Park managers at Yellowstone National Park and the State of Montana may be finally coming to their senses. The Billings Gazette reported last week that the two parties are now leaning toward creating buffer zones around the park that would give bison more room to roam during winter months.
A bison stands tall in Yellowstone National Park.
A proposal has yet to be finalized, but the plan could effectively extend bison range 13 miles north (and possibly 20 miles west) of the park boundary. The additional space would mean that bison that leave the park would no longer have to be hazed back into the park, sent to a holding facility, or shot on sight. The plan would also allow a fair-chase hunt of bison in those buffer zones that would benefit tribes with treaty hunting rights instead of the current confined-area “hunt” —a preferable alternative to simply sending surplus bison to slaughter.
The proposal is a clear step in the right direction and comes just days after Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer suggested allowing bison to be hunted inside the Park to keep numbers down. Luckily, newly anointed Park Superintendent Daniel Wenk has rejected plans to cull bison inside the park.
More than 600 bison have migrated outside of Yellowstone National Park so far this year in search of food. Bison that leave the park are currently being held at two different facilities where they are watered, fed and tested for brucellosis, a disease that affects both wildlife and livestock. Park managers are planning to release bison that are free of brucellosis back into the park later this spring, but no decision has been made for what to do with the bison that test positive for exposure to brucellosis.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued an executive order last month that prohibits shipping bison through the state for 90 days, effectively putting an end to any slaughter of the captured bison this winter and spring. But until now, there was nowhere else for bison to go.
What’s next for Yellowstone bison?
Defenders’ bison expert Jonathan Proctor recently joined the new bison Citizens Working Group, which has been tasked with seeking consensus on five issues, including plans to restore genetically pure Yellowstone bison herds to areas outside of Yellowstone. Jonathan has been working closely with tribal representatives from Fort Peck and Fort Bellknap as well as other landowners to make recommendations to the Interagency Bison Management Plan that will provide a better future for bison.
The Yellowstone herd is one of the last remaining wild populations of genetically pure bison that once roamed across the Great Plains. These iconic animals deserve a forward-thinking conservation and management plan that restores bison to additional parts of their native habitat, not a strategy of confining them to government feed lots.
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