the impasse, Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said he remains hopeful an agreement can be reached before the migration begins.
The park’s proposal comes after government agencies and hunters killed or removed more than 3,600 bison over the last decade under a federal-state agreement intended to prevent brucellosis transmission to cattle.
The disease causes pregnant animals to miscarry. Largely eradicated across the U.S., brucellosis persists in Yellowstone-area wildlife including elk and bison.
Federal sanctions against states that have infected livestock have eased in recent years, paving the way for changes in how bison are managed.
Allowing bison into Montana’s 75,000-acre Gardiner Basin, just north of Yellowstone, is considered key to the park’s proposal to more closely manage the animals through hunting. Yellowstone officials also want to ship some diseased bison to slaughter to reduce the prevalence of brucellosis among the park’s two herds.