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Ghost Bull, named for his ability to avoid tribal hunters outside of Yellowstone National Park. Photo by George Wuerthner I watched Ghost Bull grazing just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s northern border. Ghost Bull is a name given to the bison by wildlife advocates because he seems to come and go, eluding tribal shooters who…
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The wild bison in Yellowstone National Park are the last major herd of buffalo, the least domesticated members of their genus left in the United States. When Yellowstone was established in 1872, an estimated 25 wild bison roamed the park, a relic of the great herds that once roamed the entire West. With protection, the…
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Tens of millions of wild bison once roamed across western North America. Today, wild bison occupy less than one percent of their former range. Yet in spite of this, the National Park Service’s new bison management plan does nothing to expand the range of the 5,000 wild bison that live almost exclusively in Yellowstone National Park. Instead,…
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A recent article in the Bozeman Chronicle described the Yellowstone “Bison Conservation” Transfer Program. The federal government is transferring public bison that belong to all Americans to tribal reservations, which is essentially a privatization of public wildlife. In the process, they are accelerating the domestication of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park. Restoration and conservation…
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Yellowstone National Park recently released its Final Bison Management Plan. It arbitrarily limits bison numbers through tribal hunting outside of the park and the transfer of public Yellowstone bison to Indian reservations. The NPS Preferred Alternative 2 is better than the existing bison management but will continue the degradation of wild bison. Alt. 3 is…
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Winter weather frequently drives wild Yellowstone bison out of the park seeking forage, where they are captured or killed at the park border. Photo George Wuerthner Recently news media announced the transfer of 141 of Yellowstone’s bison to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Most of the media and many conservation groups hailed this as…
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Yellowstone bison are part of the global wildlife heritage. Photo George Wuerthner A week ago, 116 bison captured in Yellowstone National Park were transferred to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation as part of the Bison Relocation Program. Since 2019, 414 Yellowstone bison have been transferred to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes at Fort Peck. Many…
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Bison and Tetons, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner In a recent New York Times commentary, author Dayton Duncan celebrated what he termed as the ongoing restoration of bison across the West. Hundreds of thousands of bison reside in the US on ranches, Indian reservations, and state and federal lands. That may sound like…
Author
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. Among his titles are Welfare Ranching-The Subsidized Destruction of the American West, Wildfire-A Century of Failed Forest Policy, Energy—Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, Keeping the Wild-Against the Domestication of the Earth, Protecting the Wild—Parks, and Wilderness as the Foundation for Conservation, Nevada Mountain Ranges, Alaska Mountain Ranges, California’s Wilderness Areas—Deserts, California Wilderness Areas—Coast and Mountains, Montana’s Magnificent Wilderness, Yellowstone—A Visitor’s Companion, Yellowstone and the Fires of Change, Yosemite—The Grace and the Grandeur, Mount Rainier—A Visitor’s Companion, Texas’s Big Bend Country, The Adirondacks-Forever Wild, Southern Appalachia Country, among others.
He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.
In the past, he has worked as a cadastral surveyor in Alaska, a river ranger on several wild and scenic rivers in Alaska, a backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska, a wilderness guide in Alaska, a natural history guide in Yellowstone National Park, a freelance writer and photographer, a high school science teacher, and more recently ecological projects director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He currently is the ED of Public Lands Media.
He has been on the board or science advisor of numerous environmental organizations, including RESTORE the North Woods, Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Association, Park Country Environmental Coalition, Wildlife Conservation Predator Defense, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Western Watersheds Project, Project Coyote, Rewilding Institute, The Wildlands Project, Patagonia Land Trust, The Ecological Citizen, Montana Wilderness Association, New National Parks Campaign, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Council, Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument, Sage Steppe Wild, and others.