Criticism Grows as Bison Slaughter Continues

Criticism of Montana’s capture and slaughter program for bison leaving Yellowstone National Park is growing as the death toll mounts. So far this winter, more than 700 bison have been captured as they sought food at lower elevations outside Yellowstone’s boundary.

State livestock officials captured 51 more bison Tuesday with plans to ship them to slaughter in coming days as part of an aggressive disease control program.

The bison were captured under a state-federal agreement meant to guard against the spread of brucellosis. That’s a disease carried by some bison that livestock producers fear could infect their cattle.

Brucellosis can cause pregnant cows to abort their calves. It has been eradicated from livestock in the United States but persists in wildlife in and around Yellowstone, although there has never been a documented case of bison-to-cattle transfer in the wild.

On Monday, the environmental law firm Earthjustice sent a letter asking state and federal officials to stop capturing bison on land where cattle grazing no longer occurs.”There is no longer any … justification for persisting with the intensive harassment and killing of bison on these cattle-free lands,” attorney Timothy Preso wrote in the letter. It was sent on behalf of bison advocates and Yellowstone-area landowners opposed to the practice.

Montana Department of Livestock spokesman Steve Meritt said his agency was reviewing the letter and had no immediate comment.

Annual Elk Count Shows Stabilizing Population After Years of Decline

The Northern Yellowstone elk herd population appears to have stabilized, and the animals seem to be gradually moving north of the park, biologists said Tuesday.

State and federal biologists said 6,279 elk in the Northern Yellowstone herd were counted during an annual aerial survey conducted Feb. 14. That number is similar to the counts of 6,588 elk in winter 2006 and 6,738 elk in winter 2007, but substantially lower than the 9,545 counted in the winter of 2005.

While the number of elk inside Yellowstone on the Northern Range is decreasing, there’s an increasing number wintering north of Yellowstone, probably because there’s better forage, less snow, milder conditions and fewer wolves than inside the park.

“Elk may be using several factors, including the presence of wolves, in selecting where they spend the critical winter months,” said Tom Lemke, a biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

If the trend continues, the importance of that area as prime elk habitat will only increase, he said.

The Northern Yellowstone herd, the park’s largest, has been the subject of controversy for a long time. There were concerns for years that the animals were overgrazing the landscape; later, it was feared they were being hit too hard by wolves.

Herd numbers have been declining since 1994, when the population reached a record high of about 19,000.

Wolves Delisted

The Bush administration on Thursday announced an end to federal protection for gray wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, concluding that the wolves were reproductively robust enough to survive.

“Wolves are back,” said Lynn Scarlett, the deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior, in a telephone conference call with reporters. “Gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains are thriving and no longer need protection.”

The latest population counts show more than 1,500 wolves and 100 breeding pairs in the region, well above the established recovery minimums of 300 wolves and 30 breeding pairs.

The delisting decision will not take effect until 30 days after the rule is formally published in the Federal Register, expected before the end of the month. Assuming there are no court challenges—and there will be—the three states will then assume full management for the wolves in their states.

A coalition of wildlife and environmental groups dismissed the government’s claims and announced plans for a lawsuit to reverse the decision.

“The numbers are inadequate and the state programs are, too,” said Louisa Willcox a senior wildlife advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a conservation group that is participating in the planned lawsuit along with the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and other groups.

But not all reaction was negative. The move won the endorsement of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which came out in support of delisting.

Carbella/Tom Miner Bridge Closed Indefinitely

Due to structural damage from a single vehicle accident on the Carbella/Tom Miner County Bridge over the Yellowstone River, the Park County Commission has closed the bridge to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic for an indefinite period of time. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) recommended closure of the bridge after a safety inspection by MDOT engineers. All traffic must exit on Old Yellowstone Trail South at Mile Marker 21, just north of Point of Rocks, off of Highway 89 South to access the Tom Miner and Rock Creek drainage areas.

It is unknown at this time how long the bridge will be closed. Park County is seeking engineering input on whether the current bridge can or cannot be repaired.

For More Information:
Park County Commission
222.4106
commissioners@parkcounty.org

More Bison Shipped to Slaughter

Forty-four bison, including 12 calves, were trucked to slaughter from Yellowstone National Park on Thursday morning.

So far this week, 127 have been taken to slaughter facilities in Montana as part of a state and federal effort to keep bison that wander out of the park from transmitting brucellosis to neighboring cattle.

Forty-eight more bison were being held at the Stephens Creek capture facility in the northwest portion of the park. Of those, 17 are expected to be shipped to slaughter today, according to park officials.

All of the bison have been captured over the past week as they wandered north toward the Yellowstone boundary in search of easier access to food at lower locations.

Jackrabbit Disappears from Ecosystem

A jackrabbit found throughout much of the West has disappeared from the Yellowstone area, although the reason why remains a mystery, a new study concludes.

Whatever the cause, the study suggests the white-tailed jackrabbit’s disappearance has wrought major changes to Yellowstone’s food chain. Coyotes and wolves, which could have depended on the rabbit as a significant food source, apparently turned their attention instead to larger prey including young elk, pronghorn antelope — even domestic livestock.

However, because the rabbit’s decline went relatively unnoticed until now, quantifying that shift is virtually impossible, said the study’s lead author, Joel Berger with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The white-tailed jackrabbit — also known as the prairie hare — was once a common sight in and around Yellowstone National Park. About two feet long, the animal is distinguished by exceptionally long ears and its change in color during winter months to a stark white.

Berger’s study, appearing in the latest issue of the scientific journal Oryx, tells of one inhabitant of the region encountering “jillions” of the animals near Yellowstone as late as the 1930s.

Yet by the middle of the century, sightings within the 23,000 square mile Yellowstone region grew increasingly rare. That area includes portions of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Only three have been spotted by scientists since 1991 — all in Grand Teton National Park, according to Berger. He questioned area biologists and naturalists and combed through museum records and studies dating to the 1870s to reach his conclusions.

Elsewhere, the jackrabbits have continued to thrive. It is hunted in many states and listed as a species of “least concern” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Where the Yellowstone rabbits went, Berger said, nobody knows. Disease, changes in weather and excessive predation were cited as possibilities.

“Since the rabbits blipped off without knowledge, there has simply been no way to get at the underlying cause,” he said.

Berger said wildlife managers should consider reintroducing the jackrabbit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. He said that would allow scientists to recreate “bottom-up” relationships between predators and their prey that were effectively lost when the animal vanished.

From the Casper Star-Tribune

Wolf Hunts Inevitable, but Likely Years Off

State proposals for wolf hunts this fall continue to move forward in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho in advance of the anticipated removal of gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act later this month, and all three states include public hunting as an integral component of their federally approved wolf management plans.

But hunters might not want to make plans to hunt wolves anytime soon.

“We fully anticipate litigation over delisting that could last several years,” Ed Bangs, Wolf Recovery Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says.

Until all legal challenges are resolved, the wolves would remain a federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act and protected from public hunting.

Despite the likelihood of legal challenges, states like Montana have initiated the planning process for future wolf hunts in order to have sufficient time to work with the public on the details of a biologically and politically complex situation.

“It seems awkward to a lot of people that we would be having this conversation ahead of delisting, but we wanted to give ourselves and the public a lot of time to work on this,” says Carolyn Sime, the wolf coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Montana’s draft regulations set a total hunter harvest quota of 130 wolves—about one third of Montana’s estimated 2007 wolf population of 400—to be harvested in 2008 by firearm or archery. The tentative season would run from September 15 to November 30, but would close within 24 hours of the quota being reached. The draft regulations divide the state into three wolf management units, each with specific quotas. Trapping would be barred until the second season.

Sime calls the draft regulations a “pulse check on what the regulations could look like” and expects some revisions based on the public comments. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks will continue to accept public comments on the regulations through February 13th.

Critics argue that the states need to commit to maintaining higher wolf populations and for better science before hunting begins.

“There is very little science on the impacts of shooting wolves in terms of pack structure and social behavior,” says Derek Goldman, Missoula-based field representative for the Endangered Species Coalition, a coalition of 400 environmental organizations.

While Goldman believes Montana has done the best job of the three states in guaranteeing the viability of wolf populations in its management plans, he would like to see the state move slower in its plans to hunt.

“We think it is early to start hunting wolves in Montana given that they’re just now returning from the brink of extinction,” he says.

Scientists Differ on Wolf Management

Wolf advocates say turning management over to the states will lead to a slaughter of wolves and a dramatically lower wolf population than today.

Wolf opponents say wolf numbers have grown so high the population will never quit growing and will decimate big game herds.

But what does science tell us about the future of wolves in the Northern Rockies? Two wolf biologists with the best of credentials — David Mech and Doug Smith — have two different views of how wolf management will proceed in the region.

Mech, senior research scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey and a University of Minnesota adjunct professor, is regarded as the pre-eminent wolf biologist in the United States, if not the world.

His study of wolf-moose relationships on Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior, redefined science’s understanding of predator-prey relationships.

He has argued for decades that for wolves to be recovered in the lower 48 states, they need to be controlled, hunted and legally killed when they continually kill livestock.

They are very prolific and actually become more productive in the face of rising mortality.

Once their numbers become large, such as the current 1,500 wolves that live in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, their population will continue to grow as long as it can expand and it has a healthy food source.

“They may never go down,” Mech said. “I don’t know any way you’ll get them down legally.”

Smith is the chief wolf researcher in Yellowstone National Park. He has studied Yellowstone’s wolves since they were reintroduced in 1995. A former student and colleague of Mech, he disagrees that the growth of the wolf population cannot be halted or reversed.

“They stopped population growth in Wyoming through legal killing outside Yellowstone Park,” Smith said.

The situation is different in the West than in the Midwest and the Arctic, where Mech has most of his experience, Smith said.

“Wolves are a lot more vulnerable here than they are there,” Smith said. “They all have to come down to valley bottoms here, and everybody knows it.” Despite his differences with Mech, Smith said he is in philosophical agreement with the philosophy of reducing wolf conflicts and allowing them to thrive where they aren’t causing problems.

Mech agrees.

“I think that’s a good approach,” Mech said. “We’ve been advocating that for years.

“There are places where wolves can’t live with humans, there are places wolves should be, and places in between.”

From the Idaho Statesman

Yellowstone River Receives Favorable Flow Forecast

The Yellowstone River should be running cold, high and more robust than last year when snow starts to melt this spring.

Mountain snowpack that feeds the river that flows out of Yellowstone Park all the way to its confluence with the mighty Missouri stands at 100 percent of average and around 140 percent of last year.

Forecast for April to July, assuming normal moisture, predicts stream flow on the Yellowstone of 89 to 101 percent of normal, said Roy Kaiser, water supply specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bozeman.

The Upper Yellowstone has slightly better snowpack at 105 percent of average. Stream flow forecast for that part of the river, from Yellowstone Park to Custer, is for 89 to 106 percent of average. The Lower Yellowstone, the stretch from Custer to the Missouri, has 96 percent of normal snowpack and a stream-flow forecast of 88 to 102 percent of normal.

Stream flow forecasts, based on the amount of snow water in the mountain pack, are released by NRCS on the first of each month as the snow builds in the winter and melts in the spring. Kaiser said that by Feb. 1, 60 to 65 percent of winter snowpack should be in the mountains.

Snowpack in the Yellowstone Basin reaches its peak about the second week in April. It’s usually melted out in the first week or so of July. In the last several years, the snow has disappeared two to three weeks early. Kaiser has hopes for a more normal melt this year.

“It’s been a nice cool year,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

From the Billings Gazette

37 Bison Headed to Slaughter; More Expected to Meet Same Fate

Thirty-seven bison from Yellowstone National Park were shipped to slaughter on Monday, and dozens more may be shipped today.

The bison were captured Friday and Sunday along the park’s northern border as part of an 8-year-old plan by federal agencies and the state of Montana intended to reduce the risk of bison spreading brucellosis to cattle in the area.

The Park Service captured 54 bison on Friday and put them in the Stephens Creek capture facility near Gardiner. Of those, 17 calves that tested negative for exposure to brucellosis were set aside and will be sent to a state and federal research facility at Corwin Springs.

The rest were not tested for the disease and were trucked to slaughter Monday morning.

On Sunday, 41 more bison were captured near the park’s northern edge. Any calves that test negative will be taken to Corwin Springs, and the rest will be shipped to slaughter, probably today, Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman, said Monday afternoon.

The bison are being managed under the Interagency Bison Management Plan approved in 2000. The intent is to keep a viable, wild bison herd and maintain Montana’s brucellosis-free status, Nash said.

About 1,000 bison were taken out of the herd in 2005 during a busy year for bison hazing and capture, especially along the park’s northern edge.

The population rebounded, though, and aerial surveys last July and August estimated there were about 4,700 in Yellowstone. Inclement weather has kept crews from conducting similar surveys this winter.

Nash said the latest activity won’t have an impact on the herd’s overall health.

“Removal of some animals from this population is not a threat to the long-term viability or genetic diversity of this herd,” Nash said.

The Buffalo Field Campaign, a bison advocacy group, criticized the Park Service for again “caving in” to livestock interests over the interest of Yellowstone’s bison herd.

By the end of this week, more bison will be shipped to slaughter than are killed in Montana’s bison hunt, predicted Mike Mease, the group’s co-founder.

“They’re going to kill every buffalo that comes out of the park this year,” Mease said. “It’s really insanity.”