Thank you for your service in the Montana legislature. The 2021 legislative session will be unusually challenging, likely with COVID restrictions, and with many complex budget issues.
However, we are contacting you regarding an issue that is expected to receive less time and attention, yet has a degree of urgency. We expect one or more bills that may enhance, diminish, or even eliminate any future for restoring public trust, wild bison in our state. Past legislatures have produced some anti-bison bills that have required governors’ vetoes. Such bills may again be introduced.
In contrast, the Montana Constitution (Article IX) directs the legislature to provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion of natural resources; to provide for restoration of historic, cultural and recreational objects for their use by the people; and to forever preserve the opportunity of individual citizens to harvest wild game animals. A recent legislature responded to these mandates by enacting MCA 87-1-216 with guidelines for restoring bison while protecting private property rights. Then, in an 11-year-long process with abundant public input, Fish, Wildlife & Parks released a programmatic environmental impact statement, concluding that management issues of bison restoration can be successfully addressed at a landscape scale. This EIS requested the public to submit site-specific proposals for bison restoration.
The Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition has submitted a proposal for a test restoration that would grow to 400 animals within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Three polls indicated that 70 percent of Montana voters favor this option. It is intended to have no negative effects on the Montana ranching industry. See our proposal elsewhere on this website.
In the 2019 legislature, bison restoration was a divisive partisan issue. This limited objective discussion and consideration of wild-bison opportunities for Montanans. It avoided misconceptions surrounding bison, and perpetuated a lack of awareness of MCA 87-1-216. In 2021, we encourage you to reject a divisive partisan approach and to encourage full and objective discussion of bison restoration among both legislators and the public.
Thank you,
Jim Bailey, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition
