Montana is challenging the new management plan
By Darrell Ehrlick, DAILY MONTANAN
The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, along with four other groups, have asked a federal court judge to let them intervene in a lawsuit that the State of Montana filed against Yellowstone National Park, challenging its latest bison management plan.
Previously, the State of Montana said that park officials and biologists had reneged on an agreement to keep the number of bison in the park lower, thereby decreasing the risk of spreading brucellosis to cattle producers in the Treasure State.
However, the groups and the tribes contend that further development and decisions during the last decade have meant fewer cattle that are exposed to the bison, and that the park has adopted extensive plans to vaccinate and monitor the herds for any potential disease threat.
Meanwhile, the tribes say that Montana’s actions, especially its desire to reduce the number of bison in the Yellowstone National Park herds, jeopardizes their tribal treaty hunting rights, hinders their ability to feed their families, and limits their ability to help other Indigenous peoples from bison, which many Native Americans regard as sacred.
Since 2013, the bison population has ebbed and flowed, usually between 4,400 and 5,900 animals, with an average around 5,000.
“As of Spring 2008, all cattle that once grazed on private and public lands in the Reese Creek area adjacent to the Park’s north boundary and west of the Yellowstone River were voluntarily removed,” the complaint said. “And, in 2009, (Montana) Fish, Wildlife and Parks signed a 30-year livestock grazing restriction and bison access agreement with the Royal Teton Ranch within Zone 2. Various government and non-government organizations, including proposed intervenor Greater Yellowstone Coalition, contributed funds to implement the agreement by purchasing grazing allotment buyouts and land leases to remove potential cattle conflicts from the landscape.”
The groups claim that Montana is trying to force the park and the intra-agency bison management partners back to the plan that is now a quarter century old.
“Montana asks this court to invalidate the Yellowstone Bison Management Plan, enjoin the service from implementing its adaptive management approach and revert to rigid implementation of the 25-year-old (plan) based on obsolete circumstances and assumptions,” the lawsuit said.
The proposed intervention also said that Montana’s actions jeopardize the tribes’ ability to exercise their rights.
“The (plan) allows for a larger buffalo population than envisioned in the 2000 (plan),” the court filing said. “This affords the Fort Peck Indian Tribes greater opportunity to recover Plains bison on their tribal lands in which tribal members can hunt their buffalo for food sovereignty and cultural resources.”
The court documents show that more than 400 Yellowstone bison have been transferred to 26 different Native American tribes, and all the animals were certified brucellosis free. The tribes and other groups, which included GYC, Defenders of Wildlife, National Parks Conservation Association and Park County Environmental Council, also told the court they have collectively raised more than $1 million for the park’s quarantine facility, which helps keep bison for transfer to tribes, rather than slaughter.
Plus, the groups say that Montana continues to operate against Yellowstone Park, based solely on the threat of the disease, something that is also not borne out by science and research.
“If Montana prevails on its legal claims, bison management could revert to past circumstances in which thousands of bison were killed by agency officials without any legitimate justification of preventing brucellosis to cattle,” the suit said.
