Park Service rounds up bison

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

The National Park Service rounded up 200 bison Wednesday and began preparing to have them slaughtered as quickly as possible.

Park rangers had already hazed bison from nearby Church Universal and Triumphant property nine times, park spokesman Al Nash said.

"At night, they'd come back," he said. "Hazing is no longer safe or effective for these bison."

The animals were being held in a trap at Stephens Creek, just inside the park's northern boundary, awaiting shipment to slaughterhouses, a journey that could begin as early as Thursday.

Church officials, Nash said, didn't want the bison on their land.

"They have reiterated that they are running cattle on some of their land and they are not interested in having bison on their land," he said.

Bison advocates reacted testily.

"Bison should not be captured and shipped to slaughter like livestock" in a national park, said Amy MacNamara, of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Elk, bears and other wildlife are allowed to wander in and out of the park at will, and bison should be given more leeway, she said.

"The Park Service is entrusted with protecting America's national treasures," said Dan Brister, of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "Instead the agency is flexing its political muscle by killing the bison it is supposed to safeguard."

Nash, along with state veterinarian Tom Linfield, said the capture and slaughter is congruous with the joint state-federal bison management plan worked out in 2000, after years of acrimony, lawsuits and bickering.

Nash said the bison situation is one of the most difficult of many tough issues the Park Service deals with.

Nobody is entirely satisfied with the plan, Linfield said, and "some things are tough for us to swallow," but all the agencies are following it.

Wild Yellowstone bison aren't tolerated anywhere in Montana except for a pocket of land in the Jardine area, where most of this year's hunting has taken place.

Even there, bison were hazed several times last winter to keep them away from cattle on private land.

The state's beef industry fears the bison, if allowed to wander, will spread brucellosis to cattle. That's never happened before in the wild, but Wyoming's brucellosis-free status has been revoked and Linfield said it will be revoked soon in Idaho, because the disease has been found in cattle there.

Both of those states have more infected elk than bison.

Landowners, like CUT, have the legal authority to ask that bison be removed from their property if they have cattle, or if there are property damage or human safety concerns, Linfield said.

MacNamara called the bison program unacceptable and called for it to be reexamined.

But Linfield said he is aware of no official movement to do so. He added that things haven't progressed as the plan calls for.

"We're stalled out on step one," he said.

That means moving beyond the status quo on the park's northern boundary is unlikely, unless CUT decides to accept bison on its Royal Teton Ranch.

"We can't go to step two on the north side until there's no cattle on the Royal Teton Ranch," he said. "They're in the driver's seat."

Church spokeswoman Destyne Erickson said the church is working with state and federal officials "for the best solutions for this issue." She refused to answer any other questions.

The church sold land adjoining the park and conservation easements to the federal government in 1999 for $13 million. But it did not sell its grazing rights on its remaining land as part of that deal.

Meanwhile, outside the park's western boundary, bison have wandered several miles and are approaching a "no-tolerance zone." Montana Department of Livestock officials are preparing to haze them closer to the park, Linfield said.

Montana has suspended its bison hunt for a few days to keep the hunting and hazing operations from interfering with each other.

All the meat and the hides from the slaughtered bison will be donated to charities or tribal organizations.

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com