Transferring grazing called 'first step' in managing park bison

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

The U.S. Forest Service has found a new piece of ground where an Idaho family can run its cattle, moving the cattle away from the bison controversy simmering around Yellowstone National Park.

However, transferring the grazing allotment is unlikely to have any immediate impact on whether bison are tolerated in the area north of West Yellowstone.

"It won't have any impact on how the interagency bison management plan is applied," said Karen Cooper, spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Livestock.

That plan calls for limited tolerance of bison in the area during the winter and no tolerance after May 15.

And moving the allotment won't remove all the cattle from the Horse Butte area, a place especially attractive to bison in the spring.

Still, the Forest Service and a conservation group are touting the development as an "important first step."

"We know this isn't going to eliminate the whole problem," said Lorrette Ray, spokeswoman for the Gallatin National Forest. "It's a step in the right direction, but it's probably not going to be the final solution."

The Munns Brothers, an Idaho ranching family, has been using the Horse Butte grazing allotment since 1961. It is on 2,400 acres next to a parcel of of private land that the family owns there, and it supports 142 cows and their calves during the summer.

Horse Butte, on a peninsula that juts into Hebgen Lake, is also the scene of frequent hazing and capture of bison that leave Yellowstone. The stated reason for killing or chasing the bison is to keep them from spreading brucellosis to cows.

The family's new allotment is on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho.

But the Munns are likely to continue grazing on their private land, both Ray and Cooper said.

"We haven't had any conversation with them that would indicate they'll be doing anything different," Ray said.

The brothers couldn't have used the allotment this year anyway. A federal judge ruled last year that no cattle could be allowed there until the Forest Service completed an environmental assessment.

Hank Fischer, of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a press release that his group provided "economic assistance to make this new arrangement possible."

He said he hopes moving the cattle off the allotment will "further reduce contacts between livestock and bison."

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