On CMR Bison, Legislature Misinterprets Laws, Reality, and Montana Values

 

With Senate Joint Resolution 14, the Montana legislature lobbies the United States Congress and 3 federal agencies to prevent restoring public-trust, wild bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR). SJ 14 passed both houses with party-line votes. It claims the State of Montana opposes any restoration of bison on the CMR. In contrast, 3 random polls have shown that about 70% of Montana voters support returning bison to the CMR.

The CMR is the largest federal refuge within the historic range of plains bison.

The legislature claims that the state has supreme jurisdiction over wildlife on federal lands and that unilateral restoration of bison would violate the U. S. Constitution. This legal mythology was extensively reviewed and denied in the Journal Environmental Law (2017) by a University of Montana law team. The Refuge System Improvement Act (1997) directs the Refuge to collaborate with the state “for timely and effective [resource] management to the extent practicable”. Getting bison on the CMR, proposed in 1937, has not been timely or effective, and given anti-bison laws from the 2021 legislature, waiting longer for state collaboration is clearly not practicable.

The legislature warns of disease transmission from bison to private livestock, whereas this has not been a problem with several herds of private bison already surrounding the CMR – a condition that is common throughout the country.

The legislature exaggerates the amount of state land within the CMR; but correctly notes that achieving state goals for these parcels is difficult, as they are isolated within the Refuge. Clearly, it would benefit the state, occasional private users of these lands, and the Refuge, if state lands within the CMR were traded for isolated federal lands outside the CMR.

A Reliable Future for Public, Wild Bison Depends on Only 10 Herds

 

 Recent NEWS items presented two different numbers for plains bison herds with reliable mandates to restore and maintain wild, public bison. March 13 NEWS referred to 13 herds; upon further study, March 27 NEWS referred to only 10 herds. Here we clarify this change.

To qualify, a herd must be managed as public-trust bison, with primary management to develop and maintain natural selection that is preponderant over artificial selection and genetic drift. Only Department of Interior herds, under the Park Service or under Fish & Wildlife Service Refuges qualify under relatively dependable legal mandates for wildness enacted by Congress.

Previous news releases from the Department of Interior claimed as many as 19 federal bison herds with 11,000 bison are managed for biotic diversity and biotic integrity – the equivalent of “wildness”. Subsequent news releases by this and other organizations have reduced this number to 16, 13, and now 10. Nine of the alleged 19 public, wild herds are:

2 herds in Alaska -- Not on native plains bison range.

1 herd on the Bison Range in Montana -- Recently ceded to the Kootenai/Salish Tribes.

2 herds in Utah -- Book Cliffs and Henry Mountains herds: spend some or much time on federal lands; but are managed and limited as state game animals and (Book Cliffs) by the northern Ute Tribe.

1 herd in Wyoming -- Jackson Hole herd: co-managed as state game; recently reduced from 1000 to 500.

1 herd in Arizona -- Has habitat in Grand Canyon National Park: co-managed as state game to limit numbers and consequent damage to Park’s prehistoric relics.

2 herds in Colorado and Kansas -- co-managed with The Nature Conservancy; have some federal habitat, but most habitat is TNC.

Likely, Department of Interior has collaborative agreements to exchange animals between these 9 herds and Interior herds to limit loss of alleles to genetic drift. However, excluding 2 herds in Alaska, the management priorities for these herds include production as game or for sale, limiting competition with private livestock, or other priorities that detract from managing for wildness.

Thus, the future of wild plains bison genomes, south of Canada, depends upon the remaining 10 herds, with approximate herd sizes totaling 7,880 bison and only 2 herds with at least 1000 bison to forestall weakening of natural selection by genetic drift. These herds are:

Yellowstone National Park: 4800 bison, not welcome in surrounding states.

Badlands NP: 1000 bison (new management plan coming).

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge: 650 bison.

Theodore Roosevelt NP: 525 bison (south herd: 350; north herd: 175).

Wind Cave NP: 400 bison.

Fort Niobrara NWR: 350 bison (includes separate “Sully” herd of 60).

Neal Smith NWR: 70 bison.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR: 55 bison.

Whitehorse Hill Nat. Game Preserve: 20 bison.

Chickasaw Nat. Recreation Area: 10 bison.

These 10 herds are critical to preserving examples of genetically wild bison within the public trust. In the long run, they will be inadequate. Herds less than 100 must be enlarged. Additional large herds on large, diverse landscapes are needed.

Three large or growing private herds¹ may contribute some to saving “wild” alleles; but their management today includes some artificial selection, and limited natural selection, and they are not public-trust herds. There is no evidence that any Tribal herds have management priorities to retain wildness of bison. One impressive Tribal attempt was abandoned in 2004².

¹TNC Tallgrass Preserve in OK; TNC Medano Ranch in CO; American Prairie in MT.

²Braun, F. F. 2008. Buffalo, Inc. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. p. 235.