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April 7, 2004
Trap Closure Forces DOL to Haze, not Kill
Activist Occupies Buffalo Trap for Second Day
West Yellowstone, MT - 24 year-old Akiva Silver has spent the past thirty hours on a platform suspended from a 45-foot pole erected in the Horse Butte buffalo trap. The "monopod" is secured by ropes anchored to the trap's outer walls and gates, making it impossible for agents to capture buffalo. A banner hanging from the platform reads, "Bison Trap Closed to Protect Wildlife."

"Whether or not the DOL says they were going to capture is irrelevant.," said BFC spokesperson Mike Mease, "As long as Akiva is up there, hazing is their only option."

In today's operation the DOL hazed 80 buffalo more than five miles back into Yellowstone National Park. Such hazing is hard on the buffalo, who are getting ready to have their calves.

Silver, who witnessed the capture of hundreds of buffalo by the Park Service near Gardiner last month, said, "I refuse to stand by and watch my government destroy the continent's last buffalo. These are public lands belonging to all Americans and the DOL has no right to slaughter buffalo." He went on to add, "Since buffalo are being killed by the very agencies entrusted with their protection, it has become our responsibility to protect them on our own."

The trap is located on the Gallatin National Forest in an area that provides crucial habitat for the Yellowstone buffalo and myriad other species. The Department of Livestock has operated a buffalo trap here since 1999 under a Special Use Permit from the Forest Service. The agency has used the Horse Butte trap to capture and slaughter hundreds of Yellowstone buffalo.

While the livestock disease brucellosis is the stated reason for the slaughter, there has never been a documented case of wild buffalo transmitting the disease to livestock. Since the Horse Butte grazing allotment was closed in 2002, there have been no cattle grazing on National Forest lands on the Butte, making any transmission of brucellosis absolutely impossible.

Since November the Department of Livestock and Park Service have slaughtered 277 buffalo, the most killed in a single year since 1996-'97, when the agencies killed nearly 1,100. In the past ten years the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) and NPS have slaughtered 2,778 buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park. Buffalo slaughter is costing federal taxpayers more than $3 million a year.

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection. Daily patrols stand with the buffalo on the ground they choose to be on and document every move made against them.
Video Footage and Still Photos Available Upon Request.
Quicktime Video of Today's Events Available at: www.wildrockies.org/buffalo

Nonviolent Action Shuts Buffalo Trap
As we walked along the Forest Service road accessing the Horse Butte buffalo trap yesterday morning we knew, for the first time in months, that the buffalo were safe. As we approached the trap where the Department of Livestock (DOL) has captured hundreds of buffalo since 1999, we were overjoyed. For once the trap didn't seem so ominous.
Akiva Silver, a 24 year-old volunteer who witnessed the capture of hundreds of buffalo in Yellowstone last month, sat perched upon a platform suspended from the top of a 45 foot-long pole in the center of the trap. Hanging from the platform a banner announced, "Bison Trap Closed To Protect Wildlife."
The pole, or monopod, stands straight up from the center of the holding pen, supported by a skirt of ropes tied to the walls and gates, making it inoperable as long as Akiva remains in his perch.
Shortly after we got there, the local DOL agent arrived on the scene to prepare the trap for a week of capture and slaughter. His face dropped when he saw Akiva and realized that his plans had been changed. He made a few calls on his radio and was soon joined by the familiar crew of government agents who work together to kill buffalo. Next on the scene was Tyler Robinson of the U.S. Forest Service. He was followed by police officers from the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department, West Yellowstone Police, and the National Park Service. They spent the morning staring up at Akiva's structure, asking him to come down, and videotaping the BFC volunteers who had gathered to support him.
Horse Butte is the favorite spring habitat of the Yellowstone buffalo. In the past few days mixed herds of more than 75 have migrated to the Butte's greening south-facing slopes. As we sat on the ground by the trap talking to Akiva we could see a large herd on the hillside behind him. Over the course of the morning the buffalo, energized by the spring sunshine, began to trot down the Butte. Before long they were on the flats behind the trap, more than fifty strong, a few hundred yards away.
We watched as they ran. Playfully jumping, darting and veering, they ran to within a few dozen yards from the agents standing at the far end of the trap. Dejection showed in the agents' faces, suddenly robbed of their power to capture. After running past, some buffalo wallowed in the road, kicking up great clouds of dust. Others gently sparred with their horns. Akiva cheered and we joined him, jubilant in the fact that there was no danger in the trap, that the buffalo would remain free, that the day would be theirs to wander as they wished.
Akiva remains upon his perch, where he has been for more than 30 hours. Unable to capture, the DOL regrouped for a hazing operation. They spent the morning disturbing the sanctity of the Buffalo on the Butte, riding their ATV's and firing explosive shells into the air to frighten buffalo--chasing them more than five miles past the trap to the park. While the DOL claims to have had no intention of capturing buffalo, we know differently. For we were there in February when they slammed the steel doors shut behind a herd of 18; we were there in 2002 when they captured and slaughtered more than a hundred buffalo; we have seen buffalo fall dead, injured and abused at the hands of the DOL in the very trap where, as I write, one young man sits perched, protecting a national treasure.
If you have ever felt ineffective or thought that the actions of one person can't make a difference, think again. Akiva Silver is living proof that each of us embodies the power to make a better world.

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