This month, Yellowstone National Park officials offered an inside look at the Stephens Creek bison holding facility outside of Gardiner, MT. I was able to attend and get a first-hand look at the results of Montana’s refusal to manage bison as wildlife (see photos below). It was a heartbreaking sight to see nearly 600 of Yellowstone’s wild bison being held in this crowded facility. Harsh winter conditions send bison to lower elevations – and outside of the park’s invisible boundary — in search of food. Exaggerated fears of the transfer of brucellosis to livestock have caused officials to haze the wandering animals into temporary holding corrals. However, room is running out as these facilities near capacity and the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park struggle to reach a solution. The temporary protection established by Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is quickly approaching an expiration date. Meanwhile, hundreds of wild bison await their fate.
Fortunately, Governor Schweitzer has worked out a plan to allow bison an opportunity to roam up to 13 miles north of Yellowstone Park, throughout the Gardiner Basin as far north as the narrow Yankee Jim Canyon. This natural barrier to bison movement will be reinforced with a cattle guard across the highway and fencing. We are still hopeful that bison will be managed as free-roaming wildlife in Montana someday, but this is a major step forward. It marks the first time wild bison will be allowed access to any meaningful habitat in Montana, and ends the justification for killing bison searching for food outside Yellowstone National Park by providing them at least some winter range.
During a separate visit, Defenders’ Rocky Mountain Director Mike Leahy organized a press tour of the area. On the tour, he encountered wild bison that were already enjoying their new-found freedom by dining on grass at the Church Universal and Triumphant north of the park boundary. The tour group also met with landowners on both sides of Yankee Jim Canyon who are willing to live with bison, including a small cattle producer and a large recreational ranch manager.
Take action now to help save some of the last true, wild bison in America.
Here are some photos from our trips to Yellowstone:
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