TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/012891/0128330.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6.0 KB | 127 lines

                                                                                ENVIRONMENT, Page 96

O Give Them a Home


In the lands where the buffalo roam, cattlemen clash with
protesters over slaughtering Yellowstone's wanderers

By NANCY GIBBS -- Reported by Patrick Dawson/Billings


    Among their inalienable, God-given, federally guaranteed
rights, Montana cattlemen claim the privilege of grazing their
herds on public lands from June through October, while they
grow hay for winter feed on their own spreads. Thus is born
each year a battle between ranchers, environmentalists and
state officials over how to manage the wild animals that roam
out of Yellowstone Park, deplete the forage and interfere with
the cattle grazing on the surrounding public lands. Last week
the battle raged in the courts, as animal-rights activists lost
-- at least for now -- a fight to block another season of
slaughter of the very symbol of the U.S. Department of the
Interior: the American bison.

    Each winter bison, elk and other wildlife wander out of the
park in search of food, and each winter they risk being shot
on sight. Since 1985 the killings have been sanctioned by state
officials under pressure from ranchers to protect the local
cattle industry that relies on the public lands around the
park. The huge, shaggy bison not only can damage fences; about
half the Yellowstone herd is also thought to carry brucellosis,
an infectious disease that can cause cows to abort their
calves. Montana cattle have been certified brucellosis-free
since 1983, but ranchers fear that if the sick bison infect
their herds, the result could be quarantine, slaughter and
economic ruin.

    But the policy of hunting down the stray bison has been a
public relations disaster. Of the park's 2,700 bison, 700 were
killed by last spring, and an additional 11 have been slain
this winter. The hunt is hardly sporting, protesters claim,
since the Yellowstone bison have been conditioned not to view
humans as enemies. "These animals are used to the click of the
camera, not the crack of the rifle," argued Wayne Pacelle,
national director of the Fund for Animals, in an editorial in
USA Today. "When the hunters approach, the animals don't flee.
They merely stare at their bloodthirsty executioners." Last
year three antihunting protesters were arrested and charged
with attacking hunters and game wardens with cross-country ski
poles.

    Such tactics have raised the hackles of Montanans, who do
not take kindly to outside interference by what Ron Marlenee,
a Republican U.S. Representative, calls "Eastern tinhorn
snake-oil salesmen." Marlenee has introduced legislation in
Congress that would prohibit interference with the bison
hunters on public land. A similar bill failed to pass during
the last session.

    On the other side, the Fund for Animals filed suit in
federal court seeking an injunction against the hunt. The
protesters contended that there was no proof that Yellowstone
bison are a danger to livestock. The strain of brucellosis
found in bison may not be virulent enough to pose a significant
risk to domestic cattle. "They're making policy without data,"
charges biologist and bison researcher Jay Kirkpatrick. Says
Pacelle: "If people want to graze cattle on the Yellowstone
ecosystem, they need to assume some limited risk."

    Last week a U.S. district judge in Montana rejected such
arguments and denied the request by the Fund for Animals to
stop the bison hunt. Citing the threat that brucellosis
infection will spread to cattle, Judge Charles Lovell
maintained that "hunting is a time-honored avocation and a
legitimate and recognized method of animal control." The Fund
for Animals promptly filed an appeal.

    Jim Peterson, executive vice president of the Montana
Stockgrowers Association, points out that a state regulation
requires animals infected with brucellosis to be quarantined
and slaughtered. "We have to move quickly and sensibly to
disarm a potential time bomb," he wrote in a published
statement. "No one likes the thought of killing buffalo, but
rarely has the control of disease been pleasant."

    Many ranchers feel that the threat from contaminated
wildlife is a government problem but complain that federal
policy has just made matters worse. They argue that
Yellowstone's herds of elk and bison are overpopulating and
overgrazing the park's ranges and forage base and that park
managers are doing nothing to control the problem -- all in the
name of natural management. "The National Park Service is
causing damage by letting nature take its course," charges
rancher Pete Story. "Only through management by man can the
park be kept in a natural state. Our fear is not nature; it's
what government does about it."

    The goal for both sides should be a flexible plan designed
to keep wildlife and livestock herds apart. One recommendation
calls for restricting cattle grazing on public lands during the
high-risk months, closing some public grazing lands altogether
and creating a livestock-free zone around the park. There are
also humane, if artificial, ways of controlling the herds, such
as using cattle dogs to keep the bison in the park. Cattlemen
oppose a plan to reintroduce wolves to the Yellowstone
ecosystem to help restore a natural predator for the bison on
the ground that the wolves would soon be preying on cattle
herds.

    State representative Bob Raney plans to introduce a bill in
the Montana legislature that would suspend bison-hunting
licenses until a joint state-federal study on the problem is
completed. "My problem at this point," says Raney, "is that
we're killing off American bison without knowing if there is
an alternative to killing them. I know what we've done up to
this point is not proper." Especially considering that the
victims are direct descendants of the 20 bison that originally
sought refuge in the park and thereby survived the 19th
century slaughter that all but eliminated the species from
North America.