Scouting, media work

dominate second day

GARDINER - Before the sage- and snow-covered hillsides caught the light of day, Rick Jaqueth's telephone was ringing with a call from an NBC producer eager to follow him on his bison hunt north of Yellowstone National Park.

By 1 p.m. Wednesday, the hunter from Libby had talked to NBC, National Public Radio, and a television station out of Bozeman.

After that, he had an engaging discussion with a volunteer for the Buffalo Field Campaign as they stood on a windswept knoll overlooking five bull bison.

But there was no hunt; the day was set aside for scouting an area that Jaqueth had not seen since he was a student at Montana State University in the early 1980s.

"I thought I could pacify the media and get out the side of the hunter on some of these issues," he said. "Basically I wanted to try to get all of this stuff out of the way so we can get this thing done."

Jaqueth did not want media surrounding him on his hunt. From the minute he arrived in Gardiner late Tuesday, he could see the potential for that to happen as he pulled up alongside two television satellite trucks parked at a motel.

"To me, it's really strange that it's gotten this much media attention," he told Bita Nikravesh, an NBC producer based in New York.

She explained that her network is interested in the story largely because it involves Yellowstone National Park and because correspondent Roger O'Neil covered the controversial bison hunts that ended in 1990.

"Roger O'Neil covered the last bison hunt, so it's interesting to him to follow up on this," she said. "We don't want to neglect western stories. There are too many stories out of New York and I think it's important to show that hunting is part of the heritage in Montana."

So Nikravesh, a camera man and a sound man followed Jaqueth and one of his hunting partners, Libby resident Earl Messick, as they walked the slopes above Gardiner, spotting bison through binoculars.

Not long afterward, Jaqueth approached Kim Acheson, a Buffalo Field Campaign volunteer who a day earlier filmed the first Yellowstone bison to be killed by a hunter in 15 years.

Acheson and Jaqueth stood no more than 200 yards from the site where George Clement, a 17-year-old from Belgrade, made the kill Tuesday morning.

"We stay with the bison from dawn till dusk," Acheson said. "We get out before first light, so it makes for a long day."

Acheson said the Buffalo Field Campaign is not an anti-hunting group and that many of its volunteers are subsistence hunters.

He said the bison hunt is a secondary issue for the group, which is primarily opposed to the Montana Department of Livestock's intolerance of bison entering the state.

That long-standing policy is based on concerns the bison could contaminate cattle with brucellosis, compromising the state's livestock industry.

The group wants the state to pursue conservation easements, grazing-permit exchanges, and other means of separating cattle and bison so the Yellowstone herd can make use of winter range and spring calving habitat in Montana.

While that's the group's primary mission, the field campaign makes every effort to film the realities of easily approachable bison being shot. The footage is provided to news organizations and is made available on the group's Web site.

Acheson said Jaqueth is the first bison hunter he's talked to. He said that he stays out of the way of hunters and does not approach them unless they want to talk to him.

"They are just doing their thing and I just want to have as little conflict as there can be with this," Jaqueth said. "I think the guy was grateful to talk to me. He was pleasantly surprised that we really aren't that far apart on some things."

By the end of the day, the NBC staffers and most other media had left Gardiner. And Jaqueth was prepared to harvest a bison, whether the Buffalo Field Campaign is looking over his shoulder or not.

Reporter Jim Mann is traveling with Rick Jaqueth on a bison-hunting trip near Yellowstone National Park. Mann and Jaqueth have been friends for 23 years. Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com