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Update from the Buffalo field Campaign  November 28, 2000               
With up to twenty buffalo outside of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, we have been running one main all-day car patrol and one hiking patrol. The buffalo are mostly bulls foraging in groups of two to six. We received over six inches of fresh snow in the last two days. The 250 buffalo we saw about four miles inside the Park on our flyover could migrate into Montana any day. Our hiking patrol has been making forays along the Madison River into the Park, but we have not located that herd yet. Shane, our local Department of Livestock (DOL) agent, hazed three buffalo a couple of miles by himself into Yellowstone Park on Sunday. On Monday morning we saw four gray wolves travelling back into the Park along Duck Creek, less than a quarter mile away from the Duck Creek Capture Facility. We are steadily compiling video footage and documentation of what a fragile environment the West Yellowstone area supports including numerous endangered and threatened species that frequent the area, and how these animals are adversely affected by the carelessness of the Department of Livestock. One immediate need we have to keep our patrols up and running is for two new radios. Priced at $441 a piece, or $882 for two which includes extra batteries to keep us in the field. Every patrol has a radio so that the we can immediately contact other patrols or home base and communicate what the Department of Livestock is doing and what the best strategy is to keep the buffalo safe. We will probably run at least six patrols this winter, and right now we only have four radios that are operational.

Today, on Thursday - 4 DOL vehicles from Helena arrived in addition to the local DOL person. Today they are actively harassing and hazing the five or six buffalo outside arbitrary Park boundaries. This unnecessary stress to the buffalo at a time when they should be conserving their energy for the winter ahead (and when there are no cattle in the area) is absolutely absurd (and sad).  Even their own management document (FEIS) states:"  Repeated hazing in early winter may produce weight loss and poor body condition, which decreases the animals ability to endure the remaining winter." (FEIS, Volume I, page 762)  This issue must be dealt with now before buffalo health is compromised for this approaching winter. We are talking about a situation that is happening at this very time. We only have around fifteen volunteers here right now, which is less than a comfortable number to protect the buffalo with. Any immediate help, for however long of a time span would be appreciated and truly needed.
For more info re: volunteering: go to:
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/field989/volnteer.html
For the Buffalo, in the field;  THANKS! to everyone who helped out this month!!! - you are appreciated! -Tyler Carlin
Buffalo Field Campaign (formerly Buffalo Nations)
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758 
phone406-646-0070 fax 406-646-0071
buffalo@wildrockies.org           http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
__________________________________________
* Great Book for the Winter Holidays!
Ruth Rudner and Burford Books would like to help support the Buffalo
Field Campaign by donating 45% of the sales of Ruth's book to the
Campaign.

BFC is mentioned in the book along with everyone else involved directly or peripherally) with buffalo. When I read it, I was impressed with her unbiased, truthful look at the issues and the folks with traditional as well as on the ground relationships with buffalo!
A great winter read or hollyday gift idea.....
Thanks! Ruth!! and Mike!
A Chorus of Buffalo by Ruth Rudner
"The appearance of A Chorus of Buffalo may be the most important wildlife publication event of the year. Rudner gives us an intimate portrait of America's quintessential animal." - Doug Peacock, author of
Grizzly Years

Montana resident Ruth Rudner gives us this series of moving personal essays which revolve around America's most bureaucratized animals - the buffalo.  Icon of Yellowstone and the traditional West, the buffalo stands literally in the cross-hairs of today's wildlife politics. A Chorus of Buffalo is a reflection on this fascinating creature and its continual struggle for a place in our world.  To order, contact Burford Books - toll free - at 1-888-672-5247, attention Mike Chodroff. mike@burfordbooks.com
45% of the proceeds from your purchase will be donated to The
Buffalo Field Campaign  A CHORUS OF BUFFALO
$22.95 hardcover. 192 pages. ISBN: 1-58080-049-1

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