Large Unmet Demand for Bison Hunting

Recently noted statistics indicate that Montana has a large unmet demand for public bison hunting and harvesting.

In 2019, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks received over 18,000 applications, each with a $10 non-refundable fee, for only 93 available licenses to harvest a bison near Yellowstone National Park. Over 17,000 of these applications were from Montana residents.

Also in 2019, American Prairie Reserve conducted a higher-quality bison hunt adjacent to the area pertinent to the Coalition’s goal of restoring public-trust bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Although legally classified as livestock, APR’s bison roam across a very large containment area, much like wild bison. In a less publicized process (compared to FWP’s license process), APR offered 16 permits, at $300 each, to harvest bison. They received 2,500 applications.

This huge unmet demand for bison hunting/harvesting indicates one large potential in restoring a public, wild bison herd on the CMR National Wildlife Refuge:

to provide opportunities for recreational hunting, including cooperative family hunts that share and benefit from the large effort needed to put hundreds of pounds of meat for many Montana dinner tables;

to enhance local economies with monies spent by resident and non-resident hunters for transportation, food and lodging;

to provide opportunities for guiding, outfitting and carcass retrieval/processing businesses in rural areas.

Furthermore, the data indicate that proceeds from state license sales could provide much or all the income needed by Montana FWP to fund the management needed, under state law, for any newly established public, wild bison herd.

(Montana has not restored a public, wild bison herd. Hunted bison from Yellowstone Park are seasonal visitors from Wyoming. Human predation has long been a predominant selective force that created the modern bison species (see “Bison Hunting & Wildness”). Thus, carefully managed hunting is a management tool that would complement other natural selective forces, maintaining the wild bison genome.)

Jim Bailey,  Coordinator

U. S. Department of Interior Recommits to National Bison Conservation Initiative

Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently extended the 2008 federal Bison Conservation Initiative for another 10 years, presumably with renewed vigor. The Initiative is managed by the Department’s Bison Working Group and will coordinate conservation strategies for wild bison, especially across 19 herds on lands of the Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The initiative also calls for shared stewardship of wild bison with states, Native American tribes and non-government organizations.

The activity of the DOI Bison Working Group over the last 12 years has not been entirely clear. Likely, they supported transfer of a few bison among DOI herds to bolster their genetics, and supported the needed expansion of bison habitat and herd size at Badlands National Park. Perhaps their most important product has been a recently released Population Viability Study. It analyzes the genetics of most DOI herds and compares the effects of several proposed management strategies for maintaining and enhancing genetic diversity among and within herds. It is an important guide to future management. The research was supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The DOI announcement includes plans for transferring a few bison from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Refuge to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park herds, and for developing a large Tribal herd of bison on and with the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Of concern, DOI reveals nothing about any commitment of the Sioux Tribe toward management that will limit artificial selection and conserve the diversity and wildness of the herd genome.

Among the DOI Working Group goals are: (1) conserve bison as healthy wildlife; (2) support genetic diversity across DOI herds; (3) cooperate with states, tribes and other stakeholders; (4) establish large, wide-ranging bison herds on large landscapes where bison will shape diverse ecological communities of plants and animals; and (5) restore cultural connections of bison with all people.

DOI goals 3 and 4, above, are especially coincident with goals of the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition. In particular, restoring a large, public, wild bison herd on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge will enhance all five DOI goals, and the federal government has reiterated its desire to work with Montana to this end. 

Jim Bailey

 

Secure a Future for Wild Bison: Lobby Montana Candidates

The future for any restoration of public, wild bison in Montana could be extinguished by the 2021 state legislature. Similar attempts have occurred in the past; but were vetoed by our governors. However, Montana will have a new governor in 2021.

Once the legislature convenes, it is too late for informed public discussion of the issues. It is therefore imperative to stimulate bison restoration as an issue in 2020 election campaigns. Readers are encouraged to broach the issue at public forums and in letters to editors of newspapers, to encourage other conservation organizations to take a stand, and to contact candidates of both parties to address the issue of bison restoration.

Justifications for bison restoration on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge are abundant and diverse. See them throughout this website. However, in most situations, it will be necessary to initiate communication with a brief, pointed message. Please consider this example, written as a letter to a candidate for Montana office:

Candidate,

Aside from seasonal visitors from Wyoming, Montana has no public-trust wild bison herd. (See more at mtwildbison.org.)

Yet the Montana Constitution mandates remedies for unreasonable depletion of natural resources, provisions to restore historic, scientific, cultural and recreational objects for use and enjoyment by the people, and preserving the opportunity to harvest wild game.

Montana law (MCA 87-1-216) provides guidelines for restoring public bison with a contained herd while protecting private property and resources.

Three polls have indicated that 70 percent of Montana voters support restoring public, wild bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

If you are elected to a position with responsibilities to uphold the Montana Constitution, will you support restoration of a sizeable public-trust bison herd on a substantial but contained landscape, such as the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge?

So far, the candidates have been ignoring environmental issues. Getting our concern into the election dialogue will be difficult. But silence is unacceptable. Please join us in this effort. Together, we can stir the pot. 

Jim Bailey 

Coalition Published in Rewilding Earth

Coalition Coordinator, Jim Bailey, has published an illustrated essay titled “Bison Advocacy: The Tranquilizing Drug of Gradualism” in Rewilding Earth, an e-journal of the Rewilding Institute. 

Part of the title is taken from a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. as he inspired activism during the civil rights movement. Bailey draws an analogy of largely accepted slow progress in civil rights with the century-old failure to restore public, wild bison in Montana. He concludes; “For bison restoration, we must move past the comfortable stance of endless negotiation and shunning of those who dare to speak frankly for bison. It is time to discard the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”

See the essay at rewilding.org/bison-advocacy

Jim Bailey

 

Ups and Downs for Bison Restoration

 Click to read our Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition Proposal

As noted earlier, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has solicited site-specific proposals for bison restoration and conservation in our state. Regrettably, our appeals to other major wildlife conservation groups to work jointly in preparing a proposal for restoring public, wild bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge were declined or ignored. Therefore, we have produced a draft proposal to develop a herd entirely within the UL Bend area of the Refuge, north of Fort Peck Reservoir. The herd would be allowed to grow up to 400 animals, contained within about 150 square miles of diverse habitat.

In the long term, 400 bison would not be a genetically adequate herd. But we are proposing this as a “test project” in which bison movements would be evaluated and FWP would test and demonstrate its ability to fund and manage the herd. Conservative hunting strategies would be tested after the herd reached 200 bison. Once the herd reached 400 animals, perhaps in 10 years, all results would be evaluated, with public input, and a decision on how to proceed would occur.

Being entirely within the CMR National Wildlife Refuge, with required monitoring of bison health by the state veterinarian, the project is intended to have no negative impacts on Montana ranchers.

However, United Property Owners of Montana (UPOM) have sued FWP and the state, claiming that the final impact statement and decision to solicit site-specific proposals, for yet more analysis and public review, has violated the Montana Environmental Protection Act. We believe the arguments are invalid. But the wheels of justice almost always move slowly, and this likely will stall efforts to restore a public, wild bison herd in Montana for at least a year. Meanwhile, FWP is not reviewing any submitted proposals.

Delay will allow UPOM and the Montana livestock industry to solicit legislation, in 2021, to forever prohibit any restoration of public, wild bison in Montana. A new governor could sign such new legislation, although it would be contrary to the Montana Constitution and would void previous legislated guidelines for bison restoration.

Most Montanans have little or no awareness of this situation. It is urgent to develop public recognition of the precarious status of bison conservation in our state. The Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition will do all it can in this regard. But there are many distractions in the public media this year. We implore readers to post bison information on personal websites and to promote forthright public discussion, especially by national and state organizations dedicated to wildlife conservation. 

Jim Bailey 

Ups and Downs for Bison Restoration

 As noted earlier, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has solicited site-specific proposals for bison restoration and conservation in our state. Regrettably, our appeals to other major wildlife conservation groups to work jointly in preparing a proposal for restoring public, wild bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge were declined or ignored. Therefore, we have produced a draft proposal to develop a herd entirely within the UL Bend area of the Refuge, north of Fort Peck Reservoir. The herd would be allowed to grow up to 400 animals, contained within about 150 square miles of diverse habitat.

In the long term, 400 bison would not be a genetically adequate herd. But we are proposing this as a “test project” in which bison movements would be evaluated and FWP would test and demonstrate its ability to fund and manage the herd. Conservative hunting strategies would be tested after the herd reached 200 bison. Once the herd reached 400 animals, perhaps in 10 years, all results would be evaluated, with public input, and a decision on how to proceed would occur.

Being entirely within the CMR National Wildlife Refuge, with required monitoring of bison health by the state veterinarian, the project is intended to have no negative impacts on Montana ranchers.

However, United Property Owners of Montana (UPOM) have sued FWP and the state, claiming that the final impact statement and decision to solicit site-specific proposals, for yet more analysis and public review, has violated the Montana Environmental Protection Act. We believe the arguments are invalid. But the wheels of justice almost always move slowly, and this likely will stall efforts to restore a public, wild bison herd in Montana for at least a year. Meanwhile, FWP is not reviewing any submitted proposals.

Delay will allow UPOM and the Montana livestock industry to solicit legislation, in 2021, to forever prohibit any restoration of public, wild bison in Montana. A new governor could sign such new legislation, although it would be contrary to the Montana Constitution and would void previous legislated guidelines for bison restoration.

Most Montanans have little or no awareness of this situation. It is urgent to develop public recognition of the precarious status of bison conservation in our state. The Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition will do all it can in this regard. But there are many distractions in the public media this year. We implore readers to post bison information on personal websites and to promote forthright public discussion, especially by national and state organizations dedicated to wildlife conservation. 

 Jim Bailey

 

Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition Needs Funding

 
Alas, recent activity, especially production of two short videos, has depleted the Coalition’s bank account. Moreover, Release of the Bison Restoration Record of Decision by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks requires a ramped up Coalition response, including to produce a detailed proposal for restoring public, wild bison on and near the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

The Coalition is an all-volunteer organization with all donations supporting actions dedicated to our two goals: disseminating information on the issues of restoring wild bison to Montana and especially to lands where bison are accepted on and near the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

Efforts to restore public, wild bison to Montana have been unsuccessful for over 100 years. Today, we may be closer to success than ever before. Continued, persistent activity will be necessary. Please consider contributing to assure that public, wild bison will be part of our legacy to future generations of Montanans. 

See the “Contribute” page at mtwildbison.org to become a contributor to the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition.

Thank you. 

Jim Bailey, Coordinator