We left the shore of Lake Hebgen, Montana, and drove up a
dirt road toward a compound of buildings at the edge of a forest. A large log
cabin, several outlying cabins and teepees and numerous vehicles occupied the
clearing with a view of the lake.
We were there to spend a day with the Buffalo Field
Campaign, a grassroots group of activists working to protect America’s last
wild buffalo. We’d discovered the group years ago in Yellowstone and have
supported them ever since. The scent of
soup wafted from the kitchen and a dog snoozed on a broken-down couch as
introductions were made and we were given a tour of the premises.
Sleeping lofts were built into the rafters of the rooms to
accommodate the volunteers who live here year round. A gear room held rows of
heavy winter boots and jackets and other equipment needed for winter forays on
skis. In the media cabin with its computers and phones, an art instructor from
Manhattan worked on the graphics for the newsletter and a piece of paper taped
to the wall noted recent media contacts: a German film crew, Nat Geo, a local
TV station. We met Mike Mease, BFC’s affable co-founder, who told us about
recent operations.
Unknown to most tourists who visit Yellowstone and snap
photos of buffalo jams on the roads is the fact that the Yellowstone herd
consists of the last remaining wild buffalo in the United States, a genetic
remnant of the great herds that once darkened the plains and were all but
extinct by the beginning of the 20th century. Also unknown to most
is that in the winter, when the tourists are gone and buffalo migrate to their
traditional grazing grounds outside park boundaries, they are slaughtered by
the hundreds.
And in the spring, at the peak of calving season, the
wandering herds are hazed back into the park by helicopter, ATV and riders on
horseback, across busy road
s and through forests thick with fallen trees, in
operations financed by citizens’ tax dollars. The reason, as with most issues
in the U.S., is economic: the powerful cattle interests in Montana view bison
as competition for grass, even though cattle and bison don’t even occupy land
at the same time. Unable to survive the brutal winters, cattle are trucked out in
the cold months and returned to the area in June, when buffalo have returned to
graze within park boundaries.
The official excuse is brucellosis, a disease infecting much
of the local wildlife, which causes cattle to abort their calves. The disease
originated in cattle and there has never been a case of its transmission by
buffalo. Elk frequently are infected, but they are free to wander, being
a valuable hunting commodity.
Little more than a scare tactic, brucellosis was enough for
ranchers to convince Montana to place the regulation of wild buffalo under the
Department of Livestock, rather than wildlife. DOL continues the hazing,
capture and killing, working by mutual agreement in concert with the National
Park Service to contain these naturally migrating animals within the confines
of the national park.
BFC volunteers – there have been over 5,000 since the group
began in 1997 – monitor the buffalo year-round, videotaping hazing operations,
informing the public and even coaxing errant animals back to the safety of the
park, strapping on skis in the pre-dawn darkness of winter, when temperatures
can plummet to -50. Their passion and dedication have drawn support from
Patagonia and celebrities like Bob Barker, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, who
have donated clothing, vehicles and computer equipment.
With dark clouds gathering overhead, five of us, including a
newly-arrived volunteer from Santa Cruz, CA, went out on patrol, our driver adroitly
steering the Subaru around deep ruts of Forest Service roads. We encountered a
small herd of buffalo cows and calves who’d wandered back outside park boundaries
and probably faced hazing the next day. The DOL had been free to round up
buffalo on private land despite homeowners’ wishes, until the governor issued a
directive this spring that prohibited such activity without permission. (For more information, click here.)
We took a stack of BFC newsletters and spent the rest of our
Yellowstone stay distributing them to fellow campers and visitors, doing our
small part toward telling the tale of the buffalo.
Other iconic wildlife face an uncertain future. The grizzly
population is up, and the Wyoming governor has prevailed on legislators to
delist the bear from protected status. Wolves
were delisted by the federal government in 2011. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming all
encourage the hunting of once-protected wolves who stray beyond park boundaries.
Often they are the collared wolves that have been providing biologists insight
into the ways of their clan. Hunt limits have increased.
Indeed the glory days
of the wolves, reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, are past, their population
down 50% since the days when we first witnessed the famed Druid pack of Lamar
Valley. Hunting, disease and decreasing prey are all at fault and ranchers play
a highly vocal role. Public lands that
belong to us all provide cheap livestock feed for those who raise domestic
animals. Economics takes priority over the creatures that call the wild lands
home. We feel fortunate to be viewing these animals while we can.
Last of the Yellowstone photos:https://plus.google.com/photos/115498465022511925235/albums/6024533520930525105
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