Every day's a new day

100 years isn't quite enough to figure out how things work, or how to manage a wildlife issue.  Here is a condensed version of bison in the park issues (ask me some time, I'll be glad to expand on the topic for you):

Somewhere on the order of 30 million bison were slaughtered in the late 1800's, in part to reduce the means of sustenance of Native Americans.

In the early 20th century, a remnant herd of 23 plains bison were found and moved to Yellowstone National Park.

The bison were only allowed in the Pelican Valley in the park, and populations that roamed out and tried to establish in the Lamar or Hayden Valley were shot.

In the 1920's this plan was revised, and bison were allowed to roam throughout the park.

In 1967, there were 397 bison in the park.

In 1994 there were 4114 bison in the park.   Estimates of how many bison could be supported (the carrying capacity of the environment) were 3200 bison could be sustained by the ecosystem.  2800 could be sustained according to the "social" carrying capacity which took into account that more than 2800 bison would increase the number of bison that wandered out of the park, and humans would not tolerate that.

At some point, bison wandering out of the park picked up the infection, brucellosis, a bacterial disease that results in the stillbirth of the first born from cattle in the area.  Now, approximately 50% of female bison carry brucellosis.

At this point, bison wandering out of the park became perceived as a threat of transmission of brucellosis to cattle, and thus a threat to the Montana beef industry.  So bison wandering out of the park in winter for additional graze became a major source of contention.  Some land outside the park was set aside to allow such wandering; helicopters and rubber bullets were used to haze bison back into the park in the spring from these areas; the state issued hunting licenses for bison in other areas.  Bison do not run from humans, and move toward an injured bison to help provide support or defense from predators.  So the hunters who won these licenses by lottery could drive up to bison outside the park, step out of their truck, walk toward a herd, and shoot.  I believe in 2007 or 2008 50% of the Yellowstone National Park bison herd was shot outside of the park.

This led to increasing controversy over how to manage the bison, brucellosis, cattle issue.

In the 1970's, a "syncretist, apocolyptic cult" , the Church Universal and Triumphant, moved to the Paradise Valley just north of Gardiner. They bought a huge ranch from Malcolm Forbes for something like $26 million dollars- 10's of thousands of acres.  They built a giant underground shelter back in the mountains, capable of holding 800 people, with air, water, food, for 8 years after Armageddon, from which they would then be able to survive and recover.  In the 1980's, the government pressed over nonpayment of taxes and violation of firearms laws (caching of huge quantities of weapons).  Instead of a Waco like shoot-out, there was a settlement.  The Church Universal and Triumphant continues to be a major presence in the Paradise Valley, with some housing developments established and inhabited by "CUT" members, with most homes having their own underground shelters. Two years ago, the head of CUT, died.  There has not been a successful transition to a new leader- who needs to demonstrate direct contact and ability to pass on prophecy from earlier prophets (Jesus, Mohammed, Jesus, Confucius, Abraham, etc. etc. etc)  The church still exists, and claims 10's of thousands of followers worldwide, but appears somewhat diminished.

A year or so ago, the government came to the cult, asking to buy or lease a huge tract of their land to allow buffalo grazing outside of the park in winter.  For $2-3 million dollars, a deal was struck.  So last year and this, bison have been allowed to move through the town of Gardiner at the northwest entrance to the park, and graze on a stretch of about 12 miles north of the park to Yankee Jim Canyon.  There, the government built a cattle guard across the two lane 70 mile an hour speed limit road (they lowered the speed limit to 35 at the cattle guard) and built heavy fences up on either side of the road and the Yellowstone River to steep rock outcroppings.  So large numbers of bison now migrate north through Gardiner and graze from January through March.

But......  it is also true that four Native American tribes continue to have treaty rights to shoot buffalo that are not in the park, not subject to federal or state game laws.  Soooo, with the new grazing land and buffalo movement out of the park, Native Americans have come from as far away as Washington and Oregon to shoot their buffalo.  This winter, 275 buffalo have been shot by Native Americans- this is not a pretty sight.  They often come to Gardiner, wait just 300 yards outside of the park (those of you familiar with the area know this is right by the cabins and tourist shops of  Gardiner) in pick-ups and ATV's until a bison leaves the park boundary, and then walk over and shoot a buffalo. With permits, Montana hunters have shot another 35 buffalo.  Tourists, in rented cabins just outside of the park, have had bison shot right in their driveways.

And now, as grizzly have come out of hibernation,  along this 10 mile stretch of land,  there are over 8000 pounds of gut piles from killed bison sitting on the ground.  Fearing serious problems with hungry grizzly seeking food after a winter of fast, the state has decided that they have to come through and pick up all of the gut piles to prevent grizzly from descending upon the town.  And hoping to remove grizzly from the endangered species list, they can't afford to have problem grizzly shot because of the food attraction.

The Park Service is encouraging the Native American hunt.  They need to cull 400 or more bison from the herd, and this year's numbers (killed by Native American and Montana hunters) don't even add up to that.  So they are trying to figure if they can capture 60-70 bison that are still north of park boundaries, and use them to provide seed bison for herds to be established elsewhere.

The Native American tribes are trying to figure if they should shift the guidlelines for their tribal members, as this was pretty grim in terms of public relations, but was the first time things had really played out quite this way.

And three men were arrested, when it turned out they were with Native Americans, but did not have tribal papers, and had shot bison.  Those carcasses were confiscated with the meat going to the local food pantry.

Well, life does get complicated.  And then the whole issue of brucellosis which drives a lot of the controversy- 87% of the transmission of brucellosis to cattle in the past 10 years has been from elk.  You have seen perhaps pictures of 100 elk grazing just beyond the fence of the pastures here, and also elk getting into the hay here at the ranch that will be fed to the cattle.  But no one wants the elk population reduced.  They all hunt elk in the fall.  And they want wolves killed, because wolves have reduced elk populations.
When we were here for sabbatical, we actually saw an elk carcass being helicoptered out of the Tom Miner Basin.  We found it was one they had radio-collared.  When they got lab tests back of blood samples two weeks later, they found they had collared a brucellosis infected elk, so had to go back in, find it, and kill it.

Nope, nobody is going to vaccinate the bison against brucellosis.  Pretty much all groups agree ( on one thing), and that is not to intervene as if this were a zoo population and vaccinate this entire population of wild animals in a park set up to preserve wildness against disease.  Same is true for mange in the wolves- it is terrible to see the effects of mange, and we saw a pack we had watched for years die off in the bitter cold from mange- but all agree not to intervene.

So if you like policy issues, or trying to consider scientific, social, ethical, and political factors in trying to solve problems- well here is one to dig into.  I can't say I have found solutions that I would recommend.  It all seems to evolve, ever so slowly, towards trying to find workable plans for humans to coexist with the natural world.