Reverse migration: Hazers herd bison back into Yellowstone

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

Warmer weather is coming and that means bison have begun their annual westward trek out of Yellowstone National Park.

Exactly how the Montana Department of Livestock will respond over the next few weeks remains to be seen, but officials on horseback and all-terrain vehicles began hazing operations north of West Yellowstone Wednesday.

Environmental and animal rights groups issued a statement Wednesday saying they fear up to 500 bison will be killed this spring under the "draconian" policies currently in effect.

DOL has the legal authority to round up the shaggy giants and ship them to slaughter without testing them for brucellosis, the disease some of the bison carry and one that is feared by Montana's beef industry.

It has that authority because of the bison herd's size: approximately 3,600 animals, after the National Park Service sent 231 animals to their death in March.

A joint bison management plan adapted two years ago by the state and federal government relies on hazing the animals back into the park as a first option.

However, when the herd numbers higher than 3,000, bison can be killed as a population-control measure.

The goal, according to a Park Service handout on the issue, is to keep the herd between 2,300 and 3,000 animals, "hopefully keeping the number of bison migrating out of the park to a minimum."

Last April and May, DOL sent 133 bison to slaughter without testing them for brucellosis. Another 66 animals died during the winter of 2001-2002 after testing positive for exposure to the disease or posing other problems. A total of 63 were released after testing negative.

DOL actions this spring "are going to be a day by day, week by week decision," spokeswoman Karen Cooper said Wednesday.

She said 171 animals were chased a mile inside the park Wednesday.

The animals are drawn outside the park in the spring by green grass, which appears there earlier than it does inside the park.

DOL operates a permanent trap on private land in the Duck Creek area.

It also has the authority to set up and operate a trap on federal land in the Horse Butte area, on a peninsula that juts into Hebgen Lake, where grassy hillsides produce early grasses. That trap is disassembled at present.

Cooper said that, as of Wednesday, there was no plan to erect that trap.

Hope Sieck, of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said public land in the Horse Butte area should be managed for wildlife, including bison, but instead has "become an annual killing ground."

Protesters were in the area Wednesday but there were no arrests, Cooper said.

The Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Gallatin County Sheriff's office assisted in the hazing.

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