[MCN] Court win for Yellowstone bison!

[John Meyer]

Hey Missoula,

A quick note to let you know the Feds have agreed to prepare new NEPA analysis for its Yellowstone bison management plan in response to our lawsuit. 

The Court has scheduled a hearing on July 14 that will decide whether bison can freely roam while the government prepares new analysis. 

Bison are America’s national mammal. Yellowstone is America’s first National Park. It’s time to let bison freely roam on public land. The government has been telling us for decades that bison cannot freely roam because they carry a disease called brucellosis that could be transmitted to cattle. Brucellosis causes cattle to abort, but there has never been a documented case of a bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Meanwhile, elk are free to go wherever they want, and they are transmitting brucellosis to cattle in places where bison are not allowed. Adding insult to injury, cattle originally brought brucellosis to America from Europe and transmitted it to wildlife.

Imagine if a human had never transmitted COVID to another human. How long do you think a shelter-in-place order would last? 

The real reason bison cannot roam freely is because the livestock industry does not want to lose enormous federal subsidies from the federal government. It costs approximately $1.35 to graze a cow/calf pair for one month on public land. If you take that same cow/calf pair and put them on private land next to the public land, it will cost between $20-$30/month. Of course the rugged individualist cowboys don't want to sound like they are taking government handouts; thus Brucellosis. 

The state of Montana and federal government’s refusal to allow bison to roam means that Native American Tribes seeking to exercise their treaty rights are forced to line up on the boundary of Yellowstone and blast bison as soon at they leave the Park. The National Park Service has said there are too many hunters concentrated in too small an area. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks has said the fear of death is real. 

The dangerous bison hunt raises environmental justice issues. Whites killed bison to put Indigenous peoples on reservations. Now the state of Montana and federal government are requiring Indigenous to engage in an unfair and unethical hunt that puts their own lives at risk. 

Does anyone think this would be a good time for Governor Bullock to acknowledge historic injustices and issue an order that allows Yellowstone bison to roam freely?






John Meyer
Executive Director & General Counsel 
Cottonwood Environmental Law Center
P.O. Box 412 Bozeman, MT 59771
John at Cottonwoodlaw.org
(406) 546-0149

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