Upcoming IBMP Meetings

Upcoming IBMP Meetings

Is allowing more tolerance for diseased bison the right thing to do in our current brucellosis crisis?

by Errol Rice, MSGA Executive Vice President

At a time when Montana needs to be extra cautious about brucellosis, I find it a bit perplexing that the Interagency Bison Management Plan partners are working hard to allow more tolerance for diseased bison outside Yellowstone National Park. Our State Veterinarian has released a complicated Brucellosis Action Plan with excessive and onerous surveillance and testing requirements for areas around Yellowstone National Park, yet he is so far willing to accept the idea of 300, or possibly more, untested bison on Horse Butte near West Yellowstone.

The IBMP partners –State Veterinarian Marty Zaluski and Board of Livestock Executive Officer Christian McKay of the Department of Livestock; Jerry Diemer, associate regional director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service; Mary Erickson, Gallatin National Forest supervisor; Pat Flowers, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region 3 supervisor; and Suzanne Lewis, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park—have met four times over the past few months to discuss their operating actions for the upcoming bison management season. This year has marked a departure from years past as the group is using “adaptive management” to change many of the IBMP’s prescriptions. Most notably, discussions so far have included the tolerance of several hundred head of untested bison on Horse Butte, more tolerance for bull bison on a year round basis, using capture and slaughter as a “last resort,” and changing the May 15 deadline to a “more flexible benchmark.”

We at MSGA have a number of questions for the partners:

1. Do these changes really fall under “Adaptive Management” or are they amendments to the 2000 Record of Decision for the IBMP?

2. What National or Montana Environmental Protection Act compliance or analysis will these changes require? Will the public be given a chance to comment on the proposed changes before they are enacted?

3. From a disease management perspective, what justification does the Montana State Veterinarian have to allow potential increased exposure to brucella outside Yellowstone National Park in the west boundary area?

4. Has the Montana State Veterinarian shared this proposal with other state vets, the Western States Veterinary Association or the U.S. Animal Health Association? What is their reaction or position? Will this proposal result in additional restrictions or sanctions on movement of Montana livestock in interstate markets?

Please plan to join MSGA at one or more of the upcoming meetings of the IBMP partners. The consequences of their decisions will affect us all and we need to remind the IBMP partners what is at stake.

Upcoming Meetings:

October 15, noon to 5 p.m., Oct. 16, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Location: Helena, State Capitol, Room 172, hosted by the Montana Department of Livestock. For more information, contact Steve Merritt, ([email protected]), (406) 444-9431.

November 5, noon to 5 p.m., Nov. 6, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Location: Chico Hot Springs, Pray, Mont. Hosted by USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service. For more information contact Lyndsay Griffin ([email protected]), (970) 494-7410.

December 17, noon to 5 p.m., Dec. 18 8:30 a.m. to noon. Location: Bozeman, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Regional Office, 1400 South 19th. Hosted by Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. For more information contact Mel Frost ([email protected]), (406) 994-6931.

(This article was published in the October 10, 2008 Montana Stockgrower Update.)