Park superintendent talks brucellosis. Warns board against ‘livestock versus wildlife’ view. By Jennifer McKee. Billings Gazette State Bureau
Yellowstone Park superintendent talks brucellosis
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A Project of Sage Steppe Wild
Park superintendent talks brucellosis. Warns board against ‘livestock versus wildlife’ view. By Jennifer McKee. Billings Gazette State Bureau
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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Let us hope that Suzanne’s tenure at YNP won’t survive the inauguration of Barack Obama. She’s done enough damage as it is.
“Lewis also said all sides must banish the rhetoric and myths that polarize the debate over brucellosis. She said bison are never going to repopulate the Great Plains, as some might like, but neither are they going to be rounded up and eliminated.”
Never say never, Ms. Lewis!
Superintendent Lewis pledged Monday to work with Montana’s Board of Livestock to eradicate the disease.
SHE’S BEEN “WORKING” WITH THE DOL FOR YEARS ~ she’s been handing over AMERICA’S bison to the state of Montana to be slaughtered for no good reason.
Lewis: “Just as wildlife is not more important than livestock, livestock is not more important than wildlife.”
Superintendent Lewis, I suggest you poll every visitor to your park to determine if they think livestock is just as important as wildlife. Anyone who thinks livestock is as important as wildlife is probably a rancher or a member of a livestock board or both.
Jennifer McKee, Billings Gazette reporter on brucellosis: “It causes cows to abort calves.”
It is more accurate to say it causes cows to generally abort their FIRST calf. Why the media can’t get this down is beyond me.
“There are no formal plans for dealing with elk and brucellosis…”
Sheer genius – our scientists, bureaucrats and politicians are on top of the issue, as usual. We’ll see what sort of “plan” is developed for elk. In the meantime, slaughter AMERICA’S bison.
“She said all sides should find places outside the park where bison can be welcome when they roam beyond Yellowstone’s borders, as they’ve been doing for generations.”
Ah, ‘cuse me, Superintendent Lewis, but Horse Butte is one area where Montanans “welcome” bison. Except for the Montana Department of Livestock, that is.
“Lewis also said all sides must banish the rhetoric and myths that polarize the debate over brucellosis.” How about banishing this myth: bison threaten privately owned cattle even though cattle are miles away from the bison.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a Superintendent of AMERICA’S first National Park that stood up to special interest groups and actually defended the Organic Act and thereby defended all the wildlife of Yellowstone?
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Mack P. Bray
Wildlife Watchers
the bozeman paper states as a headline,,
“Official says bison should be vaccinated”
and then goes on the say Supt of YNP,, looks like the press has begun its effort to divert to the bison as the cause and cure of the problem (vaccinate or kill them) either or or both
Can she be impeached/ fired/ or targeted politically? Maybe it is time advocacy groups turned their attention to getting her replaced…
Ms. Lewis has now certainly earned the dubious honor of becoming the “Wicked Witch of the West”!! Her sharp cackles echo across the Greater Yellowstone from Helena and sends shivers down my spine….
Suzanne Lewis, as Superintendent of YNP, is a member of the United States Senior Executive Service (SES). As such, she is subject to the will of political appointees. The SES was part of the Civil Service Act of 1978 and it greatly increased the power of political appointees and hence elected officials over the NPS and other agencies. SES employees like Lewis come from the ranks of careerists but once they take the SES designation they lose the career protections afforded to civil servants. She could be removed in an Obama presidency. However, remember this issue has survived both Democratic and Republican presidents not to mention Republican and Democratic Montana governors.
She should be immediately removed from her position on the basis of complete and utter dereliction of duty on behalf of protecting Yellowstone’s wildlife, especially the bison!
There are not enough bison left in the park to sustain a genetically diverse population through any kind of brucellosis eradication program!
Wild bison have been forced through numerous genetic bottlenecks over the last 120 years of indiscriminate slaughter to the point that their genetic status is extremely fragile. Continued slaughter of Yellowstone bison for so-called brucellosis control brings their very survival into question. It is time for a listing of Yellowstone bison as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.