June 3, 2016 Comments are off Montana Stockgrowers Association
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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

April 7, 2016 Comments are off Montana Stockgrowers Association
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MSGA continues to oppose Bison Expansion | concerns left unaddressed

Governor’s bison plan OK’d; will reduce hazing near Yellowstone

Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle

WEST YELLOWSTONE — State, federal and tribal agencies agreed on Wednesday to adopt the governor’s plan to allow some bison to stay in Montana year-round, a move officials say will reduce bison hazing done each year near West Yellowstone.

The change will let a certain number of bison stay year-round on Horse Butte near West Yellowstone and north to the Buck Creek drainage, located just south of Big Sky, without being chased back into Yellowstone National Park. The decision also calls for year-round tolerance for male bison north of Gardiner into Yankee Jim Canyon.

At an Interagency Bison Management Plan meeting here, none of the tribal or federal agencies objected to the governor’s December decision, meaning the plan has essentially been approved.

“This a day to be celebrated,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional supervisor Sam Sheppard.

The change comes as an amendment to the 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan, which specifies procedures and population goals for the nearly 5,000 bison that live in the Yellowstone region.

Some tolerance for the animals had already existed outside of the park, but the governor’s decision adds significantly more land to the tolerance zone on the west side, where bison had been hazed back each year.

The decision sets seasonal limits on the number of bison allowed to remain west of the park — 450 from September through February, 600 from March through June, 250 in July and August. When bison numbers exceed that, the state could chase them back across into Yellowstone.

Those figures reflect the number of bison officials expect to see outside of the park in each season. They expect many of the bison that come out in the spring will migrate back into Yellowstone on their own before July, meaning they wouldn’t need to be hazed. Sheppard said the decision “allows bison to do the work for us.”

The decision doesn’t eliminate hazing. Bison still won’t be allowed near the South Fork of the Madison River, so after May 15 they will be chased to either the tolerance zone border or the park border, whichever is closer.

Hazing would still happen on the north side of Yellowstone each year, starting May 1. The decision only allows male bison to roam north to Yankee Jim Canyon year-round, not females.

Female bison raise concerns for livestock producers during the spring calving season because of the disease brucellosis, which can cause cattle to miscarry. The disease is transmitted through afterbirth, and more than half of Yellowstone’s female bison are believed to have been exposed to it. No case of bison transmitting the disease in the wild has been documented.

Still, hazing is one way the IBMP tries to eliminate the risk of disease transmission.

Montana Department of Livestock state veterinarian Marty Zaluski said if there is a mixed group of male and female bison that are in that area, officials won’t attempt to sort the male bison out.

“If there’s a mixed group, then that group will go back,” Zaluski said.

“We’re not in the business of sorting bison,” added Rob Tierney, bison program manager for the Department of Livestock.

Sheppard said that by that time, most bison have usually left the Gardiner Basin for lands inside the park anyway.

Tom MacDonald, fish and wildlife division manager of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said the plan to expand tolerance was a “logical step forward in managing bison.”

Environmental groups and buffalo advocates were pleased with the partner agencies giving the plan a thumbs up Wednesday. During the public comment portion of the meeting, representatives of a few groups thanked the IBMP partner agencies. But it isn’t the end of the fight for them.

“We hope this decision drives further advancements for Yellowstone bison, which unfortunately continue to be shipped to slaughter when they leave the park in search of food in the winter,” Stephanie Adams of the National Parks Conservation Association said in a statement.

On the other side, Jay Bodner, natural resource director for the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said his group still opposes the governor’s decision. He said they worry that budgets for FWP and the Department of Livestock will be stressed by increasing how much land bison can use since it might require more on-the-ground work. He is also concerned that government officials will ask for even more tolerance in Montana, rather than reducing the number of bison in the region.

“I don’t think our concerns have been addressed,” Bodner said in an interview.

The agencies involved are currently working on a new Interagency Bison Management Plan, and a draft is expected out sometime this year.

Over the next few days, the current plan will be amended to include the governor’s proposals. Each agency involved is expected to formally sign off on the changes later this month, after which the document will be posted online.

© Copyright 2016 Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 2820 West College Bozeman, MT