[RFN] Draft column

[Stephany Seay]

This is fantastic!  Thank you!  And I love having this come from Jaedin.
Yes, we will submit it!

Thank you so much!

On Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 11:36 AM steve kelly <troutcheeks at gmail.com> wrote:

> Stephany, Jaedin, et al.,
>
> Mike (wrote) and I (reviewed) have taken the liberty of removing the
> quotations from your press release, and presenting to you the 600-word op
> ed proposal below.  I hope this
> is okay with you.  This is a proposal only, with no expectation, only a
> possibility that might increase the likelihood of a news article, or
> another way of your critical message getting out if, for some reason, the
> print media can't, or won't, run your press release as a news story.
> Sometimes an op ed submission helps to inspire the reporter to write the
> story, especially when the paper is short on staff.  Hope you find this
> draft op ed proposal helpful.
>
> steve kelly, bozeman
> 406-920-1381
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Michael Garrity <wildrockies at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 10:17 AM
> Subject: Draft column proposal
> To: steve kelly <troutcheeks at gmail.com>
>
>
> *Thirty percent of America's last wild migratory buffalo have been removed
> from the population.*
>
> On Saturday, March 18th, Yellowstone National Park released the latest
> report of bison slaughter and removal
> <https://www.ibmp.info/Library/StatusReports/20230318_BisonManagementSummary.pdf>
> operations on the Interagency Bison Management Plan website. The report
> shows that the slaughter of Yellowstone’s bison continues, including the
> killing of pregnant females who are just weeks away from giving birth.
>
> As of Saturday, March 18th, 1,814 buffalo have been killed or otherwise
> removed from the population. That is 30% of the entire population of
> Yellowstone buffalo, which was at 6,000 in August of last year. Unless
> Yellowstone takes action now, this will be the most buffalo taken in a
> season since the deadly slaughters of the late 1800’s. The firing-line
> style “hunt” at the boundary of Yellowstone has taken the lives of 1,067
> buffalo.  At least 349 of these were adult females, and nearly every one
> of those females will have been pregnant. That’s 349 calves that will never
> be born.
>
> When there’s thirty hunters there from ten different tribes, it turns into
> a competition to see who can get a buffalo, causing hunters to start firing
> into family groups hoping they kill a buffalo. It seems the new
> ‘relationship’ is hunting them to near-extinction because our treaty rights
> are more important than the well-being of a strong buffalo population.
>
> The billboards put up by The Alliance for the Wild Rockies
> <https://allianceforthewildrockies.org> and Roam Free Nation
> <https://roamfreenation.org> continue to draw attention to the hunt –
> there are now five billboards across Montana with more on the way. Our
> message: “*There is no hunt. It’s slaughter
> <https://allianceforthewildrockies.org/over-a-quarter-of-the-last-wild-buffalo-gone/>*.”
> will now reach people in Helena, Billings, Belgrade, and Livingston,
> Montana.
>
> Yellowstone claims they have no control over what happens to buffalo once
> they leave the park, and they have been trying to pass the blame for the
> unprecedented slaughter.  But Yellowstone has trapped 781 buffalo at the
> Stephens Creek Capture Facility inside the park. Of these; 88 were shipped
> to slaughter (including 70 adult females, most likely pregnant); 282 have
> been sentenced to a life of domestication in the quarantine program, never
> to be wild again; and only 34 have been released. Yellowstone continues to
> hold 374 for “release or slaughter” – so they cannot claim they have no
> control over their fate..
>
> These dire numbers get even worse when the natural winter kill is taken
> into account. Yellowstone estimates that 9 out of every 100 adult bison die
> over the winter on an average year, and with a winter as harsh as this one
> has been, those numbers can be expected to rise. The state of Montana
> needs to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the impact of
> this bison slaughter on grizzlies, since winterkill bison carrion are an
> important food source for grizzlies, especially since grizzlies' other main
> food sources, whitebark pine nuts and Yellowstone cutthroat trout have both
> been decimated.
>
> The “hunt” has been, and continues to be, an irresponsible slaughter that
> disregards the very survival of the population. The fact that Yellowstone
> has captured, slaughtered, and consigned to quarantine another huge group
> of buffalo only compounds the cost to the herds. How can those doing the
> bulk of the killing say that they want more buffalo on a larger landscape?
> How can Yellowstone say the park could host 10,000 plus buffalo while they
> contribute to removing 30% of the herd? When does it end? When the buffalo
> are gone?
> *Jaedin Medicine Elk*
> *Co-founder of Roam Free Nation, Board Vice-President*
>
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