Our mile-long morning ski is lit by the moon. The tracks of earlier patrols are hardly visible, but somehow our skis follow along as if they know the way themselves. We take a few sweeping strides and shoot over the ridge. As we fly through the darkness, we take all the speed we can from the hill and glide a good way across the open valley. We find the all-night patrol sitting around the fire watching the buffalo who walked out of the park as they sleep near the capture pen, which the DOL has baited with irresistibly sweet-smelling hay. Some of the buffalo stand up and eye us warily. Finally they lie down again in their snow hollows or swish snow aside with their huge heads to get to the grass below.
So far this winter over 100 buffalo have left Yellowstone National Park in search of grasses at lower elevations near West Yellowstone, Montana. But whenever buffalo step over the invisible park boundary, they are chased, captured or gunned down by the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL). Based on an unsubstantiated fear that bison might transmit the disease brucellosis to cattle, the DOL is determined to annihilate the last wild herd of buffalo in the lower 48 states.
Two winters ago, the DOL and the National Park Service killed nearly 1,100 buffalo. Now, the DOL is poised to repeat this slaughter; and a band of activists from around the world have come to Buffalo Nations determined to prevent it. Volunteers have been working around the clock to keep the buffalo from meeting an untimely fate at the hands of the DOL.
With a budget tripled since last year, the DOL has been out in force this winter, chasing buffalo back into the park and disrupting wildlife migration patterns. Repeatedly, buffalo have been herded for miles through deep snow and barbed-wire fences at a time of year when they need to conserve their energy. This is especially dangerous for pregnant females.
The DOL's activities are also causing the harassment of other migratory wildlife in this ecosystem. In a massive bison hazing operation on December 8, a DOL snowmobiler caused a herd of over 100 elk to stampede. One panicked elk flipped over a fence and landed on its head.
Buffalo Nations volunteers were ready on January 7 when events took a turn for the worse. The DOL used hay to lure 11 buffalo out of the park and into the capture facility. Unbeknownst to DOL security, a Buffalo Nations volunteer snuck into the pen and freed a captive bull. Before the buffalo could escape the outermost pen, DOL security blocked the only open gate. The buffalo saw the truck, jumped up and broke through a closed gate to freedom. The volunteer escaped as well.
Later that day a volunteer attempted to block the capture facility's loading chute by locking down but was apprehended and arrested by the sheriff.
Of the remaining captive buffalo, eight were shipped to a slaughterhouse the next morning. As the livestock trailer approached the pen, several people tried to stop the truck by jumping in front of it and were nearly run over. The vehicle was forced to stop when an activist grabbed onto the trailer and locked his neck to the back of it with a krypto lock while it was going 30 miles per hour.
On the morning of January 13, before first light, a Buffalo Nations activist locked herself to the top of a 35-foot tripod blocking the transport of another nine captive buffalo to the slaughterhouse. It took law enforcement half a day to remove her. The next day, five of the captive buffalo were shipped to slaughter.
The Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has repeatedly told Montana that the state will not lose its cherished brucellosis-free status if it tolerates the presence of yearling calves and bulls who have a low risk of transmitting it. The disease can only be transmitted if cattle come in contact with brucellosis-contaminated birthing materials. Of the 13 buffalo killed so far, 11 were bulls, who obviously were not pregnant. The ultimate decision to continue the slaughter rests with Governor Marc Racicot, who oversees the DOL, and it's up to us to let him know that we hold him personally responsible for the needless deaths of wild buffalo.
The DOL also plans to build a new capture facility on Horse Butte, near Hebgen Lake on the Gallatin National Forest. Horse Butte is prime winter range for the buffalo and contains habitat for bald eagles, grizzly bears, lynx, black-backed woodpeckers, boreal owls, trumpeter swans, wolverines, elk, moose, red fox, goshawk, peregrine falcon, large-leafed balsamroot and white paintbrush. The Chief Joseph wolf pack has also been spotted on the butte. The DOL has asked the US Department of Agriculture to fund the costs of installing and operating the buffalo trap with taxpayers footing the bill at $500,000 a year for the next 10 years. All of this is justified in order to protect a mere 170 cow-calf pairs that graze on three public allotments on Horse Butte and generate a total of $765 a year in grazing fees.
The presence of Buffalo Nations volunteers is a constant reminder to bison management agencies that the slaughter must stop. There is no justifiable reason for buffalo to be persecuted for following their natural migratory instincts. Yellowstone's boundary is not an ecosystem boundary, and these buffalo are not Montana's buffalo. Rather, they are an integral part of one of the continent's last intact ecosystems.
Does locking down in subfreezing temperatures intrigue you? Do you want to spend your winter days on skis watching and defending buffalo? Do you wish you could eat the best food outside of Cove Mallard? Well wish no more. Come to Yellowstone and help us put an end to the DOL's days of harassing and killing buffalo. We provide food and a space in our warm cabin for all who volunteer. Contact us at POB 957, West Yellowstone, MT 59758; (406) 646-0070; fax 646-0071; buffalo@wildrockies.org.
Let Governor Racicot know that the slaughter is unacceptable! Contact him at State Capitol Building, Helena, MT 59620-0801; (406) 444-3111. Contact the DOL's acting director Marc Bridges at POB 202001, Helena, MT 59620-2001; (406) 444-2023.