BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT  59758
406-646-0070
bfc@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

For Immediate Release: August 26, 2010

Contact:
Rebecca Smith, Missoula, MT, 406-531-8133
Lauren Regan, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Eugene, OR, 541-687-9180

Volunteers Exonerated for Illegal Arrests by Government Agents
Court Dismisses Charges Against Buffalo Field Campaign Volunteers

Last week two Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers were cleared of criminal charges stemming from a June 2, 2010 arrest in the Gallatin National Forest outside Yellowstone National Park. The two volunteers were videotaping wild Yellowstone bison that were attempting to follow their ancient migration route out of Yellowstone National Park and onto public land in the Gallatin National Forest.

Government agents on horseback, employed by the Montana Department of Livestock and other agencies, were hazing the bison down a road toward Yellowstone National Park. As the two volunteers attempted to videotape the hazing operation, a government agent ordered them to get inside their vehicle. When the volunteers questioned the legality of the order, they were arrested. Their preliminary hearings in Gallatin County Justice Court were set for the end of August. Before those hearings could occur, their charges were dismissed by the judge “for good cause shown” on August 16, 2010.

The Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers were represented by attorney Summer Nelson and cooperating Civil Liberties Defense Center attorney Rebecca Smith. In response to the dismissal of the charges, Smith stated, “we had a video recording of the incident so it was undisputed that these two volunteers were simply standing on public land trying to videotape a government operation. They were not in an area closed to the public; they were not blocking the movement of the buffalo or the agents; and they spoke to the agents and police officers in a respectful manner. They simply weren’t willing to relinquish their constitutional rights to be present on open public land and film a matter of public interest.” She continued, “Buffalo Field Campaign has been videotaping and publicizing these hazing operations for 13 years. We didn’t need a trial to establish that these volunteers didn’t break the law.”

Lauren Regan, attorney and Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center added, “It is extremely unfortunate that public officials abused their power in an attempt to chill the lawful constitutional rights of citizens. Monitoring government operations, especially cruel and unnecessary ones like this, is a basic tenet of our democratic duties as citizens. The government agents in question should be provided some training on the Constitution and Bill of Rights as soon as possible so that this type of travesty does not occur again.”

Buffalo Field Campaign Executive Director Dan Brister stated: “After years of frivolous arrests and trumped up charges against our volunteers, it is refreshing to see that the courts are capable of delivering real justice.”

Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field and on the policy front to protect America’s last wild buffalo and their habitat.

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
July 29, 2010

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* Update from the Field
* No Vaccinating Wild Bison: Yellowstone Extends Public Comment Period!
* Volunteers Needed!  Woodcut Week & Summer Outreach
* Bison Advocates Tour Two Livestock Grazing Allotments Critical for Wild Bison
* Wild Bison 2011:  Celebrate Buffalo 365 Days A Year
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

* Update from the Field

Wild bison were chased off of their native habitat this and last week by government agents.
BFC file photo by Stephany.

The stillness of summer has been shaken by the Montana Department of Livestock’s helicopter and horsemen. DOL hazing activities, which included participation from Yellowstone National Park and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, resumed on Friday along the southern banks of the Madison River, within the public lands of Gallatin National Forest. Since escaping the cowboy escapades that terrorized Yellowstone’s western edge into mid-June, a very small mixed group of America’s last wild buffalo found quiet refuge on the buffalo-friendly lands of the Galanis family. They recently continued their migration and were discovered by DOL agents. On Friday, the DOL’s helicopter was in the air and its horsemen were on the ground to haze the buffalo from their native habitat. Agents returned again today, attempting to dislodge the buffalo from the landscape. The agencies’ excuse that these actions are being taken to “protect” cattle from the threat of a brucellosis transmission is absolutely hollow; after June 15 there is no risk, and any risk at all is only theoretical since there’s never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting the livestock disease, brucellosis, back to the cattle they got it from. Of course, actions taken against the buffalo are not based on sound science, but on the politics that defend the interests of the livestock industry. It’s the politics of hoarding grass for cows at the expense of America’s last continuously wild bison.

These senseless hazing operations should make for a lively discussion when the Interagency Bison Management agencies come to West Yellowstone to tour some of the lands where the buffalo attempt to roam. If you live in Montana, are visiting Yellowstone, or can travel to West Yellowstone or Bozeman, please consider attending one or all of these important events. On August 10, the IBMP agencies will tour some of the private lands that create the major conflict zones for wild buffalo. The tour is open to the public. Later that evening, from 5:15 – 7:00 pm, the Horse Butte Neighbors of Buffalo will host a buffalo public forum in West Yellowstone that all are welcome to attend, an event organized specifically to educate local candidates. The following day, the IBMP agencies will hold a public meeting in Bozeman to further discuss bison management. People who can make it are encouraged to attend these important events. For more information about the IBMP tour and meeting, please visit http://ibmp.info/meetings.php. If you would like more information about the public forum, please contact Karrie Taggart at karrietaggart@yahoo.com. If you are unable to attend these events, rest assured that we will keep you informed.

Summer tabling continues in Yellowstone and the bison rut season will soon be starting. Herds will gather from all directions in a timeless tradition of a buffalo family reunion. During the rut, bulls will show their strength and challenge one another for the attention of receptive females. The roar of what could be dragons will echo through the valley. If you’re lucky enough to be in Yellowstone during this time, enjoy the celebration of the buffalo rut, but please keep your distance and give the bulls a lot of space! They have just one thing on their minds this time of year and anything that’s not a female buffalo might be viewed as a challenger. Stay safe, have fun, and take photos for the next wild buffalo calendar! And please share the buffalo’s story with everyone you know: spread the word to save these sacred herds!

ROAM FREE!

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* No Vaccinating Wild Bison! Yellowstone Extends Public Comment Period

Don’t let this buffalo and her calf become victims of Yellowstone’s proposed bison vaccination plan! Please take action by sending in your comments today. BFC file photo by Stephany.

Good news! Yellowstone National Park recently announced that they have extended the public comment period for their misguided bison vaccination proposal until September 24, 2010. It is very important that the Park hear from you about this unfortunate plan to shoot wild buffalo with a brucellosis vaccine that was designed for cattle and is unsafe for buffalo. The vaccine is ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive and culturally unacceptable. Please tell the Park you do not approve of vaccinating wild buffalo, and instead, request that Yellowstone develop an alternative that focuses on managing cattle to keep them off of the buffalo’s native habitat.

Take action today! And please spread the word to save these herds!

BFC and our partners Western Watersheds Project have submitted official comments which are up on this site for your review. Thank you for taking this action to help America’s last continuously wild buffalo.

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* Volunteers Needed! Woodcut Week & Summer Outreach

BFC will be hosting our annual Woodcut Week from September 6-12, 2010 and we need your help to gather, haul, cut, and stack the firewood that will keep our volunteers warm all winter. Please make plans to join us for a week of good hard work, tasty meals, friendship, and nights around the BFC campfire.

We are also in need of education and outreach volunteers to staff our tables in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks from now through August 8 and August 29 through September 5.

For more information on these volunteer opportunities, please contact Mike Mease at mease@wildrockies.org or at 406-646-0070.

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* Bison Advocates Tour Two Livestock Grazing Allotments Critical for Wild Bison

Ken Cole, Western Watersheds Project, finds bison fur (in hand) in the South Fork cattle grazing allotment the Gallatin National Forest is poised to renew. Jim MacDonald, BAB looks on. BFC file photo by Darrell.

Bison have repeatedly ventured to the South Fork of the Madison River only to be shot or forced to flee an onslaught of Montana Dept. of Livestock agents, and other agencies working on their behalf.

Susan Lamont, Vegetation management Hebgen Lake Ranger District, pointing out cows trampling Watkins Creek, westslope cutthroat trout habitat. BFC file photo by Darrell.

The Interagency Bison Management Plan agencies classified the South Fork as Zone 3 due to the presence of cattle. Wild bison are prohibited from occupying any habitat in Zone 3, at any time of year, despite the fact bison migrate to these habitats, which include Gallatin National Forest lands.

Randy Swilling, wildlife biologist Hebgen Lake Ranger District, Matt Skoglund, Natural Resources Defense Council, looking over bison habitat in the South Fork. BFC file photo by Darrell. Click here for larger image.

Bryan S. Finkle and Mary E. Deyman Trustees have asked the Gallatin National Forest to renew their permits to graze cattle on the South Fork of the Madison River and Watkins Creek along Hebgen Lake. The Forest intends to release their environmental analysis this fall.

Glenn Hockett, Gallatin Wildlife Association, following a trampled path, one of many left by cattle through the willows along Hebgen Lake, habitat for resident and migratory birds. BFC file photo by Darrell.

Supervisor Mary C. Erickson is likely to make the final decision on whether to close or renew the permit for 10 years for 74 cow calf pairs to continue grazing habitat on the Gallatin National Forest from July 1st to September 30.

South Fork of the Madison River is fed by underground springs nourishing lush plant growth and diversity in occupied grizzly bear habitat. BFC file photo by Darrell.

TAKE ACTION! Please contact Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary C. Erickson at mcerickson@fs.fed.us or 406-587-6703 and ask her to perform a suitability analysis to close cattle grazing allotments on the South Fork of the Madison River and Watkins Creek. The Forest should manage the habitat for wild migratory bison, for grizzlies and wolves, sensitive migratory birds and amphibians, and help sustain native populations of wildlife in Hebgen basin.

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* Celebrate Wild Buffalo 365 Days A Year!

Order your Wild Bison 2011 calendar today!

BFC’s first-ever Wild Bison calendar is proving to be a huge success! Be sure to get yours while we still have some left for yourself, friends and family, and help celebrate wild buffalo every day of the year! Our Wild Bison 2011 calendars are perfect for your home or office and also make wonderful gifts. They are a spectacular salutation to the Yellowstone area buffalo, America’s last wild population, teeming with powerful and endearing photos, passionate quotes, beautiful artwork, information about buffalo, and all content was provided by BFC supporters and volunteers. If you know of any stores in your area that would like to carry them, or if you would like to distribute calendars in your community, please contact Mike Mease for more info.

Order today!

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* Last Words

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. ”

~ Aldo Leopold, 1887-1948

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

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* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality

Subscribe yourself or your friends to BFC’s weekly Email Updates from the Field

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
July 15, 2010

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* Update from the Field
* Wild Bison 2011 Calendars are Going Fast!
* Tell Yellowstone:  No Vaccinating Wild Buffalo!
* In Joyous Celebration: The Marriage of Dan & Andrea
* New Film!  Facing the Storm – Story of the American Bison
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

* Update from the Field

Close profile of a beautiful pregnant buffalo we were watching in May. BFC file photo by P. Bogusko.

Buffalo Friends,

Montana is warm and sunny these days and the buffalo are safe and sound within Yellowstone’s boundaries for the time being, but BFC has been working hard to build the movement that will ultimately result in permanent protection for the buffalo and their habitat. If you are on our mailing list you should have received BFC’s 2010 newsletter by now and we hope you find this year’s edition informative, entertaining, and inspiring. Below you will find a sampling of some of the many initiatives we have been working on. If you believe in our work and want to help us protect the buffalo, please take action today. Today’s Update is packed with ways you can help, either by adding your voice to the growing list of people sending comments to the Park Service against Yellowstone’s plans to vaccinate wild bison, by volunteering for our annual Woodcut Week, or by supporting BFC with a financial contribution ormerchandise order. We hate to have to but the truth is, we could not function without your support.

We’re very excited for our new Wild Bison Calendar (see below) and next month’s Jackson Browne concert in Bozeman will provide an excellent opportunity for us to raise awareness of the buffalo and to raise much-needed funds to carry out our work. Thank you Jackson Browne for being such a committed activist and musician, for supporting our work, and for speaking out for the buffalo.

BFC will be hosting our annual Woodcut Week from September 6-12, 2010 and we need your help to gather, haul, cut, and stack the firewood that will keep our volunteers warm all winter. Please make plans to join us for a week of good hard work, tasty meals, friendship, and nights around the BFC campfire. We are also in need of education and outreach volunteers to staff our tables in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks during the weeks of July 25 through August 8 and August 29 through September 5. For more information on these volunteer opportunities, please contact Mike Mease.

If you’d like to learn more about the buffalo and BFC’s work, please listen to thisinterview we did earlier in July with Animal Voices, a Canadian radio program. With your help, we will stop the buffalo slaughter!

For the Buffalo,

BFC

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* Wild Bison 2011 Calendars Are Going Fast!

These spectacular Wild Bison 2011 calendars are a huge hit! Get some for yourself, friends and family today!

Have you ordered your Wild Bison 2011 calendar?

Be sure to get yours while we still have them! These calendars are perfect for your home or office and make wonderful gifts. They are a spectacular salutation to the Yellowstone area buffalo, America’s last wild population, teeming with powerful and endearing photos, passionate quotes, beautiful artwork, information about buffalo, and all content was provided by BFC supporters and volunteers. These calendars will help remind us to celebrate wild buffalo every single day of the year! If you know of any stores in your area that would like to carry them, or if you would like to distribute calendars in your community, please contact Mike Mease for more info.

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* Tell Yellowstone: Do Not Vaccinate Wild Buffalo!

This wild buffalo expresses her thoughts on the Park Service’s plan to vaccinate her relatives.
BFC file photo by Stephany.

Yellowstone National Park would like to shoot wild buffalo with a brucellosis vaccine intended for cattle, and unsafe for buffalo. The vaccine is ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive and culturally unacceptable. Advocates for wild buffalo can help by submitting comments to Yellowstone, which are being accepted through July 26. Please tell the Park you do not approve of vaccinating wild buffalo, and instead, request Yellowstone to develop an alternative to buy-out cattle in the buffalo’s immediate habitat areas of Yellowstone, Madison and Gallatin river valleys.

Take action today! And please spread the word to save these herds!

Read this excellent news article Bison Vaccine No Magic Bullet, Park Service Saysfrom the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

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* In Joyous Celebration: The Marriage of Dan & Andrea

At the altar. Dan and Andrea are married by Roman and Justine in front of friends and family.
Photo by Stephany.

On Saturday, June 26, 2010 family and friends gathered in Arlee, Montana, about 250 miles north of where the last wild buffalo currently roam, in celebration of the marriage of BFC’s Executive Director Dan Brister and his beautiful partner, Andrea Davis. It was a perfect day for our buffalo and blood families to come together in celebration for the joining of these two special souls in their lifetime commitment to one another. People came together in this gorgeous spot in the Jocko Valley, on the edge of the powerful Mission Mountains, traveling from as close as West Yellowstone and Missoula, Montana, and from as far as Germany, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, and from many other points around the country.

Photo by Stephany.

The spirit of the buffalo was with Dan & Andrea on this day as well; Dan has given nearly 15 years of his life to working in defense of these magnificent creatures, and Andrea has lent her love, wisdom and time to his work, becoming herself a special part of our buffalo family. Of course, the wedding wouldn’t have been complete without the enormous and gentle presence of the ever-popular buffaloon. This inflatable giant was centerpiece at the reception, watching over the revelers who hula-hooped, played volleyball, badminton and music, and a huge hit among the little ones who ran about like newborn calves.

The buffalo watches over the celebrants and reminds us of the power of family and commitment.
Photo by Stephany.

The ceremony was splendid! The incredibly lovely ritual was presided over with poetry and eloquence by Roman and Justine Sanchez, who are both BFC board members. Dan’s brother Bill and Andrea’s friend Natalie performed readings and a full moon and partial lunar eclipse added to the power of the day as our BFC family grew under the watchful eye of Grey Wolf Peak. The day into the night was a passionate reflection of the journey of marriage and the strength of community. Thank you Dan & Andrea for the honor of celebrating this special day with you! With this wedding we continue to build a tribe of buffalo warriors ready to stand long and true with the buffalo.

BuffaLove and Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Brister!

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* New Film! Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison

Producer Doug Hawes Davis has created a new film documenting the history of the American bison, Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison. Buffalo Field Campaign footage was used in the making of this documentary, which proves to be a powerful piece and is being presented by the High Plains Film Festival.

Learn more about the film and opportunities to view it.

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* Last Words

“Water flows over these hands. May I use them skillfully to preserve our precious planet.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

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* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
July 1, 2010

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* Update from the Field
* Wild Bison 2011 Calendars are Going Fast!
* Actions You Can Take for the Buffalo
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

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Update from the Field

Young bull looks up at those admiring him.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for larger image.

Now that government livestock agents are finally back to managing livestock and, for the moment, leaving wild buffalo alone, Buffalo Field Campaign shifts our focus to outreach, sharing the buffalo’s story with everyone we meet.  As part of our outreach efforts, BFC volunteers continue to host an information table inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  We are there to let people know how millions of U.S. tax dollars are being wasted every year by Yellowstone and Montana to harm and kill the American buffalo, iconic creatures so celebrated throughout the world.  People who come to the Yellowstone ecosystem from across the nation and around the globe will have a chance to meet with BFC and learn how they can help the buffalo.  We can always use more people, so if you have an interest in helping BFC with this effort, please contact us.

Buffalo Field Campaign was grateful to recently host a group of teachers and professors here in West Yellowstone.  Led by John Conant, Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Indiana State University, the educators are here visiting with local people including BFC to talk about America’s last wild buffalo.  We are encouraged by their visit knowing that they will share what they learn with their students and others.

You can help spread the word to save these herds no matter where you are.  Our most recent newsletter is hot off the press, and you should soon receive your copy in the mail.  You can also request multiple copies of BFC’s newsletter to share with friends and distribute throughout your community, which is a great way to help share the buffalo’s story and the work of BFC.

Buffalo Field Campaign is everyone, everywhere who cares about the last wild buffalo.  Thank you for being with us and helping spread the word to save these herds!

ROAM FREE!

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Wild Bison 2011 Calendars Are Going Fast!

Have you ordered your Wild Bison 2011 calendar yet?  Be sure to get yours while we still have some left!  These calendars are perfect for your home or office and also make wonderful gifts.  They are a spectacular salutation to the Yellowstone area buffalo, America’s last wild population, teeming with powerful and endearing photos, passionate quotes, beautiful artwork, information about buffalo, and all content was provided by BFC supporters and volunteers.  These calendars will help remind us to celebrate wild buffalo every single day of the year!  If you know of any stores in your area that would like to carry them, or if you would like to distribute calendars in your community, please contact Mike Mease for more info.  Get them before they are gone!  Order yours today!

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Actions You Can Take for the Buffalo

Curious – and very cute – buffalo calf stops to check out who’s looking at him.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for larger image.

Below are two important actions you can take today that will benefit wild buffalo in the immediate future, and for buffalo generations to come.  Thank you for being a voice for wild buffalo and the lands that are their birthright!

1.  Tell Yellowstone:  Do Not Vaccinate Wild Buffalo, Buy-Out Cattle Instead! Yellowstone National Park would like to shoot wild buffalo with a brucellosis vaccine intended for cattle, and unsafe for buffalo.  The vaccine is ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive and culturally unacceptable.  Advocates for wild buffalo can help by submitting comments to Yellowstone, which are being accepted through July 26.  Please tell the Park you do not approve of vaccinating wild buffalo, and instead, request Yellowstone to develop an alternative to buy-out cattle in the buffalo’s immediate habitat areas of the Yellowstone, Madison and Gallatin river valleys.  Take action today!

2.  Support Public Lands Grazing Reform Legislation! Legislation could soon be enacted that would encourage ranchers who graze livestock on public lands – important habitat for buffalo and other wildlife – to retire their federal grazing allotments in return for federally funded compensation. Please help benefit this proposal’s chance by making two quick phone calls to Congressman Jim Moran (VA-8) and Congressman Raul Grijalva (pronounced Gri-hal’-va) (AZ-7):

• Please phone Congressman Grijalva at 202-225-2435. In speaking with the receptionist, identify yourself and your location. Thank the congressman for his previous support of legislation that would compensate a rancher who voluntarily retired his federal grazing allotment. Then urge him to work with Congressman Jim Moran to enact the current retirement proposal through the appropriations process.
• Then phone Congressman Jim Moran at 202-225-4376. In speaking with the receptionist, identify yourself and your location. Thank the congressman for taking the lead in moving forward with the voluntary grazing retirement legislation and encourage him to continue this effort.

For more information about this important effort please review this fact sheet about the harmful impacts of ranching on western public lands.  Many thanks to Mike Hudak and the Sierra Club’s Grazing Team for their work to benefit wildlife and wild lands by making America’s public lands cattle-free!

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Last Words

” … My buffalo stopped eating and raised its massive head just like I asked, then took one step forward. I stopped hopping and wet my pants. I looked back at the car down the hill and back at the buffalo who took another step forward. I hopped back a hop, and again looked longingly at the safety of all that steel and glass and rubber, then back at Buffalo Bill who probably thought I’m the one who slaughtered his extended family two winters ago. It didn’t take much to figure out I was a lot closer to this even-toed ungulate than the car and calculated I had about 2.7 seconds of life remaining in this cholesterol-clogged body once he charged, crushed me into the ground and poked holes in me with those pointy things growing out of the side of his thick skull…”

~John Treadwell Dunbar.  From his article Yellowstone National Park that appeared in the Canada Free Press on Wednesday, June 30, 2010.   Read the full story, which also mentions BFC and the current plight of the buffalo.

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

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Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
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Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

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Take Action!

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign

* SPECIAL ALERT!!

TELL YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK:   NO VACCINATING WILD BUFFALO! BUY-OUT THE CATTLE!

Wild buffalo need your voice today!

Yellowstone National Park has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to begin shooting wild buffalo with an ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive, and culturally unacceptable brucellosis vaccine.  The Park intends to spend $9 million taxpayer dollars to vaccinate half the wild bison population annually for 30 years with “an imperfect vaccine” approved for use in cattle, not wild buffalo.   Yellowstone National Park admits its’ possible decision, the so-called “environmentally preferred alternative” could result in the organism spreading and infecting more buffalo with more harmful and persistent variations of brucella abortus.

Yellowstone National Park does not disclose or admit what these unknown effects would be for individual buffalo and this unique and distinct population as a whole.  Vaccination could jeopardize America’s last wild population because Yellowstone National Park is willing to base its decision on “uncertainty”, “incomplete and unavailable” science.

Wild buffalo have developed their own immunity and resistance to brucellosis since contracting it from cattle over 100 years ago. Wild buffalo have never transmitted the disease back to the cattle it came from.  Furthermore, Yellowstone National Park’s SRB51 vaccine has not been proven safe as pregnant buffalo miscarry according to a scientific study.

Vaccination is another in a long list of invasive, intrusions into the lives of America’s last wild buffalo.  Remotely vaccinated buffalo will be marked “via biobullet or paint-ball gun” and buffalo vaccinated in capture pens will be marked via “pit tags” implanted under their hides.

The cattle industry should bear the cost of a safe, effective vaccine for mandatory use in cattle. Additionally, millions in taxpayer funds sought by the National Park Service for vaccination would be far more effectively spent buying cattle that graze in the buffalo’s native range. Where cows still graze, funds can be used to erect wildlife proof fencing for cattle.

TAKE ACTION TODAY! PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS: Yellowstone National Park is accepting comments through July 26, 2010. Please tell them to abandon this ill-conceived and harmful plan. Vaccinating wild buffalo is an inappropriate action and use of Yellowstone National Park, and poses an unacceptable harm to America’s last wild buffalo.  Urge Yellowstone to reject all alternatives in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and develop an alternative to buy out cattle in the buffalo’s range:  Wild buffalo trust alternative D. Comments are being accepted electronically only through the Park’s web form(no email or fax accepted).  Alternatively, mail your comments to:  Bison Ecology & Management Office, Center for Resources, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY  82190.   Please also call Superintendent Suzanne Lewis and let her know you oppose the Park’s ill-conceived plan to vaccinate wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park and support buying out cattle in buffalo’s native range:  (307) 344-2213.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES TO ADDRESS IN YOUR PERSONALIZED COMMENTS: BFC has prepared some suggested talking points below to help you build your comments.  Speak from your heart, with your buffalo wisdom, and personalize your comments fully.   If you have any questions about the adverse impacts of vaccinating wild buffalo, please contact bfc-media@wildrockies.org.

1. WILD BUFFALO TRUST ALTERNATIVE D: Request Yellowstone National Park develop an alternative to buyout cattle in Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin river valleys.

• In light of the fact that vaccinating wildlife is ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive, and culturally unacceptable, request Yellowstone National Park develop an alternative and disclose impacts to buy out cattle that graze in the buffalo’s range.
• Yellowstone National Park anticipates spending $9 million taxpayer dollars vaccinating buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park. (Appendix F) This funding could be allocated to buy out cattle on private lands and conserve the habitat in perpetuity for native wildlife.
• High priority habitats to buyout cattle include wildlife migration corridors in the Gardiner basin and Hebgen basin.
• The buy out should focus on connectivity of habitats and wildlife migration in the Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin river valleys.
• Where cows still graze, funds could be used to erect wildlife proof fencing around cattle.
• Free range dispersal of buffalo where cattle no longer graze across the landscape would allow buffalo access to forage to meet their nutritional needs and maintain healthy populations for future generations.
• The WILD BUFFALO TRUST ALTERNATIVE D alternative meets the Park’s mandate from the U.S. Congress to conserve and leave buffalo “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”  The WILD BUFFALO TRUST ALTERNATIVE D option also follows Park management policies and directives requiring “protection of ecological processes and native species in a relatively undisturbed environment.”  Wild Buffalo Trust Alternative D is an ecosystem-based, ecologically sound alternative and should be fully considered in a supplemental environmental impact statement for the public to review and comment on. (Chapter 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, Appendix E)
• Request an extension on public comments (currently ending July 26, 2010) in order for the Park to study and develop and disclose to the public the results of this alternative and give the American people time to review and comment.

2.  National Park Service’s vaccination plan inside Yellowstone National Park threatens the wildness of buffalo.

• Vaccinating wild buffalo is part of the framework of the Interagency Bison Management Plan that treats wild buffalo like livestock and not as the national icon they are – AMERICA’S only wild buffalo to continuously occupy their native range.
• Every Autumn and in May and June for eighteen weeks over a 30 year period wild buffalo will be closely approached and shot with a vaccine approved for use in cattle, not approved or appropriate for wild buffalo.  (Appendix F)
• Shooting vaccines into buffalo at close range is another part of the Park’s endless intrusion into buffalo’s evolutionary adaptation as an indigenous wildlife species.
• Government harassment off habitat, capture for slaughter, orphaning calves for a quarantine experiment that commodifies 3 of 4 offspring for America’s largest domestic bison rancher Ted Turner, that inhumanely confines and breaks social groups in capture pens, radio collaring, vaginal telemetry, marking wild buffalo with ear tags and paint, and now vaccination of half the population for decades.  These are all livestock management techniques that impair buffalo’s wild character and leads to domestication of an irreplaceable wildlife species.
• Vaccinated buffalo will be shot with paint balls or implanted with tags under their hides.  (Chapter 2.2.2)
• Wild:  free natural state of living; a wild primitive state untouched by civilization, self-willed
• For further reference see BFC’s Buffalo Bill of Rights

3.  Yellowstone National Park’s vaccine could jeopardize America’s last wild buffalo population.

• Caving in to livestock industry pressure, Yellowstone National Park is willing to further jeopardize the nation’s last wild population of American bison by basing its decision to vaccinate buffalo on “uncertainty”, “incomplete and unavailable” science. (Chapter 4.2)
• According to Yellowstone National Park’s impact statement:  “using less effective vaccines or delivering the vaccine to a relatively small proportion of the eligible animals can lead to adaptive changes in the disease pathogen that select for variants able to evade the immunological response induced by the vaccine. These vaccine-adapted variants can then spread in the population, reduce the efficiency of the vaccination program, and result in longer-term evolutionary changes in the host-pathogen association.” (Chapter 4.2)
• Additionally, Yellowstone National Park admits:  “These aspects of SRB51 and the life history of B. abortus may provide a selective advantage for bacteria whereby SRB51 vaccination becomes ineffective leading to an increase in transmission potential, stronger persistence within the bison host, and greater pathogenicity (i.e., virulence or degree of intensity of the disease produced by a pathogen). This potential adaptation of B. abortus to SRB51 could be exacerbated if delivery via remote vaccination is hampered due to logistics or bison behavior and only a relatively small proportion of the eligible females are vaccinated.”  (Chapter 4.2)
• In other words, vaccinating buffalo with SRB51 could lead to increased levels of brucella abortus transmission in the Yellowstone ecosystem, more virulent forms and stronger persistence of brucella abortus in wild buffalo.
• Yellowstone National Park does not disclose or admit what these unknown effects would entail for individual buffalo and the buffalo population as a whole.
• Vigilant surveillance might detect this irretrievably bad result for buffalo, but there is no way to “mitigate” a more virulent, persistent, infectious disease arising from Yellowstone National Park’s vaccination program.
• It is an unacceptable harm and risk that Yellowstone National Park’s vaccination program could jeopardize the viability and future of our last wild buffalo population.

4.  Vaccinating wild buffalo is culturally unacceptable to American Indian Tribes and to all American’s who honor wildlife.

• For thousands of years, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem was a traditional territory and shared buffalo hunting grounds for Crow, Eastern Shoshone, Salish and Kootenai, Shoshone-Bannock, Blackfeet, Nez Perce, Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Flathead, and Upper Pend d’Oreille Tribes. (Chapter 3.7)
• Yellowstone National Park does not disclose how it intends to “mitigate” traditional cultural concerns raised by Tribes in consultation including:
  • Respectful treatment of the bison, including allowing them to roam freely without fencing or disrespectful hazing.
  • Vaccine contamination of meat for consumption and ceremonial purposes.
  • Preservation of wickiups, stone alignments, and other cultural features associated with bison.
• The public trust resource of America’s last wild buffalo is to be conserved and protected for future generations.  Vaccination, and the Interagency Bison Management Plan from which it originates, diminishes buffalo’s ability to live out their life history as a wildlife species and remain wild and free in their native range.

5.  Vaccinating wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park does not protect the population and will not placate Montana’s cattle industry.

• Fortunately, buffalo’s unique genetic makeup and natural immunity to infectious diseases has served them well since becoming infected with brucella abortus from cattle 100 years ago. (Chapter 2.7) The harm done to buffalo comes not from disease but taxpayer funded government-led slaughter of buffalo in the name of disease risk management in our National Parks and Forests.
• As noted in Yellowstone National Park’s impact statement, vaccinating buffalo does not satisfy cattle ranchers:  “The proposed remote delivery vaccination actions will be implemented with federal funding and will not reduce the seroprevalence of brucellosis sufficiently (i.e., eradication) to alter perceptions of livestock operators, producers, and regulators regarding the risk of brucellosis transmission from bison and elk to cattle.”  (Executive Summary)
• It is misleading to claim that vaccination will lead to greater tolerance for buffalo on habitats outside the Park. Montana has no tolerance for wild buffalo period.  In so far, as the U.S. Congress continues to fund Montana’s no tolerance position, buffalo will continue to be harassed off their habitat and harmed to make way for a few more head of cattle to graze the buffalo’s range.
• Rather than further harming our native wild buffalo using tools designed for domestic livestock, the cattle industry must be held accountable for introducing brucellosis to native wildlife and take responsibility for developing an effective brucellosis vaccine for mandatory use in livestock.  The cattle industry is, after all, responsible for the presence of brucellosis – and many other diseases- in the Yellowstone ecosystem.  Wildlife proof fencing would also prevent commingling of wild elk, buffalo, and domestic cattle.

6.  Vaccinating buffalo is a harmful, costly, wasteful and failed strategy as indicated by Yellowstone National Park’s own evidence.

• SRB51 vaccine causes abortions in females (Palmer et al. 1996). (Appendix C)
• Over $9 million taxpayer dollars will be spent over the next 30 years on a vaccine that is ineffective in wild buffalo. Under Yellowstone National Park’s environmentally preferred alternative, “approximately 25% of the target group received protection from the vaccine.”  (Appendix J)
• Yellowstone National Park admits in its impact statement:  “experiments conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that vaccination with Strain RB51 provides no protection from aborted pregnancies.”  (Executive Summary)
• Yellowstone National Park also admits vaccination is “unlikely to reduce the seroprevalence of brucellosis in wildlife sufficiently (i.e., near zero) to alter the perceptions of livestock operators, producers, and regulators regarding the risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle from wildlife.” (Chapter 1.11.2)

MORE INFORMATION ONLINE:

• Visit BFC’s Yellowstone Bison Vaccination Web Page

• Read BFC Executive Director Dan Brister’s Opinion-Editorial about Why Vaccinating Wild Bison is Wrong

*THANK YOU for taking action on behalf of America’s last wild population of buffalo!  Please pass this alert on – spread the word to save these herds!

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT  59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

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Take Action!

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
June 3, 2010

NOTE: This will be the last weekly email Update from the Field for the 2009-2010 field season.  After today, Updates will come to you every other Thursday until November 15.  We will also contact you with Special Alerts to bring you news requiring immediate action.  Thank you for being with us for the buffalo!

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——————————

* Update from the Field
* Victory for Wild Buffalo in Montana
* BFC Newsletter Coming Soon!
* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

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* Update from the Field

Buffalo tracks in the mud on Horse Butte.  All that is left of our gentle friends.  BFC file photo.  Click image to view full size.

We have reached the time of year when the landscape starts to feel lonely.  Most of the buffalo have been hazed off of their chosen ground, into Yellowstone National Park, where the grass is not as green, the park visitors hound their every move, and many, many of their kind have already been pushed.  We continue patrols after the huge hazes of last week, finding one lone bull here, a small family group there.  For the most part, the land is empty of our buffalo friends.  Where once people could enjoy the priceless company of North America’s largest land mammal throughout our national forests, the intolerance of Montana’s livestock industry forces people to pay $25 to see them in Yellowstone.

One very special buffalo has gotten the area’s attention lately, however, and it’s one of those wonderful cases of reprieve that we all need to celebrate.  A huge, majestic bull buffalo has been spending his time in and around the town of West Yellowstone over the past few weeks.  He has been hazed and continues to return to the green lawns, school fields and shop-front shrubbery of West Yellowstone.  Memorial Day weekend, of course, brought many visitors to the little town, and many of those visitors have probably never been around a wild bison before, so our bull buffalo friend found himself sought out by visitors who continued to get just a little too close (or in some cases, a lot too close!).

A wonderfully respectful flier distributed by West Yellowstone’s Visitor Center in an effort to aid the bull buffalo in town.  Click image to view full-size.

We got word over the weekend that the plan had been put forth to kill this majestic animal, just after the Memorial Day crowds had left.  We knew that he had many friends in town, though, and we went to work, reaching out to our allies in the area, to the media, and most of all, to the visitors who were coming out to enjoy his presence.  Other residents put out their own materials, too, to ask for tolerance and space for this bull.  We even offered to the town the service of our patrols staying in the the area of the bull to ask visitors to keep their distance, and to educate them a bit about the plight of the wild bison.

This beloved “town” bull was given a few different names by the people who adored him.  Rose Patnode created and distributed this flier to help save “The Colonel” from death. Click image to view full-size.

Within a matter of days we got word from the Chief of Police and from the Town Council that they would absolutely not kill the bull, and that while he will be pushed again to the confines of Yellowstone National Park, he would be safe while in the streets of West Yellowstone.  It is a victory for one beautiful bull buffalo, and one that comes from all of our diverse allies pulling together.

Unfortunately, Tuesday’s news of victory was followed by Wednesday’s hazing.  Approximately 60 buffalo – mamas with their yearlings and newborn calves – were hazed by horsemen and helicopter from the south side of the Madison River – the cattle-free public land of Gallatin National Forest – to well inside Yellowstone National Park. This was another fourteen-plus mile day for these moms and calves, one group of whom swam across the rain-swelled Madison in an attempt to escape the haze, only to be harassed again on the other side by more horsemen. Once again, these wild buffalo were chased from their chosen ground; once again, a helicopter and horsemen disrupted not just the buffalo, but countless species of wildlife within the Yellowstone ecosystem; and once again, the law enforcement working on the scene “for our safety” kept us far back from their operations, preventing us, for the most part, from effectively documenting and witnessing this harassment of wildlife.

But, like the buffalo, we persist.  We are out there again today, documenting as agents haze the few remaining buffalo off of cattle-free Horse Butte, forcing them for miles deep into Yellowstone.  We are watching the agents’ every move, cameras in hand, letting them know that we will always be here to stand with the buffalo they harass; despite their overwhelming law enforcement presence, despite their threats and orders, despite their abuse and citations.

At the end of the day some part of us hopes to find one or two buffalo who have escaped the haze, one or two to spend a quiet moment with; these animals that teach us so much.  Another part of us, though, hopes to find the landscape empty, lonely again, so they have no one to haze tomorrow.

Buffalo mom and calf alone on a lonely landscape.  BFC file photo by Ken Cole. Click image to view full-size. .

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* Victory for Wild Buffalo in Montana!

On May 27, 2010, Montana District Judge John Brown ruled against the Montana Stockgrowers, who filed suit to force or kill all wild buffalo that remain in Montana after May 15 of each year.   Though the decision came too late for the hundreds of wild buffalo who had been inhabiting the western landscape outside Yellowstone National Park, Horse Butte residents and the EarthJustice legal team prevailed over rancher interests, for the buffalo.  What will this court ruling mean for wild buffalo next year?  Learn more!

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* BFC 2010 Newsletter Coming Soon!

Buffalo Field Campaign will be mailing our 2010 Newsletter next month and we want to make sure you receive one.  If your mailing address has changed since you last heard from us, or if you’re not on our list of supporters and would like to receive a newsletter, please contact us with your current address.   Also, please let us know if you would like us to send multiple copies that you can distribute to friends, family, and in your community.  Send your name, address, zip code, and email address to bfc@wildrockies.org and we’ll be sure to update our records.

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* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers

Buffalo Field Campaign still has a few openings for summer education and outreach volunteers.  If you can commit to spending three weeks with us, most of which will be spent inside be grandeur of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, to help educate Park visitors about what’s happening to America’s last wild buffalo, please get in touch!  Drop a line to volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org or call 406-646-0070 with questions or to apply.  Thank you!

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* Last Words

“Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.”

~ Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota Medicine Man and Chief (1831-1890)

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

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* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
—————————–

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

Tell-a-Friend

Take Action!

–

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 27, 2010

——————————
* Update from the Field
* TAKE ACTION:  Make Your Voice Heard for the Last Wild Herds
* Coming Soon: Opportunity to Comment on Invasive Remote Vaccine Plan
* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers
* BFC 2010 Newsletters Mailing Next Month!
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

——————————
* Update from the Field

MT Department of Livestock’s helicopter chases buffalo off of private land where buffalo are welcome, but the DOL is not.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for a larger image.

The Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and cooperating government agencies continued to wage their war against wild buffalo this week and have almost emptied Montana of buffalo,which they have also harassed within Yellowstone’s “protective” boundaries.  The landscape surrounding Yellowstone was teeming with the gentle giants, but now only the few who have escaped the press of the agents continue to graze on their chosen land.  These few will also soon be gone.

Exhausted from hazing and with the DOL on on their tails, these buffalo try to take in more air by opening their mouths.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for a larger image.

BFC has finished a new video, Buffalo’s Trail of Tears, that takes you on a brief yet profound visual journey that lends perspective on what the buffalo are going through as they endure the hazing operations that force them over many long miles of difficult terrain.  This video conveys the tragedy of these cruel and unnecessary  actions in a way that words can fail to do.  Please share this footage with everyone you know.

Huge sign in front of the Galanis property on Horse Butte, Montana’s largest buffalo safe zone.  Unfortunately, the DOL repeatedly ignores the message.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for a larger image.

Agents on horseback, aided by the DOL’s helicopter and state and federal law enforcement, began another week of taxpayer funded buffalo harassment operations beginning on cattle-free public lands of Gallatin National Forest.  Scores of buffalo mothers and calves, with their families were again forced off of portions of their habitat that will never see cattle.

A peaceful morning on Horse Butte, before the DOL arrives.  More than a hundred buffalo graze, play and rest on the buffalo-friendly Galanis property.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for a larger image.

The DOL came back to assault buffalo on Horse Butte, on private lands where the presence of agents is  unwelcome and greatly frowned upon.  But buffalo are welcome here.  The owners have posted many signswarning against agent trespass but Department of Livestock agent Rob Tierney has repeatedly disregarded their wishes.  He again trespassed with the helicopter, scaring off over 100 buffalo with nearly 50 newborn calves, as well as an injured mom and young bull we saw caught up in last week’s haze.  No doubt the incessant hazing has worsened their injuries.  During the chaos of this haze, a mom and calf were separated.  With tears in our eyes we watched the mama break off from the haze, with the helicopter hovering above her.  But her need to find her calf was stronger than her fear.  She ran back, grunting and bellowing, searching for her baby.  The helicopter set its sights back on her herdmates.  Not finding her calf, she stopped suddenly, sniffed the air and bolted back toward her fleeing family.  Maybe she turned around because she smelled her baby, but we don’t know if they reunited.  The hazing from Horse Butte pushed buffalo along the north bluffs of the Madison River corridor, more public lands where cattle never graze.

A mama buffalo runs from the haze, searching for her lost calf.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for larger image.

As buffalo were being removed from their habitat outside the park, simultaneous hazing operations commenced inside Yellowstone National Park.  Agents on horseback and in the DOL’s helicopter disturbed more buffalo, moving them further into Yellowstone’s interior and terrorizing numerous species of wildlife in the process.   Yesterday, before the haze reached Yellowstone’s boundary, patrols observed a lone wolf dining on a fresh elk carcass.  Before our human ears could hear the stampeding haze and helicopter, the wolf knew, and quickly fled.

Today, agents were out again to harass some of the few buffalo left in Montana.  With the helicopter, they searched for a mom, calf and yearling but were unable to find it.  They then proceeded to haze four bull buffalo off of Highway 287 and through the Duck Creek corridor, back into Yellowstone.  This portion of the Park is currently closed for the protection of grizzly bears, but the DOL acts above the law and frequently enters areas that are closed to everyone else.  Agents later proceeded to the town of West Yellowstone to haze a bull buffalo that has been in and around town for weeks now, a thrill to residents, business owners and many tourists.  Unfortunately, two tourists made an unwise decision and while the bull was bedded down, they poked him with a stick to get his attention for a photo!  Instead of them getting a ticket for foolish behavior, the bull was chased out of town.  But, he went his own way, rather than into Yellowstone, and he’s back roaming with the residents once again.   Volunteers also reported that three DOL agent trucks with horse trailers headed north out of town.  The “threat” of brucellosis applies only Tuesday through Thursdays, apparently, so perhaps we and the buffalo that remain will have a quiet weekend.

With the exception of three small hobby ranches that have yet to lease their land for summer cattle grazing,  the public and private lands where these operations occur are cattle-free year-round.  Even if there were cattle, their presence should preclude wild buffalo from accessing their native habitat.  All of these lands should be open to buffalo as they are for other wildlife.  Yet for these few ranchers’ interests buffalo are chased from the lands that are their birthright.  Montana is so eager to defend the interests of a few ranchers, but won’t hesitate to step all over the private property rights of those who choose to live peaceably in the company of wild buffalo.

DOL agents and Forest Service law enforcement officer discuss what to do about BFC volunteers.  Shortly after this discussion, the patrol following the haze was purposefully held back from the remainder of the operation.  BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for larger image.

This season has also been a very trying one for BFC’s interactions with law enforcement.  Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), many of them federal and brand-new to the scene, have been extra aggressive, incommunicative, and purposefully trying to prevent us from documenting these operations.  They have been trying to keep us so far back that we cannot document.   The LEOs bend over backwards for the DOL without question, and in the case of Forest Service and Park Service, act in violation of their agency missions while hiding behind the Interagency Bison Management Plan.  And the agents who conduct the actual hazing have been fabricating stories, attempting to blame BFC for actions that are nobody’s fault but their own.  These agents – not BFC – are the ones entering areas where they are not welcome to harass wild buffalo, and consequently other area wildlife, causing animals – horses and wildlife alike – to become extremely agitated.  Itching to arrest BFC volunteers, they make jokes about it, place bets, and issue frivolous orders and written warnings with no legal basis.

We know this extra aggressive behavior and intolerance is because they are feeling the pressure of the end of their era.  They don’t want us to keep showing you what they are doing.  But, they can’t stop us.  Not only do we have the legal rights as a media organization to document these government actions, we are always watching and recording, even when they think we aren’t.

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* TAKE ACTION!  Make Your Voice Heard for the Last Wild Herds

You can take action to help stop these atrocious actions against America’s last wild buffalo from continuing.  Please contact your Members of Congress, and speaking from your heart for the buffalo, ask them to develop habitat-based solutions that protect wild buffalo and their habitat.

Please ask your Senators and House Representative to:
1. Stop using your tax dollars to fund Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park operations that harm or lead to the slaughter of wild buffalo.
2. Use your tax dollars wisely by purchasing livestock grazing rights on land adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, which will open habitat for wild buffalo and other native wildlife forever.

Write your Senator

Write your House Representative

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* Coming Soon:  Opportunity to Comment on Invasive Remote Vaccine Plan

Yellowstone National Park will soon release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a proposal to begin remotely vaccinating wild buffalo with an ineffective brucellosis vaccine.  The remote vaccination would be conducted by shooting “bio-bullets” of vaccine at buffalo.  The brucellosis vaccine they intend to use has neither been proven safe nor effective.  The idea of vaccinating wild buffalo instead of developing an effective vaccine to use on cattle is another example of the cattle industry trying to shirk responsibility.  Stay tuned for your opportunity to comment on this important issue and please read an excellent Opinion-Editorial by BFC’s executive director Dan Brister – which was written in response to the DOL’s buffalo vaccination program yet holds true for Yellowstone’s proposal -  on Why Vaccinating Wild Buffalo is Wrong.   Learn more about the ill-effects of vaccinating wild buffalo.

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* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers

Buffalo Field Campaign still has a few openings for summer education and outreach volunteers.  If you can commit to spending three weeks with us, most of which will be spent inside Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks helping to educate Park visitors about what’s happening to America’s last wild buffalo, please contact us!  Email volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org or call 406-646-0070 with questions or to apply.  Thank you!

——————————
* BFC 2010 Newsletters Coming Soon!

Buffalo Field Campaign will be mailing our 2010 Newsletter next month and we want to make sure you receive one.  If your mailing address has changed since you last heard from us, or if you’re not on our list of supporters and would like to receive a newsletter, please contact us with your current address.   Also, please let us know if you would like us to send multiple copies that you can distribute to friends, family, and in your community.  Send your name, address, zip code, and email address to bfc@wildrockies.org and we’ll be sure to update our records.

——————————
* Last Words

Buffalo hair, tracks and poops are nearly all that’s left in the now haunted landscape to remind us that hundreds of beautiful wild buffalo were just here. BFC file photo by Stephany.  Click here for a larger image.

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

~ Cree Prophecy

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

——————————
* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
—————————–

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

Tell-a-Friend

Take Action!

–

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 20, 2010

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——————————
* Update from the Field
* New! Two Video Clips from BFC
* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers
* Buffalo in the News
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

——————————
* Update from the Field

Wild buffalo flee from their oppressors.  BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

Every time I close my eyes I see buffalo.   Quick flashes of their soft gentle shapes, dark brown, tawny and black, sprinkled with the tiny red shapes of baby buffalo.  Instead of bringing the usual peace, these images are unpleasant because the buffalo are running, tails up in distress, fleeing from the relentless harassment that they have been suffering for weeks now, victims of the unreasonable intolerance Montana’s livestock industry heaps upon them.

As expected, hundreds of these buffalo that were hazed last week, and in weeks past, returned to their chosen, historic habitat on lower elevation lands surrounding the western edge of Yellowstone National Park, where the buffalo find greener, more plentiful, pastures.  More than 600 buffalo have been harassed outside the Park, and hundreds of buffalo that never even left Yellowstone have been pursued by agents and exiled from their native habitat supposedly in the name of livestock disease management.  Yet there are no cattle here.  Additionally, there was no agent activity Friday through Monday, so it seems the so-called brucellosis threat doesn’t apply on weekends, or after 5pm.

This baby and its family have been relentlessly harassed this and last week by DOL agents, such as Shane Grube above.  BFC file photo.

Buffalo have been forced to travel for many many miles – upwards of 20 – nonstop, without rest.  Perhaps a quarter of these buffalo are newborn calves, and scores of them pregnant mothers who have yet to give birth, or who are in labor at the time of the haze.  As I write, patrols are reporting that they’ve spotted a mama buffalo with a wet calf, brand new to the world and about to experience the dark side of the human race.  They are being forced to travel at unnatural distances and speeds that a mother buffalo would never ask her baby to cover under natural circumstances.  Inexorable government forces push them over terrain and swollen waterways difficult to negotiate under fear, as they are pursued by federally-funded cowfolks on horseback, federal, state and county law enforcement, and the Montana Department of Livestock’s helicopter.   It is heart-wrenching to see these buffalo tormented so, little babies doing everything they can to keep up with mom, no matter how far or how fast; moms trying to shelter their babies from harm, entire family groups trying to escape the yelling predators in cowboy hats and the metal bird that threatens to land upon their backs and devour them.   And this, so say the grinning agents, is the “kinder alternative” to slaughter that bison advocates are supposed to be thankful for.

DOL and Park Service cooperatively harass America’s last wild buffalo on Gallatin National Forest. BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

Hazing this week began along the south side of the Madison River, in Gallatin National Forest, targeting buffalo that approached lands within their migration corridor that are currently unavailable to them because one landowner leases his land to cattle for a few short months.  The DOL’s selfish intolerance deprives the public and private landowners who want the buffalo around, including businesses such as the Bar N Ranch, of the presence of native wild buffalo. If they don’t get permission from the landowners, the DOL will trespass with assumed authority anyway.  This particular south side haze pushed buffalo more than 10 miles and lasted an incredibly long time for the distance it went, not because of a slow pace but because the buffalo kept trying to lose the agents.  Ultimately, the buffalo were moved out of Gallatin National Forest and into Yellowstone, and then returned on their own.  Today, the agents are out there again hazing small family groups with calves through the cattle-free public lands of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Buffalo being hazed off the Galanis property by the DOL’s helicopter.  BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

Yesterday, the DOL, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks attacked cattle-free Horse Butte once again.  Horsemen and helicopter scouted the Butte’s public lands.  The DOL’s federally-funded helicopter flew over the grizzly bear closure area, obviously disturbing the griz, but didn’t find too many buffalo on the public land, other than one small group near an area closed to all human activity to protect bald eagles, which should be a safe zone for buffalo.  In the DOL’s outrageous omnipotence they were allowed to enter the eagle closure on horseback to chase them out, an area where you and I aren’t even allowed to step foot.  Simultaneously, an additional hazing operation – assisted by the DOL’s helicopter that continued to fly back and forth between hazing operations, wasting gallons of fuel and thousands of taxpayer dollars – was ongoing deep inside Yellowstone National Park, yet again pushing exhausted buffalo deeper into the Park where there is very little grass for them to eat right now. The agencies use the tactic of moving buffalo already in the Park to other locations in order to clear areas occupied by buffalo for those being hazed off of habitat outside the Park’s boundaries.  Tax dollars at work for the livestock industry!

This is another group hazed off the Galanis property.  The mom has an injured back left leg which gave her trouble even when walking at her own pace, and she has a calf to care for.  The young bull also had an injury, but all were forced to run even through it was extremely painful and difficult.  BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

Of the more than 100 buffalo hazed off of Horse Butte yesterday, most of them were on private lands within Yellowstone Village and the Galanis property, places where the buffalo are welcome, but the buffalo harassing agents are not.  Horsemen and helicopter appeared in the housing area and proceeded to trespass. They caused extreme chaos, flying the helicopter over the neighborhood, stampeding buffalo through people’s yards, swooping low over the Galanis’ pastures to scare buffalo into the housing area, where agent riders waited.  Residents and wildlife alike were disturbed and endangered by the operation’s shattering of the morning’s tranquility.  The riders were escorted by the swirling lights, guns and trucks of law enforcement who have been increasingly aggressive, and giving out frivolous orders in failed attempts to prevent Buffalo Field Campaign from documenting their actions.  The community was watching with us.  Quite a few very upset residents came out of their homes to have a word with the DOL, expressing their anger at the situation and underscoring the absolute wastefulness of such operations.

Today, there is more of the same happening on Gallatin National Forest and in Yellowstone National Park, and it will continue tomorrow and probably through next week as well.  As I write, patrols in the field have reported that the DOL have again entered the buffalo-friendly lands of the Bar N Ranch to haze buffalo, and they have pushed them onto Gallatin National Forest and eastward towards Yellowstone.  One of our patrols reported that the helicopter spotted two moms and two calves and it attempted to haze them, but lost them in the woods.  A DOL rider came in to assist, running the buffalo at a full gallop through the deep woods teeming with dead-fall, treacherous ground for buffalo to have to run through, especially little babies.

Law enforcement this week and last has also become increasingly aggressive, making up extreme excuses to try and keep us from documenting.  They don’t want the world to see what they are doing.  They know that the vigilent eyes of Buffalo Field Campaign are sharing these events with everyone, and that the world is watching.

Buffalo hazed off Gallatin National Forest, accross Highway 191, towards the boundary of Yellowstone National Park.  Photo by Mike Friberg.  Click here for larger image.

A message to the DOL:  your dominion over America’s last wild buffalo, over Yellowstone National Park, over Gallatin National Forest, over Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, over the migratory movement of prehistoric native wildlife, over state, federal, tribal, and county officials, over the media and the propaganda machine, over private property owners, over the citizens of this state and this country–like all greedy empires–is soon to fall and the buffalo will take back the lands you have stolen from them.  It’s only a matter of time.

Friends of the buffalo, please take action by contacting your members of Congress in the House and Senate and urging them to stop the harassment and slaughter of America’s last wild bison population left in the United States!  Endless pressure, endlessly applied is going to make the difference.

Write your Senator

Write your House Representative

ROAM FREE!

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* New! Two Video Clips from BFC

Buffalo Field Campaign has completed two new video clips!  One is about the birth of the buffalo that we were very lucky to witness and the completion of our first “off-fence, de-fence” project.  The other is about BFC helping buffalo by warning motorists of their presence on the highways.  Please check out the videos and help share the buffalo’s story and take action on their behalf.  Thank you!

Born Between a Fence and a Road

On the Road

BFC extends our thanks to Tony for helping make these video clips happen.

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* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers

Buffalo Field Campaign still has a few openings for summer education and outreach volunteers.  If you can commit to spending three weeks with us, most of which will be spent inside be grandeur of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, to help educate Park visitors about what’s happening to America’s last wild buffalo, please get in touch!  Drop a line to volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org or call 406-646-0070 with questions or to apply.  Thank you!

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* Buffalo in the News

Plight of the Bison (Part I)
Powell Tribune, Wyoming

Bison hazing triggers locked horns, conflict (Part II)
Powell Tribune, Wyoming

Why the buffalo can’t roam
Go Earth Friendly Now

Benefiting Buffalo
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Montana

Hazed & Confused
Helena Independent Record, Montana

Annual Yellowstone bison rounded up near completion
MSNBC

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* Last Words

“As we all know, bison are nomadic. They always roam,” he said. “It is a bit early in the season for spring in the west side of the park. Only the bison will be able to tell us if there is really adequate forage.”

~ Al Nash, Spokesman for Yellowstone National Park, in a comment to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 5/14/10

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

——————————
* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
—————————–

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

Tell-a-Friend

Take Action!

–

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 13, 2010

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——————————
* Update from the Field
* “The Beast” by Brodie, Age 9
* Summer Volunteers Needed to Spread the Word!
* Last Words:  Experiencing a Buffalo Birth by Drea
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links

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* Update from the Field

BFC witnessed the birth of this baby on Saturday.  On Monday, the DOL hazed it down Highway 287.  Click here for a larger image.  BFC file photo.

How do you begin to write about a time such as buffalo have had this week?  We have witnessed–and the buffalo have endured–so much this week: a wild buffalo being born the day before Mother’s Day, wildlife coming into the world between a fence and a highway; being graced with the gift of a bull buffalo migrating through our yard. Before the week is over, a total of 600 buffalo will have been needlessly and aggressively forced off of their chosen ground in Montana, and hundreds more buffalo deep inside Yellowstone are being harassed to make room for those forced to leave the state.   Welcome to West Yellowstone:  it is that time of year when the appeasement of cattle interests attempts to overpower ancient natural law, the approach of the nonsensical May 15th deadline when the Montana Department of Livestock demands that no more wild buffalo exist in Montana.
This lone bull had been grazing peacefully just west of our cabin on Sunday, and was hazed down Highway 287 by the DOL the next day.  BFC file photo.  Click here for a larger image.

Federal, state and county law enforcement, deputized Montana livestock inspectors, Yellowstone park rangers, and the local game warden arrived on Monday to begin the week’s operations with the haze of a lone bull buffalo.   He was run off of private property just a half mile west of BFC’s cabin onto Highway 287, where agents on horses, an ATV and trucks pursued him for miles on and off the asphalt until they encountered a family group of buffalo with numerous tiny calves and still-pregnant females.  One of the calves was the very baby we saw being born just two days earlier.  Ruthless in their efforts, the agents chased the buffalo east down the highway, hounding them until they finally called off the haze near the field by Duck Creek where we did our first fence removal project.

After the agents were done there, they headed towards the Madison River corridor of Gallatin National Forest where they proceeded to haze more buffalo including scores of newly born calves.  In the past two weeks, agents have hazed buffalo along this southern side of the Madison numerous times, pushing them back into areas that the buffalo already grazed, demonstrating that they have no understanding of the natural movements and grazing habits of buffalo.  Unlike cattle, buffalo are native and wise with the land they evolved with.  They don’t overgraze but gently clip the grasses and move along.  Buffalo have a respectful relationship with the grass they are built from and depend upon, so hazing them back into habitat where they have recently been is a foolish, futile act.

On Tuesday, more agents arrived to West Yellowstone. Numerous agents from the Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest, Gallatin County Sheriff’s department, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks began showing up at the private residence of the Koelzer family, the headquarters for western boundary bison harassment operations and site of the Duck Creek bison trap.  We knew that this was going to be a really bad day for the buffalo.  The agents returned to the south side of the Madison River most riding horses, many in trucks, assisted by the infamous helicopter that DOL agent Rob Tierney uses to direct agents and scare up buffalo.  Over our radios we could hear one agent tell Tierney that he was hazing a mom with a newborn calf that was too young, but Tierney insisted the tiny buffalo be forced to flee.  Another agent reported he had a female who’s water had just broken.  He left her, but her family was chased away.  She was left alone to give birth and vulnerable to predators without protection of the herd.  The haze proceeded.

All told, the agents hazed close to 200 buffalo from that part of Gallatin National Forest, and at least a third of them were newborn calves.   Group after group fled from the horsemen and horsewomen.  A small group of about ten buffalo with four moms with calves was trailing the larger haze and began to slow down and resist hazing. They were exhausted.  The little calves were having a very difficult time, and mothers were bluff charging the agents trying to defend their calves.  An impatient DOL agent began to fire off cracker-rounds (explosives fired from rifles) but the buffalo were too tired to move.  Tierney brought in his helicopter and flew low to try and scare them, but that didn’t work either.  Eventually, they walked slowly, their calves trying to stop and bed down, but determined to keep up with their mothers who continued to bluff-charge the agents, and as they moved onto the road, three of the four calves collapsed from exhaustion and the fourth immediately began to nurse, then it too collapsed.  BFC asked a Park Ranger to help, to call these agents off, and he did.  The riders left that small group for the day, only to return the next. The rest of the buffalo weren’t so lucky.  The haze continued off of Gallatin National Forest.  By the time it reached Highway 191, most had been driven 10-12 miles.  Relentless in their efforts, agents continued the haze deep into Yellowstone National Park, with the helicopter containing the mean and arrogant livestock agent Rob Tierney flying close, low to the ground, chasing buffalo inside the world’s first National Park.  These poor tired buffalo, with exhausted babies on their brand new little legs were forced to move yet another 7 miles.  You can read a separate account from one of our patrols that witnessed this heartbreaking experience.

DOL helicopter violates the Galanis family’s private property rights by hazing buffalo with a helicopter.  BFC file photo.  Click here for a larger image.

Yesterday, Horse Butte was attacked by the agents, and, of course, it wasn’t just the buffalo that got caught in the haze.  Shane Grube and MT Board of Livestock executive director Christian Mackay arrived first with horses, to meet up with Tierney and the helicopter that the DOL also uses to slyly “avoid” trespassing on the private property of the Galanis family who love and welcome the buffalo.  Their tactic is to use the helicopter to scare buffalo off the private land, onto the public land, where horsemen pick them up and further haze them.  As the cowboys waited, the helicopter began to haze buffalo on The Narrows Peninsula of Horse Butte, where we documented them scaring up a grizzly bear!  BFC immediately called the Forest Service, and within an hour, the Forest Service initiated a month-long closure of the area to protect the bear, who had been feeding on a buffalo carcass before he was so rudely interrupted.   Check our web site Friday for a video of this grizzly getting caught in the haze. The helicopter then flew low over the Galanis property, at times right over our heads, and scared about fifty moms and babies onto the public land where the horsemen picked them up.   As the horsemen proceeded to haze buffalo off of Horse Butte, the helicopter flew back towards Yellowstone National Park where it further hazed the buffalo that had been chased for nearly 18 miles the day before.  This was to “make room” for the buffalo that would be moved off of Horse Butte and all points along the Madison River corridor.  It was a veritable war zone throughout the ecosystem.   Filmmakers from National Geographic, who were in the area working on a documentary about spring in Yellowstone, also witnessed and filmed this harassment of America’s last wild buffalo.

DOL helicopter and horsemen chase buffalo off cattle-free public land near Duck Creek.  BFC file photo.  Click here for a larger image.

Today, agents arrived to harass wild buffalo that had migrated back onto lands within the Duck Creek corridor.   And today, there was a lot of media to witness it.  And they certainly got an eye-full.  Our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council brought regional and national media to join BFC on the front lines to bear witness firsthand.  High Country News, Montana’s Helena Independent Record and Bozeman Daily  Chronicle, Wyoming’s Powell Tribune, and the L.A. Times all saw for themselves the aggressive actions of government-funded livestock interests harassing wild buffalo.  At the beginning of the haze the agents were chasing five adult bull bison along highway 287, and while they were busy telling us to position ourselves where we couldn’t document, they neglected to warn a bicyclist – who is an area resident and business owner – that wild bull bison were running right at her.  Lucky for her, the buffalo were more interested in escaping the agents than running into her.  The media had run-ins with law enforcement, and got to see about 130 wild buffalo hazed off of cattle-free pubic land, into Yellowstone National Park by cowboys and the DOL helicopter.  Today, we witnessed as Sandhill cranes and a moose were caught up in the haze, as the helicopter and horsemen chased wild buffalo out of Montana and into the ecologically meaningless boundaries of Yellowstone National Park.   If there is a silver lining in the whole event, it’s that the buffalo did not get run through barbed wire fences, because BFC and NRDC had taken it all down.

The haze continues inside Yellowstone National Park this afternoon. We expect that agents will be out nearly every day to gather up the buffalo they lost, or those who are certain to migrate back out of Yellowstone since there’s not enough spring grass for them to eat yet.  Volunteers are exhausted, but staying the course and determined to the core to stick with the buffalo, bear witness and tell their story.  Our hearts ache for our friends as the landscape is emptied.

We have noticed something change the past couple of weeks.  Some of the non-hazing agents that monitor these operations – mostly with the Park Service – are becoming visibly fed up with the arrogant,  unnecessary and unsustainable actions of the Montana Department of Livestock.  Attitudes are changing, and because you, dear friends of the buffalo, are with us helping to keep the pressure on, the pendulum will swing and the buffalo will roam and the Montana Department of Livestock will soon lose their corrupted power over these gentle giants.

ROAM FREE!

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* “The Beast”

NOTE: Scores of baby buffalo, like this little guy, have been terrorized by the DOL’s helicopter and people young and old have painfully borne witness.  BFC file photo by Dru.

POW!!!  A circular shot from a predator’s defense mechanism.  My tribe ran forward.  Our hooves trampled brown weeds and the giant bird in the sky sounded us forward in fear.  The bird’s wings spun fast.  I was confused.  I had just learned to walk and now I was being chased by dangerous beasts.  I kept running in the direction of the forest.  As I was running, I saw a fallen tree lay out in our trail.  But I saw all of my fellow buffalo jumping it so I took their encouragement.  I ran forward, ready to jump it.  I squinted my eyes and focused on the jump.  There I went; my two front legs flung into the air followed by my back set.  My front legs landed safely along with my left back one.  My right back leg didn’t quite make it.  It smacked into the fallen tree, then all I could feel was pain slash… nothing.  I looked up and saw my tribe running away, not noticing my injury.  POW!!!!  The sound echoed in my head.  I didn’t want to move but I knew I had to if I wanted my own life.  I did want my own life, so I moved on dragging my disabled right back leg with me.  The beast bird started flying faster, making me trudge faster.  POW!!! POW!!! POW!!!  My predator appeared to be angry. Dear Reader, you’re not going to believe me but one thing I can do that no other buffalo can is read.  Yeah, yeah, that’s right:  read signs, read badges, and all.  And when I read my predator’s badge it said “D.O.L.”  D=Department.  O=of.  L=Livestock.  They were the beast.

By Brodie, Age 9

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* Summer Volunteers Needed to Spread the Word!

Buffalo Field Campaign still has a few openings for summer education and outreach volunteers.  If you can commit to spending three weeks with us, most of which will be spent inside Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, to help educate Park visitors about what’s happening to America’s last wild buffalo, please get in touch! Drop a line to volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org or call 406-646-0070 with questions or to apply.  Thank you!

——————————
* Last Words

Birth of a Buffalo:  Wildness Born Between a Fence and a Highway

BFC volunteers were blessed to witness the very rare chance to see a wild buffalo being born.  Click here to see a touching photo of a mother buffalo nuzzling her new born calf for the first time.  You can also visit our FaceBookpage to view more!

When we got the call from our fellow Mothers Day event volunteers saying that they were watching a buffalo cow give birth, I felt a familiar and unpleasant twinge of jealousy and tension; I had been coming to BFC since 1999 and had never seen a bison birth, although I had met people who were here for two days who had, along with various tourists and truck drivers I had conversed with.  Wasn’t I as entitled as them to witness the incredible beauty of nature’s miracles? Hmph.  Laughing at the persistence of infantile feelings, my partner and I loaded up our 2 year old twin boys into our embattled pickup truck and set out west on Hwy 287, planning to rendezvous with our friends and hopefully catch some of the
excitement.  “It’ll probably be over by the time we get there,” I thought. Hmph.

We came around the curve towards Red Canyon and saw a stretch of vehicles and camouflage-clad volunteers scattered along the north side of the road. As we stopped and approached on foot we also noticed there were at least a few unfamiliar faces – passerby’s with nice cars and makeup who had joined the special event.

I was  delighted when I spotted the cow and saw the first section of the amniotic sac protruding from her vulva.  I had witnessed many of my goats giving birth and this looked very familiar – I knew we had arrived at the perfect moment for spectation.

The cow paced for a bit and then dropped loudly to her haunches, grunting and snorting as she then reclined to the customary position on her side. As we watched her sides begin to undulate I was flooded with a visceral memory of my own labor:  the heat, the tension, the urgency.  We all fell silent.

Except for the kids of course, all 5 of them, who were playing and screeching in the culvert ditch behind us, adding the particular brand of poignancy that kids do to any somber or reverent moment. Soon the feet of a new baby buffalo began to show, and then the hind legs slid into view  all at once.  “Nice,” I found myself whispering. “You got that far.”

Of course, I knew that animal births tend to be much quicker and simpler by far than humans, but I couldn’t help but marvel as the little creature began to emerge section by section. “It takes about 20 minutes,” someone said.  20 minutes!

With each stage of the birth process and each accompanying gasp, “ooh,” “aah,” or other commentary from the bleachers, I began to feel closer to the individuals around me.  Many of them were people I have known and gallivanted in these valleys with for many years but hadn’t seen much of since my new incarnation as mother.  The synchronicity was not lost on us; we had gathered here for the annual Mothers Day “Free Coffee, Free Cookies, Free the Buffalo” event, a roadside outreach effort aimed at drawing attention to the bison calving season now in full swing, and the outrageous harassment the mothers and newborns face before, during, and directly after birth. There had also been a BFC board meeting earlier in the week which had brought some old friends back around.

So here we were, returning from our various busy lives, bringing kids and partners,  as well as memories that have forged their place in our hearts forever.  We had met and bonded in a place of immense power, these valleys on the outskirts of the Yellowstone caldera, and we continue to draw power form it and from each other.

Soon the whole tiny buffalo package lay wrapped on the ground , and we were cheering and the cow was taking her due rest. In moments we could see little feet twitching inside the sac, trying to break out and reach ground.

I had noticed that the other bison in the group had given the laboring mother a lot of space – it had struck me as lonely, as I remembered being surrounded by no less than seven women plus my partner throughout most of my twins’ birth.  But now that the new buffalo had arrived, the herd began to take notice, and slowly made their way over to inspect and, it seemed, to greet the newest member of the herd.  I was particularly struck by the behavior of several bulls who had been resting a little ways down the road.  I had heard that they left the area as soon as the cow began to show signs of birthing.

Now, as the baby broke out of its sac and kicked its mother for the first time, they all arose as if on cue.  Once the baby was totally free of the sac, the mother rose, licked her baby in warm greeting, and then turned to the birthing material and ate the entire placenta! The bulls walked over with singular purpose, and stood in line to take their turns licking the little one.

I was reminded of this tribe – like ritual when, in the ensuing days, we witnessed countless pregnant cows and mother-baby pairs separated from their herd, and their protection, in cruel hazing operations organized by the very government agencies designated to preserve them.

As for our roadside baby, it, like all healthy newborn bison, was ready to try out its legs within 10 minutes. There were many humorous and almost painfully cute moments as the wobbly creature took nose dives and fell on its haunches repeatedly.

But suddenly we noticed that something was wrong; as the calf fumbled it was getting closer and closer to a high tension wire livestock fence.  We feared that it would tumble through the wires and get separated from its mother, which is exactly what happened after several minutes.

We gasped communally again, but this time with fear rather than excitement.

The pair quickly realized their predicament and the cow began frantically licking her baby through the fence, trying in vain to nudge it back to her. The baby was adept enough to put its head through the wires, but the finagling that would have been necessary to squeeze through the wires proved too much for its newborn body.

In the next 20 minutes or so, almost all of the bison in the immediate vicinity came over at some point to offer their help to the distressed pair.  There was plenty of nudging, licking, and grunting from the buffalo, and nervous commentary (“Go through that one! Right there – you can do it!”) from the human crowd.

At one point two volunteers walked around the herd and opened a gate to the paddock where the calf was, in the off chance the cow may discover it. We all agreed we should not attempt to intervene further unless it went on for many hours or seemed desperate.

Underneath our nervousness I guess we must all have shared a faith, based on experience, in the brilliance and resiliency of these
animals.  And indeed the calf did eventually figure out how to wriggle its slinky body trough the wire and was soon plopped down
where it should be, pressed against its mothers side.

As we all cheered and hugged for the second victory, I knew we had experienced an incredible story and an incredible lesson.  Once again the synchronicity was overwhelming: 8 of the volunteers present that day were on their way to the final phase of the fence removal project BFC has been working on since January.  By the end of that day there was one less fence to ensnare newborn buffalo, or any other wildlife, on Hwy 287.  And so it goes, I guess, when you are privileged enough to spend your time with America’s last truly wild bison: the lessons barrel through all barriers and cannot be denied.

~ Drea

P.S.  You can view a photo album from this amazing day on BFC’s FaceBook page.

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

——————————
* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL
later that evening.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,708*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
—————————–

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY

Join Buffalo Field Campaign — It’s Free!

Tell-a-Friend

Take Action!
–

ROAM FREE!  

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 6, 2010

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——————————
* Perseverance Despite Overwhelming Odds ~ Roman Sanchez
* Update from the Field: Two Bulls Shot, Hazing Begins
* NEW VIDEO & TAKE ACTION:  APHIS Torture Testing Bull Bison
* BFC Looking for Summer Education Volunteers
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links
——————————
* Perseverance Despite Overwhelming Odds

Buffalo mother and calf.  BFC file photo by Pete Leusch.  Click here for larger image.

It is hard to believe that a decade has now passed since my family and I first planted our feet along the north bluffs of the Madison River-that migratory corridor that has seen generations of buffalo walk to find the first green life-giving shoots, and to birth the next generation of wild!  And I always find myself marveling as if I were a child again seeing this beauty for the first time. I am always amazed at how my inner self responds to the intense beauty of these riverbanks that continue to host the great choir of bird song, and that big sky so infinite above the incredible abundance below it.  It is in our natural world where I feel most alive, yet here along these banks it goes far beyond that.  It is these moments before any “management plan” has the opportunity to contaminate that we can feel all the possibility of how a landscape and ourselves are supposed to be.  I feel privileged as I walk within this wildness.  I also feel certain in saying that more of us than we suspect are screaming for this awareness that infuses our beings when we are immersed in such beauty.  And so we find ourselves here-not only standing with the buffalo, but standing with the landscape that has so captured our imaginations and souls with its infinite beauty and we say ENOUGH! This is a battle that has been waged for more than a century now!!!

In 1881 General Phil Sheridan said “If I could learn that every Buffalo in the Northern herd were killed I would be glad.  The destruction of this herd would do more to keep the Indians quiet than anything else that could happen.”  This week we saw the arrival of ATV’s, “management” men and women on horses,  SUVs and the ever disruptive helicopter as the “management plan” continues to spend tax-dollars in an attempt to stop the buffalo.  In an attempt to essentially “quiet” the Wild!  Almost 120 years later the buffalo continue to show us the true meaning of perseverance despite overwhelming odds.  It is this spirit that continues to inspire me-and this is why my family will continue to stand with this beauty; this is why BFC will continue to be the eyes and the voice for these sacred animals; this is why we need all of those who have tasted and felt this power to stand up and say “YA BASTA”-ENOUGH!

For the wild,
~ Roman

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* Update from the Field – Two Bulls Shot, Hazing Begins

It has been a very difficult week for the buffalo.  APHIS’s study has resulted in the deaths of two bulls, and hazing has begun in earnest.

Bull buffalo grazes among many family groups on Horse Butte.  BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

This Monday, the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS’s) Dr. Ryan Clarke and Becky Frey returned to the West Yellowstone area, seeking more bulls to target in their invasive study.  It seems, however, that luck of the wind and weather was on the buffalo’s side, and APHIS also didn’t enjoy being under the watchful eye of BFC volunteers.  APHIS finally left the area on Tuesday without harming any bulls here this week.  However, APHIS went back to the Gardiner area, north of Yellowstone, where they molested two bulls.  After the bulls are drugged, and their semen is stolen by APHIS, they use a reversal agent – Naltrexone – to wake them up.  This drug causes anger, anxiety and excitement as we have reported.  These two bulls woke up extremely upset, headed north to Yankee Jim Canyon – a “drop dead zone” for buffalo under the Interagency Bison Management Plan.  Yellowstone National Park attempted to haze the bulls back towards the Park, but were unsuccessful because the drugs had made them so agitated.  The Montana Department of Livestock showed up later to haze the bulls, but they also gave up and the decision was made to shoot them.  APHIS is ultimately responsible for their deaths and they are lost to the world forever.  APHIS has totally wasted these buffalo; due to the drugs they use, their flesh cannot even be consumed by humans or animals.  Please see below for a new BFC video on the APHIS study, more info, and contact information to get them to stop!

Hazing activities resumed around West Yellowstone on Tuesday.  The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) and an agent from Yellowstone National Park hazed a mixed family group of buffalo – including two newborn calves – down highway 287.  During the haze, a bull that was understandably upset took his frustration out on a calf, flipping the tiny thing over his six foot tall bulk.   Immediately following that haze, four DOL agents hazed a group of eight bull buffalo off of land near the Duck Creek trap, into Yellowstone.  Later that day, we watched as the bulls returned to that land and surrounded the Koelzer house that the agents use for their Western Boundary Operations.  Persistence! Resistance! Endurance!

Agents haze buffalo off their chosen ground on Wednesday.  BFC file photo.  Click here for larger image.

On Wednesday, there was a much larger-scale hazing operation along the south side of the Madison River, as Roman reported above.  About 100 buffalo had been on or near an unoccupied cattle ranch – which is surrounded by Gallatin National Forest and within the buffalo’s migration corridor, but forbidden for them to access even though no cattle are present.  The DOL, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest, Gallatin County Sheriff – and for the first time APHIS (Becky Frey, lead participant in the bull study) – all participated.  Donning their cowboy attire they used horses and helicopter to push buffalo through barbed wire fence, marshy willow areas, and thick forest.  Close to a third of the buffalo caught in the haze were newborn calves.  Agents were out again today to push more buffalo off of their chosen ground.

Interestingly, save for the bulls near Duck Creek, none of these hazing operations forced buffalo all the way into Yellowstone.  We have been told by Yellowstone National Park officials that the Park has not had significant green-up yet, so they have asked that the DOL wait.  But they won’t wait long.  We anticipate that the so-called big push will commence next week and all the buffalo that are in Montana will be aggressively chased deep into Yellowstone.  Calves and pregnant mothers, and all other buffalo, will be run for many long miles off of the lands that are their birthright.  These efforts – paid for with U.S. tax dollars – are undertaken to protect the selfish interests of a couple private cattle ranchers even though no cattle are presently in the area.

While these unjustified actions are taken against native wild buffalo year after year, we are seeing changes in attitudes  – in some government agencies as well as local citizenry – that will ultimately bring about the end of such mistreatment.  It is your support that allows us to be here with the buffalo, and gives us the ability to stand witness and show the world what is happening.  Endless pressure, endlessly applied!

ROAM FREE!

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* NEW VIDEO & TAKE ACTION:  APHIS Torture Testing Bull Bison

Please watch Buffalo Field Campaign’s new video, USDA-APHIS Torture Testing Bull Bison for Brucellosis.

Thirty nine bull buffalo have been targeted in APHIS’s study.  Two of these buffalo were shot dead on Tuesday, hours after APHIS “studied” them (see above).   Buffalo Field Campaign’s Mike and Tony have created a new video to show you what APHIS has been putting these bulls through.  It is a stark display of abuse, totally unnecessary and the study’s results will not benefit wild bison in any way.  Because of the tragic incident that caused the two bulls in Gardiner to be shot, and other serious concerns about how the drugs are affecting bull buffalo behavior which BFC has documented, it is possible that IBMP agencies will press for the study to be over.  There are obvious concerns about how the drugs APHIS is using is unnecessarily causing aggression in the bulls.  Further, BFC has witnessed that bulls who were in family or bull groups have not returned to those groups after being victimized by APHIS.  The bulls also seem clearly humiliated and atypically fearful, as the photo of this young bull hiding from us indicates.

Please contact the lead participants in this APHIS bull bison study and tell them to stop molesting bull bison!
1.  Dr. Ryan Clarke:  patrick.r.clarke@aphis.usda.gov / 406-388-5162
2.  Becky Frey, Dr. Clarke’s Assistant:  rebecca.k.frey@aphis.usda.gov / 406-522-7770
3.  Continue contacting APHIS Veterinary Services urging them to cease this study!

Please share this video and other BFC footage posted on YouTube with everyone you know to help raise awareness and defend the last wild buffalo!  Thank you!

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* BFC Looking for Summer Education Volunteers

Buffalo Field Campaign still has a few openings for summer education and outreach volunteers.  If you can commit to spending three weeks with us, most of which will be spent inside Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, to help educate Park visitors about what’s happening to America’s last wild buffalo, please get in touch! Drop a line to volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org or call 406-646-0070 with questions or to apply.  Thank you!

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* Last Words

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you’ll see them here!

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* Kill Tally

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2009-2010 Total: 6

2009-2010 Slaughter: 0
2009-2010 Hunt: 4
2009-2010 Quarantine: 0
2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2*
2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0
*Two bulls were shot by DOL 5/4/10 and had been drugged by APHIS earlier the same day.

2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,706*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality
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Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

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ROAM FREE!!