The bad news is that about a third of the herd were killed by the Montana Department of Livestock -- with assistance from the National Park Service -- during the winter of 2007-08 when they ventured outside the park boundary in search of food. Why? The Department of Livestock claims that the buffalo could transmit a disease called brucellosis to cattle in the area.

NRDC argues that slaughtering bison violates the National Park Service's mandate to protect park resources for future generations. There are no documented cases of cattle contracting brucellosis from Yellowstone buffalo, and all cattle in the vicinity have been vaccinated against the disease. Moreover, the buffalo population level should be controlled naturally by wolf and grizzly bear predation, not interference from state and federal government agencies.

NRDC maintains that Montana and federal agencies must protect the herd and allow it to do what it does naturally: roam.

During the winter of 1996-97, the Montana Department of Livestock invoked the threat of brucellosis to justify killing 1,084 buffalo that wandered out of Yellowstone to search for food at lower elevations. At that time, the National Park Service estimated the park's buffalo population at 3,500.

The winter of 2007-08 was far worse for the buffalo. Not since the latter part of the 19th century were so many buffalo killed in one season. Montana and the National Park Service killed about 1,600 buffalo, and severe winter conditions and a late spring resulted in the death of hundreds more animals. A 2008 Park Service count estimated that as few as 2,300 buffalo are left -- less than half the size of the herd before that winter began.

NRDC says the rationale for killing buffalo now is even less credible than it was in 1996 for the following reasons:

• Cattle ranchers do not use most of the area around Yellowstone during the winter that the buffalo need for winter habitat.



• Even in summer, when the buffalo are in the park, there are only about 200 head of cattle grazing in the affected area. No cattle in the area have been infected with brucellosis.



• Some Yellowstone elk and other wildlife are infected with brucellosis, but they are free to wander in and out of the park, despite the fact that they could transmit the disease to cattle. This double standard makes it clear that brucellosis is not the driving force behind buffalo control, but rather is being used as a weapon in Montana's ongoing feud against the federal government's role in wildlife management.

While the threat of brucellosis from buffalo has been wildly exaggerated, the benefits of protecting the herd have largely been ignored. Buffalo play a critical role supporting the health of grassland ecosystems. Their hooves keep grasses healthy by breaking up roots and dead vegetation, and recycling nutrients in the soil. They also provide an important food source for imperiled wolves and bears. Recovery of the threatened Yellowstone bear population could be set back if buffalo numbers are reduced significantly, according to the federal Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

Buffalo also have a celebrated history. At one time, they were an integral part of the culture and history of the American West, and central to the lives and religion of Native American tribes. In the early 19th century, several million buffalo roamed the Great Plains, but by the mid-1890s, only a few dozen remained. The near extinction of the buffalo prompted the creation of one of the first conservation groups in the country, the American Bison Society, founded in 1905. The society bought private buffalo herds and helped purchase rangeland to provide buffalo habitat.

Yellowstone National Park is the only place in America that has continuously provided habitat for wild, free-roaming buffalo. The park provided sanctuary to 23 buffalo that survived the mass eradication in the 19th century. Today the Yellowstone herd comprises the largest remaining population of genetically pure bison, and the species' recovery from near extinction is considered one of the greatest conservation success stories in American history.

In November 2000, a number of state and federal agencies established the Interagency Bison Management Plan to protect cattle from brucellosis and buffalo from slaughter. The plan accomplished the first goal, but not the second. The plan calls for the Montana Department of Livestock -- as well as the Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service -- to capture, vaccinate and release the buffalo that wander outside of the park. But because in late 2007 the number of buffalo exceeded the 3,000 that scientists estimate the park can support, the Department of Livestock has killed buffalo after capturing them. Under the plan, about 3,600 buffalo have been killed since 2000.

There is a better way to manage Montana's herd without resorting to killing buffalo. NRDC recommends that state and federal authorities:

• Allow buffalo to utilize public lands west of Yellowstone Park in the Horse Butte area where cattle have been removed, and private lands where landowners support buffalo.



• Allow buffalo to roam freely on the easement lands purchased by the U.S. Forest Service from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious group that owns 7,800 acres of prime buffalo winter habitat outside the park. The Forest Service specifically bought this land for buffalo habitat.



• Phase out cattle grazing on additional public land north and west of Yellowstone in potential winter habitat for Yellowstone buffalo.



• Revise the interagency buffalo management plan to promote the protection rather than slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo.

last revised 5.01.08