June 3, 2016 Comments are off Montana Stockgrowers Association
Share:

Governor Gets Final Say in Year Round Bison in Montana

Source: Northern Ag Network

If the Montana Department of Livestock and the Fish Wildlife and Parks can’t come to agreement on an issue of bison management, the governor gets to decide is the advice that the Montana Attorney General’s office is giving the Board of Livestock (BOL).  In this case, it means that Yellowstone Park bison will get to be in Montana year round.
In April, the BOL had received a letter from the governor stating that since they had been unable to come to agreement with the Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) regarding a management change to the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IMBP) to allow year round tolerance for bison in West Yellowstone and Gardiner, the governor would make the final decision and sign for them.

The BOL followed up to the Montana Attorney General’s Office, requesting a legal opinion regarding the legal roles of the agencies and the govenor in deciding the bison tolerance zone.  The AG’s office has responded with a confirmation of the Governor’s statement, that “on bison management issues, the two departments, Department of Livestock and FWP, must cooperate, and any management conflicts are resolved by the Governor.”
Mike Honeycutt, Executive Officer of the Department of Livestock outlined the AG’s response.  “The Department of Livestock has powers and duties to manage bison when they present a disease risk.  The Fish Wildlife and Parks has responsibility to manage wild bison when are not a disease risk.  If there is any potential for disease risk, FWP is supposed to cooperate with the Department of Livestock in that respect.”

“At the end of the day, if those two agencies can’t to come to an agreement on precise points of policy and how to get things done, the governor, as the executive of the state, has the power to make the decision for the agencies, tell them that this is where the lines are going to be and this is how each agency is going to carry out its legal responsibility around that decision that the governor has made,” Honeycutt said.
“I know that may not be an answer a lot of people in our industry want to hear.  I think they might have wanted to hear that the park boundary is the park boundary and that’s where we are supposed to push bison to,” acknowledged Honeycutt.

The BOL also asked for help to clarify the department’s responsibilities in bison management in the new tolerance zone.  The AG’s office responded that the state statutes in place are very clear.  Whether the border is the park boundaries or the new tolerance zone, the DOL’s job is to prevent disease transmission from the bison to cattle.

Honeycutt explained, “Our job, at this point from the Department of Livestock, is where maybe the old boundary was pushing all bison back to the park, our job now making sure that bison stay in the zones where they have tolerance and that our employees are keeping the separation between them and the cattle herds that will be grazing for the summer.

Honeycutt said “We are still in the position of making sure we maintain separation between potentially diseased bison and where cattle herds will be operating at.”

“We do not want potentially diseased bison occupying, in any shape or form, the same space that’s going to be occupied by summer grazing cattle.”

CLICK HERE to read a copy of the letter from the Attorney General’s office

February 23, 2016 Comments are off Montana Stockgrowers Association
Share:

MSGA Comments on Yellowstone National Park Quarantine Facility

 

 

Yellowstone National Park has recently released an Environmental Assessment to develop a bison quarantine facility on the Fort Peck Reservation. MSGA has reviewed this document and it is our determination that the proposal lacks any factual cost estimates, scientific rigor or even the number of bison that would enter into the facility. MSGA will continue to influence this issue on behalf of the ranching community as brucellosis remains a major concern for our industry and the state of Montana. Our full formal comments and recommendations to Superintendent Dan Wenk are linked below.

The comment period was extended through February 29, 2016; we encourage our members to submit comments through YNP’s website. Please contact the MSGA office or [email protected] with any questions or concerns

2016 YNP Bison Quarantine Comments

 

April 15, 2011 Comments are off Montana Stockgrowers Association
Share:

MSGA works to ensure ranchers’ voices are heard on bison management

Helena – On April 14, the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA) attended an open house in Gardiner, Mont. hosted by the Interagency Bison Management Plan partners to discuss their “adaptive management adjustments” that would allow bison to roam freely outside of Yellowstone National Park in the Gardiner basin. A formal agreement on the adjustments was finalized by the partners with no input from the local citizens or area ranchers who would be affected. MSGA’s Executive Vice President, Errol Rice, and chairman of MSGA’s Cattle Health Committee, Dr. Dick Raths, attended the open house to ensure Montana ranchers’ voices were heard on the issue. Several area ranchers joined with many local concerned citizens to voice their disapproval of the plan.
Rice toured the Gardiner area earlier in the day to see first-hand the effect of the bison.
“What we really saw was chaos on the ground with a tremendous amount of bison out in the greater Gardiner basin area and what appeared to be a real lack of leadership by the Interagency Bison Management Plan partners,” Rice said.
Rice said further that although MSGA understands the IBMP partners’ desire to adapt their management, their lack of transparency leaves ranchers very concerned. While the partners hosted an open house, they did not release the plan prior to the meeting or give a forum for public comment on the plan.
“They are really on shaky ground because they have no support from Montana ranchers or the ranching community at this point, due to their lack of transparency and accountability to our concerns with the issue,” Rice said. “Montana ranchers do have a lot at stake with the brucellosis issue and we’ve sacrificed a lot already.”
Rice said that based on viewing the situation first-hand and attending the open house, MSGA is opposed to the adjustments for the Gardiner basin.
“We are not only asking the IBMP partners to revoke this Gardiner basin adaptive management plan, but to also demonstrate leadership and ensure ranchers voices are being heard on this,” Rice said.