Bison opener gets attention

by JIM MANN The Daily Inter Lake
| November 15, 2005 1:00 AM

Montana officials are preparing once again to be in the middle of a media storm today when the state's first bison hunt in 15 years gets under way outside Yellowstone National Park.

They won't be alone.

A handful of hunters, including four from Northwest Montana, are likely to be at the center of the storm.

"It's getting busier and busier as the weeks go by and now we are reaching terminal velocity," said Melissa Frost, the Region Three public information officer for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "I've been fielding media calls most of the day."

Frost said the hunt is attracting coverage from state, regional, national and international media. Major U.S. television networks as well as news outlets from France, Germany, Poland and Italy are covering the story.

"A lot of them are coming," Frost said.

Opponents of the hunt also are expected to be in the West Yellowstone and Gardiner areas.

"We've talked to the Buffalo Field Campaign and they say they are only going to document the hunt," Frost said. "In terms of protest, I'm not sure we know what to expect. There are other national organizations that have in the past expressed interest in bison management, but we don't know what to expect from them."

Montana's bison hunt was canceled after the 1990 season primarily because it had attracted considerable negative publicity and had become extremely controversial. State wildlife officials helped hunters locate animals, and in that a single year, some 570 bison were killed.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday that's precisely why he canceled last fall's planned bison hunt.

"I canceled the hunt last year because I was concerned they set up a hunt exactly the way it was 15 years ago," he said.

This year's hunt was changed in several ways. For starters, it was expanded to allow 50 rather than just 10 hunters, because the hunt needs to be more than a symbolic "token" of the state's interest in managing a bison herd that is widely considered to be overpopulated.

The state also increased by five times the area where bison hunting will be allowed and increased the time period for the hunt from 30 to 90 days. Finally, those hunters who were drawn for bison permits were required to participate in an education seminar to prepare them for what can be a logistically complicated hunt that can involve encounters with protesters and the media.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks ramped up public relations efforts to neutralize negative perceptions of the hunt.

Schweitzer says that much of the opposition is clearly motivated by people who simply object to hunting of any kind.

"There are people on the coasts and in France and Germany that don't like bison hunts, but they also don't like us shooting moose or elk or deer," Schweitzer said. "But, look, hunting is part of what we are in Montana, and we certainly aren't part of France or New York or California."

Schweitzer noted that wild bison are hunted in Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Alaska and Alberta. In Wyoming, 43 bison were harvested by hunters last year, and some of those animals once lived in Yellowstone National Park.

Those hunts draw no media attention or opposition, he said.

Montana's hunt, however, was controversial because of the state's long-standing policy of having zero tolerance for bison wandering into Montana, because of the potential for animals carrying brucellosis that could compromise the state's livestock industry. Brucellosis is a disease that can cause cattle to abort their calves.

"It's a border-control issue," said Josh Osher of the Buffalo Field Campaign.

Osher stressed that his organization is not anti-hunting, but objects to the hunt because it is "premature" in light of the state's unwillingness to allow bison to freely move in and out of Yellowstone Park.

"We're not ready for a hunt for buffalo in Montana because we don't have habitat for buffalo," he said.

The Buffalo Field Campaign wants bison "to be treated like wildlife" rather than "a species in need of disease management," an approach that requires the Montana Department of Livestock to haze, capture and slaughter bison every year.

Schweitzer also wants bison to be managed as wildlife, particularly for population control. The Yellowstone herd currently numbers about 5,000, and that number could grow by 500 to 1,000 this year, Schweitzer said.

"The population continues to grow, but in order to manage them in a respectful way, we have got to start harvesting them at the rate they are reproducing," he said. "If we don't, there will be a tough winter, and 80 percent of them will starve to death.

"If we are going to manage buffalo the way we manage elk and moose, we need to have them treated like wild animals," Schweitzer said. "If you want to treat them like park animals, I don't think that's the way we measure it in Montana."

Schweitzer said Montana hunters - through license purchases that have funded management, research and habitat conservation - can be credited with building the state's big game populations over the last century and he expects the same results with hunters having a role in bison management. He also anticipates that bison will become more elusive if they are hunted.

"After we've hunted them for a few years, they're going to act more like moose and less like a cow," he said. "They're a clever animal. They'll figure this out."

Osher said the Buffalo Field Campaign will monitor the hunt much the same way it monitors Department of Livestock operations in the field. The organization will have two camps - one in Gardiner and one in West Yellowstone - with about 15 volunteers working in shifts to follow bison rather than trying to follow hunters. They will carry cameras to document the hunt, he said.

Hunters have been coached by the state on how to respond to encounters with protesters or media.

"We ask that you be tolerant and not engage if verbal protests are aimed at you," the state's information packet for bison hunters says. "Above all, be aware that you may encounter protesters at any time before, during, or after the shot. After a shot is made, some people may become very emotional."

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens will be ready to respond and enforce a state hunter harassment law, if necessary.

The hunters who participated at one of the mandatory education seminars, held in Kalispell, were very receptive to the seminar and had positive outlooks for their hunts, said John Fraley, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks public affairs officer.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com