Groups take out Helena billboard, criticize bison hunt near Yellowstone National Park Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and Twitter. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. The Daily Montanan, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. “The truth is that the population has to be managed whether people like it or not. “Yellowstone does not control or manage hunting outside the park,” he said. However, Sholly said that tribal treaty rights and the State of Montana can choose what happens to bison after they leave the park, and that includes allowing them to be hunted in whatever ways are deemed legal. Since then, the number has fallen to less than 100 per year, Sholly said. “Fundamentally, I have a major issue with sending bison to slaughter,” Sholly said.įrom 2013 to 2019, more than 3,100 bison were sent to slaughter. However, that process can take as long as three years per animal because it has to be ruled disease free repeatedly. Sholly also pushed back on the criticism of sending animals to slaughter, noting the park has spent more than $1 million recently expanding its quarantine facility that will help prepare bison for export to tribes. The agencies said the bison could withstand from 12% to 25% reduction to keep the herd stable and genetically diverse. Reporting through the interagency website estimates that 9% of the bison are predicted to die due to the harsh winter. The Interagency Bison Management Plan consists of park officials, the state of Montana and tribal nations, which vary in their opinions on how many bison should be taken in any given season. “This year, we’ve seen a substantial number of hunters exercising their treaty rights,” Sholly said. This year, the number has risen to more than 900. The number of bison taken this season, though, remains much higher than average. “It’s a social and a political issue, but we’re restrained to our zone.” “I appreciate the concern and advocacy of these organizations,” Sholly told the Daily Montanan. Sholly said the intent is to release them back into the park in later spring. Nearly 1,000 animals have been removed from the bison population this year, but Sholly said that number includes 375 that have been removed and held to stop them from roaming outside of the park, where they can be vulnerable to hunting. Sholly said what happens to the bison that wander out of the park or several other special zones is up to the states and tribes. “The so-called ‘hunt’ is just another tool to achieve what livestock interests want – to keep wild bison out of Montana,” the organizations said jointly in a press release. Roam Free Nation and Alliance for the Wild Rockies have criticized a firing-line style hunt where bison are shot when they roam outside of the boundaries. Animals in that program are quarantined for as long as three years before they’re released. Yellowstone National Park has recently set up a historic protocol that allows a regimented quarantine protocol for bison bulls and cows to prove they’re free from brucellosis and other diseases, and then given to a program that gives the animals to tribes that are starting their own bison programs. Sholly also points to a huge number of animals being diverted from slaughter recently, in an effort to lower those numbers to put the animals into a conservation management program. He said that many times, the bison are able to forage for food within the boundaries of the park, but icy, cold and snowy weather has forced the herds to move. Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly said this winter has been especially difficult for the bison population, which has migrated north out of the park and into Montana, seeking food. This winter especially difficult for bison population When the bison, which roam freely, move outside of the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park or outside of a few designated zones outside of the park, they can be killed either through hunting, managed by Native American tribes with treaty rights, or managed by state wildlife officials. However, the bison population has swollen to more than 6,000 bison recently, and more than 1,600 have been removed by several methods, but not all of them have been slaughtered or hunted, park officials said.
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