The other thing that I'm noticing at the The Yellowstone Newspaper are a number of articles about the winter slaughter of buffalo. I know that there are big issues with brucelosis and that at one point the Yellowstone herd was too large for the Yellowstone ecosystem to provide forage in the winter. But one thing that disturbs me about the reports right now, buffalo were being hazed IN THE PARK to an area where they were going to be slaughtered. There are one set of issues when buffalo are already out of the park and causing problems. And maybe these particular buffalo had already strayed out of the park and had gone back in . . . I don't know.
Things I do know: Buffalo have in the past over populated to unsustainable numbers for the habitat. The wolves were supposed to help reduce the numbers naturally. Buffalo are hard on their environment damaging trees and small shrubs. I know less about the brucelosis issues.
But right now the numbers of buffalo in Yellowstone do not reflect overpopulation. I saw some of the "herding" of buffalo in Yellowstone last summer - while the calves were still young.
There is a lot of conflict right now between Montana ranchers and hunters over not only the buffalo but also the wolves.
If wolves are delisted (as appears likely), then the wild ones outside the park are likely to be killed probably rapidly.
While I may not be totally in agreement with The Buffalo Field Campaign, I am glad there are people out there working to raise awareness of what is going on right now with the buffalo in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
2 comments:
I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY ARE SLAGHTERING THESE BUFFALO,BUT IT MIGHT BE A GOOD WAY TO RAISE FUNDS FOR A REAL STUDY ABOUT THE COWS AND BUFF BEING MIXED TOGETHER, TO SEE WHAT REAL HAPPENS AND RESEARCH THE DISEASE DIRECTLY.
INSTEAD OF JUST SLAUGHTERING THEM LET SPORTSMEN HARVEST THEM WITH A VERY HIGH PRICE TAG FOR LIC, FEES, ETC.
I THINK MANY FINE SPORTSMEN WOULD PAY WELL KNOWING IT HELPS INABLE MONEY FOR RESEARCE TO (PRESERVE) THE BUFFALO HEARD.
jeff yuma, az
Thanks for your comments. It would not be a sportsman hunt, because the bison are simply doing what they have done for centuries, moving from the high country pastures to lower elevations for winter grazing. I could see this kind of hunt if they needed to reduce the population because there were too many for the environment to handle. But that was not the case.
The saddest thing . . . Montana lost its brucellosis free status from cows that were no where near any bison.
And, it appears that 67% of the bison in Yellowstone died over the winter from the slaughter and from the severe and lingering winter this year.
To me that is a national tragedy.
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