Posted on 10/07/2011 5:26:35 AM PDT by SJackson
DEER LODGE — Ranchers and landowners on Wednesday packed the Powell County Community Center, just a few miles from what has become ground zero in the debate over whether there is a place for wild bison on Montana's landscape.
If those who spoke in the first of three public hearings on a proposal to relocate Yellowstone National Park bison was any indication, the answer is an emphatic no. Dozens of people from this southwestern Montana community where cattle is king told state wildlife officials they were against the plan. None was in favor of it.
"This is not the 1800s. We have ranchers and farmers who need their hay lands, their grain fields, their stock yards protected. And you are putting them in danger," said Powell County resident Bill Mattice. "Stay out of the buffalo business!"
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has proposed temporarily relocating dozens of bison to the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area or three other possible sites across the state.
Wildlife officials say the bison are disease-free after spending years in quarantine as part of a U.S. government program. But that hasn't convinced those concerned that the wild animals could transmit disease to their cattle and damage their fields.
The debate, which has grown sharper this year as FWP developed its plans, is now centered on the public hearings on the draft environmental assessment of the relocation proposal that the agency released last month.
The meeting became contentious before it even really began.
Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_28debc10-f013-11e0-8012-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1a68XYr7a
I can't imagine why a landowner would object to the NPS relocating bison to or adjacent to their land.
there are 10s of thousands of healthy bison now throughout the west..the current crop at Yellowstone came from the Bronx Zoo....and they had Brucellosis...which can kill other ungulates.
Move some of Ted Turners healthy Bison in from nearby and make up some nice Bison steaks roasts and burgers from the current Yellowstone herd.
They want to get them out of the park because of all the frick’n wolves are killing them.
I thought part of the problem was they aren’t able to keep them in the park. They tend to wander, and it takes some good fencing to keep them in. Government seems to have some serious fence issues. No pun intended.
how’s about my dinner plate?
“I can’t imagine why a landowner would object to the NPS relocating bison to or adjacent to their land.”
Are you serious??? Oh, I get it, a sarcasm tag is unnecessary for that statement.
Who owns the land?
If they want to relocate bison on land that is owned by us taxpayers, then I say give us out bison. It is our land.
If the ranchers do not want bison, then they can buy their own land.
Buff...it’s whats for dinner.
If you think that first comment was surprising, ngat, check out the sheer genius CGalen.
“If the ranchers do not want bison, then they can buy their own land.”
Holy crap. No wonder the rural west, and the country in general, is in the shape it is.
Hey CGalen-—how about if the government puts a few diseased bison in the yard (or apartment) next to yours? If you don’t like it you can move somewhere else, right?
You forgot the /sarc.
(I should have been at that meeting, but had to work too far north to make the run down there in time.)
NPS...aka the Park Pigs...have an unblemished record at and a couple of hundred miles around Yellowstone: They completely **** up everything they touch.
Wolves? Got the bastards running wild all over three states after “saving” the Park population.
Bears? You can read, I’ve stopped keeping track of the bear “encounters” aka attacks in the past year alone.
Forest management? It’s an oxymoron: Nobody can harvest a tree or even clear deadfall, so lightning or a careless tourist start a fire that burns a couple dozen square miles and then some judge says the burned-out stuff can’t be touched so we just get to wait for the next lightning or a careless tourist to set the mess off again.
Now they’re going to “manage” buffalo, and by inference/incompetence all the rest of wildlife and the entire livestock business in the same three state area they’ve almost completely screwed up already.
That silly bunch of CHARLEY FOXTROTs in NPS and BLM couldn’t “manage” to put it out if they set their own foot on fire.
....sometimes I wonder why I even bother anymore....
Where are the animal rights loonies?
Did anyone ask the bison?
They have feelings too.
I heard awhile back that Ted was supposed to take 2,000 of these animals to his bison ranch. He wanted the new genetic stock for his herd. I wonder what happened to that?
This sounds like a great idea! Right after we but bear and wolves into Central Park!
Don’t forget California - the flag of the state with the grizzly on it - of course today there are none in CA - and And I suggest they reintroduce them to the hills of Malibu
You mention forest management. Don’t know what area you are in but you can drive nearly from Bozeman up past Great Falls and Helena and see nothing but dead trees—millions of acres, killled by pine beetle.
In a few years there will be millions more and then the fires will start and half the state will burn. Then the rain and snow will bring the soot and topsoil down and the rivers will be clogged with silt, perhaps for generations.
That’s called forest management and conservation, U.S. government style.
Listen, though, don’t give up. At least we can go out and shoot a wolf.
If you think that first comment was surprising, ngat, check out the sheer genius CGalen.
“If the ranchers do not want bison, then they can buy their own land.”...
That makes sense if your wish is to return to a hunter-gatherer type of civilization.
One correction: A whole lot of those dead trees WERE killed by pine beetles, but most of that stuff is fire kill. Got the same deal running east from Bozeman along I90 nearly all the way to Billings.
Shoot a wolf? Me? Never heard of such a thing.
(..riiiiiiiiiight..)
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