TIME: Almanac 1995

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ TIME: Almanac 1995 / TIME Almanac 1995.iso / time / 012891 / 0128330.000 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-03-25 | 6.3 KB | 133 lines

<text id=91TT0177> <title> Jan. 28, 1991: O Give Them A Home </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991 Jan. 28, 1991 War In The Gulf </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> ENVIRONMENT, Page 96 O Give Them a Home </hdr><body> 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. </body></article> </text>