FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 2, 2001
Contact: Peter Leusch, Summer Nelson (406) 646-0070

Helena, MT-- A group of citizens will gather at 10 am today to let Governor Martz know that she has constituents with deep concerns about the new Yellowstone bison management plan.  The rally, being organized by members of the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), will be held at the State House in Helena. 

According to BFC spokesperson Summer Nelson, "As governor, Judy Martz has the authority to challenge the management plan and implement a more equitable solution." 

BFC volunteers will speak and distribute information on the recently approved federal/state bison management plan. Under the new plan buffalo will continue to be needlessly hazed, captured, and shot on public and private lands outside the park.  Specifics of the plan include hazing bison within the boundaries of Yellowstone, quarantining members of America's only continuously wild buffalo herd for up to four years, and fitting bison with radio collars and vaginal telemetry devices.  The plan calls for culling the herd to maintain a maximum population of 3,000 animals.

"The National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service plan to do over the next 15 years what the State of Montana has been doing to the buffalo for the last 10 years," said Darrell Geist, Executive Director of Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers--a Missoula-based environmental and human rights group. "Two thousand holy cows will continue to range on public lands at taxpayer expense, while buffalo are denied that range and killed for trying to migrate there."  The 15-year management plan, designed to protect 2,019 cow/calf pairs, will cost taxpayers between 39 and 44 million dollars. 

Martz has repeatedly made misleading statements about the state's role in the bison slaughter.  Last spring, during the Governor's Conference on Tourism in Big Sky, she stated that the state of Montana has not killed a single buffalo in over two years.  However, less than a year earlier, during the winter on 1998-'99, the Montana Department of Livestock sent 94 bison to slaughter. 

"By attending Martz' inauguration, we hope to draw attention to her attempts to mislead the public and to encourage her to begin her term with honesty and integrity," said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field Campaign.

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional habitat and advocate for their protection.  BFC is the only group working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.

* Update from the Field
* Government's Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park Wastes Taxpayer Dollars and Threatens Last Wild Herd of Bison in the United States
* Thanks!
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* From the Field
Greetings!
Department of Livestock (DOL) agents left West Yellowstone last Thursday and we haven't seen them since. Their absence has given us much needed rest as we brace for a difficult winter. A new bison management plan has just been signed. Under this new agreement, the needless hazing, trapping, and shooting of the Yellowstone Buffalo will continue. (For specifics details of the new agreement, please see the article and fact sheet below.)

In the absence of the DOL, our patrols have been truly wonderful. One volunteer had the experience of a lifetime, standing in a grove of lodgepole pines as four wolves passed just fifteen feet before him. Four year old Japhy Sanchez stood with the buffalo for the first time at Horse Butte and later joined us on our Madison River patrol. When we reached the river a group of bulls came down from the opposite bluff and stood on the flats directly across from our youngest volunteer.

The Madison wouldn't have been safe for Japhy last Wednesday, as DOL agents hazed those same buffalo along the river, firing explosive cracker rounds over the heads of volunteers who were there to document the operation.

On Thursday Rob Tierney, head of the DOL's field operations, phoned our cabin to say Merry Christmas just two hours after verbally accosting two of our volunteers and threatening to arrest them for "standing too close" to his truck.

We are grateful for the gifts of encouraging words, warm clothes, care packages, and donations you have been sending. Without your help we couldn't maintain our constant presence in the field.

If anyone has a lead on some warm winter boots (men's 10 and larger), wool mittens, or waterproof mitten shells, these are items we could use. We also need backcountry food, first aid supplies, and batteries AA and AAA high capacity nicad rechargables are best.

Thank you for your continued support of the Yellowstone buffalo and our efforts to protect them. We will keep you informed of the plight of the herd as events unfold this winter along the border of our nation's oldest national park.

For the Buffalo,
BFC volunteers
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* Government's Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park Wastes Taxpayer Dollars and Threatens Last Wild Herd of Bison in the United States

Dear bison supporters,

On December 20th, public agencies dealt a cruel blow to the Yellowstone bison and their supporters when it released its Record of Decision (ROD) on the recently completed Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on Bison Management in Montana and Yellowstone. This "Joint Management Plan" will guide: bison management in Yellowstone; management on public land surrounding Yellowstone to the north and west (predominantly the Gallatin National Forest); and on private lands north and west of Yellowstone.

Unfortunately, the Clinton Administration took the unusual step of having the Secretaries of the Interior (Bruce Babbitt) and Agriculture (Dan Glickman) sign and authorize the immediate implementation of the Joint Management Plan. The ROD comes with its own shield from administrative appeal:

"Administrative Review:
There is no administrative appeal from decisions of the Secretary of
the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture." -- ROD, page 61

This end-run around the National Environmental Policy Act effectively closes the door to any possible appeal of the Joint Management Plan. The Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior are the final arbiters of any appeal of an agency decision, like the ROD, that could have been raised. This leaves us with no other avenues other than taking the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to court and suing them over the FEIS and its ROD. Unfortunately, this will be a time consuming and costly proposition, as the Joint Management Plan is a very long and complex document, and hashing out all the details in court will be laborious and unpredictable.

On the other hand, bison supporters were handed a bone with their lump of coal, as the ROD also mentions that the permit for grazing cattle on the Horse Butte Grazing Allotment expires on December 31, 2000. Recognizing the public controversy over this allotment, as expressed in a citizen's campaign to raise awareness of the grazing issue as a driving factor behind the Joint Management Plan, the ROD included the following decision:

"The livestock permit on the Horse Butte allotment is due for
consideration and probably reissuance in 2001. The Gallatin National
Forest will complete a NEPA process tiered to the bison management EIS before it issues a permit." -- ROD, Page 61.

To date, over 90,000 petition signatures have been delivered to the Departments of Interior and Agriculture and the Forest Service demanding that public lands outside of Yellowstone--particularly Horse Butte-- be reserved for wildlife habitat and bison. A lot of pressure was placed on the Departments and Forest Service from the top down to eliminate the Horse Butte Grazing Allotment. This effort manifested itself in the above ROD reference to move up the NEPA process to 2001 (from its originally scheduled 2004 date) to analyze the allotment and reissue or cancel the permit.

Unfortunately, the Gallatin National Forest violated it's own Chief's ROD by extending the grazing permit for a 10 year period without NEPA review. The reissuance of the grazing permit before it expired on December 31st, however, is a direct (and illegal) slap in the face to the public that overwhelmingly supported ending cattle grazing at Horse Butte. This leaves us with an agency decision (to renew the lease) that puts the ROD in direct conflict with the reissued permit. Unfortunately, once again we will have to drag this into court for clarification. Unfortunately, Dave Garber, the Gallatin Forest Supervisor has just effectively burned up a whole lot of tax payers monies again, because he chose to act politically instead of practically. Where has common sense gone?

So, while it is a sad day for the bison, I hope that in coming year