Bison Plan

Schweitzer has idea to keep cattle disease-free, save money
Story by SCOTT McMILLION of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle - 3/26/06

If it works, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's new bison management proposal could save a
lot of money.

It could also help protect the state's brucellosis-free status for its beef
herds.

It would give bison some more elbow room outside of Yellowstone National Park.

But making it work won't be easy.

In a nutshell, Schweitzer's plan calls for removing all cattle from public and
private land in the Gardiner Basin on the north side of the park and in the West
Yellowstone area, he said this week in a telephone interview.

This would be done by paying landowners a premium rate for their grazing rights.

Private land grazing costs from $14 to $24 a month per cow/calf pair, which is
known as an animal unit month or AUM.

"We'll give them $30 an AUM not to raise ruminants on that land," Schweitzer
said.

About 740 cattle graze in what he called the "mixing zones" north and west of
the park where bison and cattle could potentially come into contact. Only about
170 of them live there year round. The rest graze only in the summer.

Calculate the part-time and full-time bovines, and it works out to an equivalent
of about 370 year-round cattle, he said.

He calculates that buying out that grazing would cost about $100,000 a year.

The current bison management system costs about $750,000 a year just for hazing
bison back to the park, he said. In addition, it cost $200,000 to ship and
slaughter nearly 1,000 bison over the recent winter, the busiest in a decade.

Leasing the grazing rights would cost about 15 percent of what the state is
spending now, he said.

In addition, eliminating cattle from the mixing zones would protect the economic
interests of distant ranchers, who stand to lose money if cows near Gardiner or
West Yellowstone come down with brucellosis, a disease carried by some of the
bison.

That's because current federal rules say that if cattle anywhere in a state come
down with brucellosis, all breeding animals must undergo expensive tests before
being shipped out of state.

"Why should somebody in Whitefish or Lewistown or Havre put their
brucellosis-free status at risk for those 370" cattle? he asked.

HUNTING, MIGRATING
Schweitzer's proposal also calls for significantly increasing the role of
hunters to manage bison, which means killing some.

Although the details remain to be worked out, the governor's idea is
straightforward: When more bison come out, more hunters will be summoned.

While the hunt likely would start small, "if more animals come out of the park,
we'll draw another 100 tags, and another 100 tags, and then another," Schweitzer
said.

Plus, bison won't be allowed to wander forever.

"There will be a drop-dead zone," Schweitzer said. "We're not going to let them
wander down the Madison Valley. We're not going to let them wander down the
Yellowstone Valley."

The boundary likely will be somewhere around Yankee Jim Canyon north of the park
and the Hebgen Lake Dam to the west.

If bison go beyond those lines, it will be open season. Anybody could shoot
them.

A similar strategy is in effect at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, where
the bison also have disease issues.

Come spring, all bison would be hazed back into Yellowstone prior to calving
season.

Schweitzer cited a report by Canadian bison expert Cormack Gates, which said
that bison tend to return to areas where they give birth. While some describe
bison movements as migrations, others say they are attempts at permanent
emigration, that the park's animals have filled up their territory and are
trying to recolonize ancient turf.

But that turf is now filled, to one degree or another, with people, ranches,
towns, highways, irrigation systems and crops.

Bison could wreak havoc on a lot of that.

"All the land they're heading for is private land," said John Mundinger, a
retired FWP official with many years of experience with bison issues.

Even beyond brucellosis - a tough nut to crack on its own - bison aren't always
easy neighbors.

Between one and 10 Yellowstone visitors are injured by them yearly, according to
the book "Death in Yellowstone," by park historian Lee Whittlesey.

"Probably the current potential for injuries and deaths from bison in the park
is much greater that it is for bears," Whittlesey wrote.

Schweitzer said he'd like to pursue his plan on a 10-year time frame. That would
give scientists and land managers time to work on vaccines, elk feedgrounds in
Wyoming and other brucellosis issues.

"Then we'll look at it again in 10 years," he said. "What we're doing now
doesn't make any sense. It's not good management."

DEVILISH DETAILS
The plan sounds simple: give bison more - but still limited - room to act like
wildlife, engage the hunting public, reduce any risk to cattle - real or
perceived - and save some taxpayer dollars.

"We're going to hunt them in the winter and we'll chase them back into the park
in the summer," Schweitzer said.

But there are a million details to be worked out, a variety of interest groups
to be accommodated.

Still, a wide variety of people say they're at least intrigued by Schweitzer's
plan. Some are downright enthusiastic.

"At this point, we're open to any and all debate," said Bill Donald, president
of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, though that group's official policy
prefers to focus on elimination of brucellosis.

"It's a pretty complex issue and we'll never come to a solution if we don't
start talking," he added.

"It's exciting that we're to the point where people, and the governor in
particular, are putting practical solutions on the table," said Amy McNamara, of
the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

"It's going to be a challenge, but this is a real positive step," said Stephany
Seay, of the Buffalo Field Campaign.

Schweitzer dismisses any implication that he's catering to bison advocates
instead of stockgrowers.

"Please," he said. "I'm the first cattleman elected governor since 1916."

He grew up on a ranch and runs cattle near Whitefish.

Only about four people run cattle on private land in the West Yellowstone area
and a similar number do so on the north side.

Federal grazing allotments near West Yellowstone also allow about 100 cow/calf
pairs in the summer.

But the owners all have their own interests. Few make a living from cattle, but
some use them as management tools and have invested heavily in improvements with
cattle in mind.

Hank Rate, who has a history of wildlife advocacy, runs 20 cows on a 70-acre
parcel north of Corwin Springs. He said he's had bison on his property in the
past, as well as bears and mountain lions, but didn't have problems.

But each of those cows was born on his place, he said, and his family values the
lifestyle of raising cattle.

"They're part of the family, too," he said of his cows.

Selling his grazing rights for 10 years would put him out of the cow business
permanently, he said, and that doesn't appeal to him. If he's going out of
business, he'd rather sell a conservation easement for wildlife, he said.

The biggest cattle operator in the region is the Church Universal and Triumphant
at Corwin Springs.

Pat Flowers, regional manager for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and
Parks, has been negotiating with church officials, trying to work out some kind
of deal that would give bison more room. (A $13 million U.S. Forest Service deal
in 1999 bought land from the church, but the church retained the grazing
rights.)

Most of the bison slaughtered this winter died because they were heading for the
church's pastures, where about 150 cattle graze.

The negotiations, Flowers said, center around "how to allow bison to use (the
ranch) in a way that's not going to cause big problems for them as landowners."

Possible solutions include leases, temporary fencing around sensitive areas, and
other measures, he said.

"Hopefully, we can work through all the details on this," he said. "Initially,
all the solutions seem really simple. Then, you start peeling the onion and it's
not so simple."

Still, Schweitzer's proposal is a start.

The Racicot and Martz administrations relied on lawsuits and court-ordered
negotiations to come up with the existing plan, which resulted in the roundup
and slaughter of all those bison this year.

"This is a huge first step" in coming up with something better, Seay said.

And there might be a longterm upside to this year's heavy slaughter.

"By taking 1,000 bison out, we might have bought a couple years worth of time to
work out a better solution," Mundinger said.

Schweitzer said he looks forward to working with people, trying to hammer out a
better plan, where bison get to roam, cattle are protected and people who give
something up such as grazing rights - are compensated.

"When the grass greens up, we're going to sit down and talk about some new
plans," he said. "If you've got a better idea, bring it."

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com