Opinion: Yellowstone bison pay the price for poor management

Thursday, July 14, 2011  

"The collective guilt of mindless cruelty on our wild Yellowstone buffalo by Yellowstone National Park, the Montana Department of Livestock and Montana Department of Fish Wildlife & Parks is beyond all human reasoning.

A recent newspaper photograph clearly shows state and federal mounted agents hazing buffalo mothers with their newborn calves closely following. They were being driven off National Forest land, the snow-free Horse Butte Area in the West Yellowstone basin, back into the deep snows of the park.

The emaciated mother in the lead, followed bravely by her newborn bowlegged, under developed wet calf is an unacceptable result of hazing buffalo during birthing season.

A June 1 newspaper photograph shows three horsemen — one from FWP and two YNP rangers — hazing more than 100 buffalo down a snow-plowed YNP road with deep snow on either side. How can our thin winter survivors expect to forage through deep snows with little springtime grass in YNP when they have just been driven off public land grass on Horse Butte with no cattle in the area?"

Get the Story:
Joe Gutkoski: Yellowstone bison pay price for poor decisions (The Great Falls Tribune 7/14)