Bison
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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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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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Let’s be clear: Gianforte’s lawsuit doesn’t represent Montanans, but rather Montana livestock interests. The vast majority of Montanans want wild, migratory buffalo restored in our state. The brucellosis boogey-man argument is old and is full of holes. The disease was brought to North America through invasive cattle. Brucellosis entered the Yellowstone buffalo herds by erroneous…
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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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After Donald Trump’s election, many wildlands advocates have become depressed and disheartened and feel that conservation efforts are over. The Trump administration will no doubt try to eliminate, thwart, or dismantle conservation laws and policies. It is important to remember this is nothing new. The old phrase “two steps forward and one step back” often…
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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…
