Planning a vacation to the American West this summer?

How about boycotting the State of Montana in protest of their intended slaughter of 300 wild bison, including many small nursing calves, in the next few days.

The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) has set up a bison trap near the West Yellowstone airport, on state land and they intend to begin capturing approximately 300 wild buffalo, including tiny newborns and their whole families, beginning Thursday, May 31.

Little buffalo calves between one month to a week old will be captured, separated from their mothers, and taken to the slaughterhouse along with their mothers and any other buffalo caught in the trap.

Click here to see photos of the beautiful buffalo babies and their families that are slated for execution:

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/photos/bisonphotos0607maycalves.html

At an "emergency" Board of Livestock meeting in the Governor's office Tuesday, the decision was made by Montana's acting state veterinarian Jeanne Rankin. State agents will capture and ship these buffalo to slaughter without even testing for brucellosis exposure--the State’s only excuse for continuing to kill these gentle creatures.

Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis was asked at the meeting Tuesday if capturing and transporting the buffalo deeper into Yellowstone would be a feasible alternative to slaughtering them.

While the DOL said it is feasible, Suzanne Lewis shot down this option. Apparently Suzanne Lewis to forfeit the lives of America's last wild buffalo rather than relocate them.

She said, "it has never been a policy of the Interagency Bison Management Plan to haul bison into the Park."

In other words, she's attempting to wash her hands of this atrocity, handing the fate of these buffalo over to Montana, which intends to haul them all to slaughter.

The decision to trap and slaughter comes hot on the heels of brucellosis being discovered in a Montana cattle herd, far to the north and east of Yellowstone and far from any migration route of wild buffalo.

There are no cattle currently in the West Yellowstone area and the majority of the bison to be captured and slaughtered pose NO risk of bacteria transmission. Because the bacteria can only be transmitted through contaminated reproductive materials, bison bulls, yearlings, non-pregnant females, calves, and mothers with calves CANNOT transmit the bacteria. Bison are not to blame for the outbreak of brucellosis in a Montana cattle herd. Wild bison have never transmitted brucellosis to cattle. But the cattle industry wants to blame someone for the outbreak, and as always, they have set their sights on wildlife.

These agencies are seriously concerned about the black eye they will receive in the press and jury of public opinion for committing this act against the nation's last wild buffalo.

Let’s give them some publicity they won’t soon forget!

Please contact these three decision-makers and demand that they cease plans to capture and slaughter the buffalo who are trying to live wild and free! Contact each by phone, fax, and email and let's not let them forget that the world is watching!

* MONTANA GOVERNOR BRIAN SCHWEITZER: Demand that Schweitzer keep his campaign promise to provide tolerance for bison in Montana.
(406) 444-3111 (phone)
(406) 444-5529 (fax)
governor@mt.gov (email)

* MONTANA ACTING STATE VET JEANNE RANKIN: Urge her to withdraw her decision to slaughter Yellowstone bison calves and family groups. Remind her you are boycotting beef and your friends are joining you!
(406) 444-1895 (phone)
(800) 523-3162 (phone)
(406) 444-1929 (fax)
jrankin@mt.gov (email)

* YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS: Ask her if it's really worth the lives of 300 wild buffalo, including newborn calves, to have Montana ship them to slaughter rather than deeper into the Park.
(307) 344-2002 (phone)
(307) 344-2005 (fax)
suzanne_lewis@nps.gov OR yell_superintendent@nps.gov (email)

And be sure to boycott the State of Montana in your vacation plans this summer!

Other options besides slaughtering bison!

ITBC transport bison to indigenous lands!

Tuesday Jun 12th, 2007 4:48 PM

For several years there existed alternatives to the slaughter of Yellowstone's bison herd. The Montana cattle ranchers who are advocating for this slaughter are not only misinformed (brucellosis does NOT cross species boundaries from bison to cattle unless introduced by human intervention), they are also unwilling to compromise with indigenous groups interested in restoring bison to sovereign native lands further east..

The InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) has volunteered numerous times to transport the migrating Yellowstone bison to their lands for care. Bison with brucellosis can be treated apart from other bison, and with possible healing potential from brucellosis without death by Montana rancher's rifle? All that the ITBC asks is for the bison to be held temporarily until they can provide transport. For some reason Montana has chosen eradication of Yellowstone's bison instead of allowing them to survive elsewhere. This transport of bison would also help restore bison herds further east by introducing genetic diversity..

Why then, do the Montana cattle ranchers despise bison with such intensity that they refuse to help indigenous peoples attempting to restore their cultural dependency on bison??

This from ITBC;

"They gathered in the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota on a cold February day in 1991. With only four days prior notice, nineteen tribes from all four directions braved the harsh Dakota winter to attend. Lakota representatives from most of the reservations in South Dakota were there, as well as the Crow, Shoshone-Bannock, Gros Ventre /Assinoboine and Blackfeet Nations of Montana. Various Pueblo representatives from New Mexico pulled in, and the Winnebago, traditionally called Ho Chunk, from both Nebraska and Wisconsin came. Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and some as far west as Round Valley of California arrived. Some of these tribes were historically enemies, but now they unite for a common mission...


"to restore bison to Indian Nations in a manner that is compatible
with their spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices".

Our History

The American buffalo, also known as bison, has always held great meaning for American Indian people. To Indian people, buffalo represent their spirit and remind them of how their lives were once lived, free and in harmony with nature. In the 1800's, the white-man recognized the reliance Indian tribes had on the buffalo. Thus began the systematic destruction of the buffalo to try to subjugate the western tribal nations. The slaughter of over 60 million buffalo left only a few hundred buffalo remaining.

Without the buffalo, the independent life of the Indian people could no longer be maintained. The Indian spirit, along with that of the buffalo, suffered an enormous loss. At that time, tribes began to sign treaties with the U.S. Government in an attempt to protect the land and the buffalo for their future generations. The destruction of buffalo herds and the associated devastation to the tribes disrupted the self-sufficient lifestyle of Indian people more than all other federal policies to date.

To reestablish healthy buffalo populations on tribal lands is to reestablish hope for Indian people. Members of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) understand that reintroduction of the buffalo to tribal lands will help heal the spirit of both the Indian people and the buffalo.


ITBC Today

ITBC has a membership of 57 tribes with a collective herd of over 15,000 bison. Membership of ITBC remains open and there is continued interest by non-member tribes in the organization.

ITBC is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) tribal organization and is committed to reestablishing buffalo herds on Indian lands in a manner that promotes cultural enhancement, spiritual revitalization, ecological restoration, and economic development. ITBC is governed by a Board of Directors, which is comprised of one tribal representative from each member tribe. The role of the ITBC, as established by its membership, is to act as a facilitator in coordinating education and training programs, developing marketing strategies, coordinating the transfer of surplus buffalo from national parks to tribal lands, and providing technical assistance to its membership in developing sound management plans that will help each tribal herd become a successful and self-sufficient operation."

please visit @;
http://itbcbison.com/about.php

Other non-natives are also interested in restoring the tall & short grass ecosystem of the great plains region, complete with bison. The American Prairie Foundation needs non-hybridized bison (as those being slaughtered today in Montana!) to increase their herd's population and genetic diversity..

"The Big Picture

Perhaps no species is as emblematic of the North American grasslands as the plains bison, once described as “innumerable” in number by the early 19th century European explorers of the Great Plains. Today, the plains bison is not only ecologically extinct, but it is also threatened by the erosion of the wild bison genome. Only about 19,000 bison, or 4%, of the estimated 500,000 plains bison now in North America, live in some 50 conservation herds, and no herd in the Great Plains is free ranging. The majority of these conservation herds are not being managed to preserve genetic elements over time.

Another problem for the bison genome is the hybridization of bison and domestic cattle. At the turn of the century, bison were crossbred with cattle in the hopes of mixing cattle’s domesticity with bison’s hardiness. Recent scientific findings show the extensive impacts of hybridization; of the 500,000 bison alive today, fewer than 7,000 are non-hybridized.

As part of American Prairie Foundation’s (APF) mission to conserve native prairie wildlife, one long-term goal is to restore the genetic health and ecological role of bison. APF has the unique ability to provide a significant and lasting contribution to the conservation of bison in North America and is in the process of creating one of the continent's most important conservation herds of non-hybridized bison."

article cont's @;
http://www.americanprairie.org/page.php?link_id=22&PHPSESSID=240ff97ad34030874508e7d31deda75a

The cruel and careless slaughter by Montana's cattle ranchers of the remaining non-hybridized bison of Yellowstone is a crime against our collective ecosystem and indigenous North Americans. One could claim that the Montana cattle ranchers are indeed creating an extinction of bison for pleasure and profit, though certainly not neccesity. Even Montana cattle ranchers do not grow up in a vacuum, they are certainly aware of how the decimation of bison occurred alongside the destruction of Great Plains' Native Americans' culture. To slaughter the bison today when there are indigenous groups asking for their restoration makes the genocide against indigenous North Americans an ongoing crime, with Montana cattle ranchers as today's primary perpetrators..

There are plenty of homes on the prairie waiting for the migrating bison of Yellowstone, the slaughter and decimation of the migrating bison by Montana cattle ranchers is the most disgusting behavior..

* Special Update: Bull Bison Spared; Hazing Continues

by BFC Repost

Tuesday Jun 12th, 2007 11:55 PM

Dear Buffalo Friends,

All of the buffalo captured in West Yellowstone on Friday - 52 total - were released Sunday morning. This includes the 16 bulls that the Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park had intended to slaughter.

THANK YOU! YOUR PERSISTENT ACTION MADE THE DIFFERENCE AGAIN!

In less than two weeks, your calls and emails to Governor Schweitzer and Yellowstone National Park saved the lives of hundreds of buffalo and have brought an incredible amount of media attention to the issue.

While there is a relatively happy ending, these 52 buffalo endured an ordeal. Not only was their migration forcefully choked, they were captured, moms and calves were separated, family groups were broken apart, they were loaded onto livestock trailers, unloaded at the Duck Creek bison trap, re-loaded onto livestock trailers and hauled over 150 miles to the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. Then they were placed in the Stephens Creek bison trap where they spent a few days before being hazed deeper into Yellowstone. Agents released them at 5:30 in the morning. Starting that early indicates that there was something they didn't want the public to see. You can see a short BFC video clip of the capture on our home page: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.

Over the weekend and up through today, the agents have been continuously harassing wild bison in Montana and Yellowstone National Park. Park visitors witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Interagency Bison Management Plan participants hazing wild bison from horseback and with a helicopter inside Yellowstone's boundaries. One Park ranger explained to outraged tourists today that they were witnessing "a buffalo drive." Welcome to the world's first national park.

Wild buffalo are being managed like livestock and treated as vermin under pressure from Montana's cattle industry. The agencies and media have been describing wild, migrating buffalo with words like "renegade," "wandering" and "recalcitrant." These same terms never apply to migrating whales, salmon, birds or other animals; why does Montana insist on such misnomers for wild bison? Native to nearly the entire North American continent, wild buffalo roam. Buffalo are doing exactly what they evolved to do. They are attempting to naturally restore themselves and while this should be cause for enormous celebration, government and industry punish them.

Year-round habitat for wild buffalo in Montana is the solution.

Keep the pressure on the decision-makers and the vision of wild, free-roaming buffalo alive. We will make it happen.

Roam Free!

Buffalo Field Campaign


--

--
Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media [at] wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America.

Stay informed! Get our weekly email Updates from the Field:
Send your email address to bfc-media [at] wildrockies.org

BOYCOTT BEEF! It's what's killing wild buffalo.


Migration of bison improves prairie ecosystem!

Bison restoration for biodiversity!

Wednesday Jun 13th, 2007 10:18 AM

Seasonal migration of bison is exactly why the grassland prairies they occasionally graze contain greater biodiversity than the continuous grazing occupation of beef cattle. The grazing methods of migratory bison could be described as high intensity, low frequency. By being less frequent visitors, they allow additional space for other species while also stimulating regrowth in grasses..

"Effects on the Prairie

Bison affect both the structure and the functioning of prairie communities. They prefer grasses to forbs and prefer some grasses over others (Vinton, et al 1993; Kreuger, 1986). Thus by reducing populations of their favored forage, they improve habitat for other species thereby increasing biodiversity. Bison also affect the productivity of grasses. Vinton and Hartnett (1992) report that grazing can stimulate growth in tallgrass prairie grasses in the short term, but decrease it over longer periods of sustained grazing. Prior to European settlement bison migrated in search of better food. It is difficult to precisely reconstruct the influence of bison on the range because large herds with unimpeded migration no longer exist. However, bison grazing was probably high intensity, low frequency. In other words, a herd would intensely graze an area, then move on, so that the grazed area could then recover. This form of grazing pressure differs from fenced herds, which may be low intensity, but high frequency. This kind of grazing may have a stronger influence on community composition, because the bison are continually removing their favored forage plants, leaving the species they disfavor."

article @;
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/midewin/bison03.html

Beef cattle ranching is a capitalist market driven business and depends on the cattle developing into maturity as quickly as possible. To accomplish the fast rate of the cattle herd's growth with synthetic hormones also requires that the cattle be supplemented with additional food sources (corn, alfalfa, etc..) usually grown off site with the use of petrochemical pesticides/fertilizers/etc..

The cattle feed itself is often grown by industrial agriculture on land that was once a prairie ecosystem that fed the bison! Adding in transport of cattle feed and clearly cattle consumption is far more ecologically destructive than free range bison..

Short grass prairie background;

"The Western Short Grasslands is among the richest ecoregions in the United States and Canada for species of butterflies, birds, and mammals. Part of this pattern can be explained by the closer proximity of this ecoregion to the subtropics. This ecoregion once supported one of the most impressive migrations of a large ungulate species anywhere in the world–the American bison migration. Today, bison no longer migrate, but bison ranching is becoming increasingly popular. The Western Short Grasslands also contains the fastest declining bird populations on the continent–the endemic birds of the short grasslands of the Great Plains. These species are declining faster than many neotropical migratory birds whose plight receives much more attention."

So what happened?

"Nearly all of this ecoregion is in farms and ranches. Cropland cover varies between 30-60 percent across the ecoregion (even higher in western Kansas and western Nebraska), with grazing lands occupying the remainder. The amount of irrigated farmland varies across the ecoregion. In the northern section in Colorado, almost all of the land is in farms or ranches with a build-up of urban areas along the eastern edge of the Rockies. About 68 percent is used for grazing domestic livestock, with about 15 percent of the area planted in dry crops.

In the extreme southern section of the ecoregion, grazing covers more than 75 percent of the area. Overgrazing has allowed the spread of woody shrubs and trees and the near permanent conversion of plains grasslands to desert scrublands. Approximately 40 percent of the remaining habitat in this ecoregion is considered to be intact, one of the highest percentages among North American grasslands, and the highest among grassland ecoregions greater than 70,000 km2. In the western section of this ecoregion, rangelands are moderate to heavily grazed."

article @;
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Western_short_grasslands

The seasonal migrations of bison allow the short/tallgrass prairie (high altitude prairie in the Rockies) ecosystem to recover from grazing during their absence and regrow lush and fertile for their return. There are three basic types of prairie stretching from the Rockies to the Midwest; tall, medium and shortgrass varieties based on annual rainfall..

Background info;

"Prairies or grasslands once covered the entire central part of the North American continent, extending from what is now Alberta, Canada to central Texas and east to west from western Indiana to the Rocky Mountains. Prairies vary in type according to levels of rainfall: Tallgrass prairies are found in the eastern-most regions, where average are 30 to 40 inches a year; mixed-grass prairies are found to the west, in areas that receive about 23 to 30 inches a year; and short grass prairies predominate within the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, where average annual precipitation is less than fifteen inches. These regions correspond to the corn, wheat, and cattle grazing belts respectively.

When European settlers first arrived in the United States, prairies covered more land than any other vegetation. The primary Great Plains ecosystem, the "tallgrass prairie," was a vast sea of waving grasses as far as the eye could see. It was an almost treeless world featuring rich dark soil and grass species adapted to modest rainfall and regular fires, populated by bison herds and plains tribes such as the Sioux. Today, only five percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains."

article @;
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/92.html

Reality is that the consumption of beef cattle is resulting in the decimation of bison, a species far more adaptable to the native prairie ecosystems of north american continent.

other info;
http://www.okrangelandswest.okstate.edu/FireEcology.html

America's Lost Landscape: Tallgrass Prairie
http://www.lostlandscapefilm.com/lostland/

Other options besides slaughtering bison!

ITBC transport bison to indigenous lands!

Tuesday Jun 12th, 2007 4:48 PM

For several years there existed alternatives to the slaughter of Yellowstone's bison herd. The Montana cattle ranchers who are advocating for this slaughter are not only misinformed (brucellosis does NOT cross species boundaries from bison to cattle unless introduced by human intervention), they are also unwilling to compromise with indigenous groups interested in restoring bison to sovereign native lands further east..

The InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) has volunteered numerous times to transport the migrating Yellowstone bison to their lands for care. Bison with brucellosis can be treated apart from other bison, and with possible healing potential from brucellosis without death by Montana rancher's rifle? All that the ITBC asks is for the bison to be held temporarily until they can provide transport. For some reason Montana has chosen eradication of Yellowstone's bison instead of allowing them to survive elsewhere. This transport of bison would also help restore bison herds further east by introducing genetic diversity..

Why then, do the Montana cattle ranchers despise bison with such intensity that they refuse to help indigenous peoples attempting to restore their cultural dependency on bison??

This from ITBC;

"They gathered in the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota on a cold February day in 1991. With only four days prior notice, nineteen tribes from all four directions braved the harsh Dakota winter to attend. Lakota representatives from most of the reservations in South Dakota were there, as well as the Crow, Shoshone-Bannock, Gros Ventre /Assinoboine and Blackfeet Nations of Montana. Various Pueblo representatives from New Mexico pulled in, and the Winnebago, traditionally called Ho Chunk, from both Nebraska and Wisconsin came. Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and some as far west as Round Valley of California arrived. Some of these tribes were historically enemies, but now they unite for a common mission...


"to restore bison to Indian Nations in a manner that is compatible
with their spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices".

Our History

The American buffalo, also known as bison, has always held great meaning for American Indian people. To Indian people, buffalo represent their spirit and remind them of how their lives were once lived, free and in harmony with nature. In the 1800's, the white-man recognized the reliance Indian tribes had on the buffalo. Thus began the systematic destruction of the buffalo to try to subjugate the western tribal nations. The slaughter of over 60 million buffalo left only a few hundred buffalo remaining.

Without the buffalo, the independent life of the Indian people could no longer be maintained. The Indian spirit, along with that of the buffalo, suffered an enormous loss. At that time, tribes began to sign treaties with the U.S. Government in an attempt to protect the land and the buffalo for their future generations. The destruction of buffalo herds and the associated devastation to the tribes disrupted the self-sufficient lifestyle of Indian people more than all other federal policies to date.

To reestablish healthy buffalo populations on tribal lands is to reestablish hope for Indian people. Members of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) understand that reintroduction of the buffalo to tribal lands will help heal the spirit of both the Indian people and the buffalo.


ITBC Today

ITBC has a membership of 57 tribes with a collective herd of over 15,000 bison. Membership of ITBC remains open and there is continued interest by non-member tribes in the organization.

ITBC is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) tribal organization and is committed to reestablishing buffalo herds on Indian lands in a manner that promotes cultural enhancement, spiritual revitalization, ecological restoration, and economic development. ITBC is governed by a Board of Directors, which is comprised of one tribal representative from each member tribe. The role of the ITBC, as established by its membership, is to act as a facilitator in coordinating education and training programs, developing marketing strategies, coordinating the transfer of surplus buffalo from national parks to tribal lands, and providing technical assistance to its membership in developing sound management plans that will help each tribal herd become a successful and self-sufficient operation."

please visit @;
http://itbcbison.com/about.php

Other non-natives are also interested in restoring the tall & short grass ecosystem of the great plains region, complete with bison. The American Prairie Foundation needs non-hybridized bison (as those being slaughtered today in Montana!) to increase their herd's population and genetic diversity..

"The Big Picture

Perhaps no species is as emblematic of the North American grasslands as the plains bison, once described as “innumerable” in number by the early 19th century European explorers of the Great Plains. Today, the plains bison is not only ecologically extinct, but it is also threatened by the erosion of the wild bison genome. Only about 19,000 bison, or 4%, of the estimated 500,000 plains bison now in North America, live in some 50 conservation herds, and no herd in the Great Plains is free ranging. The majority of these conservation herds are not being managed to preserve genetic elements over time.

Another problem for the bison genome is the hybridization of bison and domestic cattle. At the turn of the century, bison were crossbred with cattle in the hopes of mixing cattle’s domesticity with bison’s hardiness. Recent scientific findings show the extensive impacts of hybridization; of the 500,000 bison alive today, fewer than 7,000 are non-hybridized.

As part of American Prairie Foundation’s (APF) mission to conserve native prairie wildlife, one long-term goal is to restore the genetic health and ecological role of bison. APF has the unique ability to provide a significant and lasting contribution to the conservation of bison in North America and is in the process of creating one of the continent's most important conservation herds of non-hybridized bison."

article cont's @;
http://www.americanprairie.org/page.php?link_id=22&PHPSESSID=240ff97ad34030874508e7d31deda75a

The cruel and careless slaughter by Montana's cattle ranchers of the remaining non-hybridized bison of Yellowstone is a crime against our collective ecosystem and indigenous North Americans. One could claim that the Montana cattle ranchers are indeed creating an extinction of bison for pleasure and profit, though certainly not neccesity. Even Montana cattle ranchers do not grow up in a vacuum, they are certainly aware of how the decimation of bison occurred alongside the destruction of Great Plains' Native Americans' culture. To slaughter the bison today when there are indigenous groups asking for their restoration makes the genocide against indigenous North Americans an ongoing crime, with Montana cattle ranchers as today's primary perpetrators..

There are plenty of homes on the prairie waiting for the migrating bison of Yellowstone, the slaughter and decimation of the migrating bison by Montana cattle ranchers is the most disgusting behavior..

* Special Update: Bull Bison Spared; Hazing Continues

by BFC Repost

Tuesday Jun 12th, 2007 11:55 PM

Dear Buffalo Friends,

All of the buffalo captured in West Yellowstone on Friday - 52 total - were released Sunday morning. This includes the 16 bulls that the Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park had intended to slaughter.

THANK YOU! YOUR PERSISTENT ACTION MADE THE DIFFERENCE AGAIN!

In less than two weeks, your calls and emails to Governor Schweitzer and Yellowstone National Park saved the lives of hundreds of buffalo and have brought an incredible amount of media attention to the issue.

While there is a relatively happy ending, these 52 buffalo endured an ordeal. Not only was their migration forcefully choked, they were captured, moms and calves were separated, family groups were broken apart, they were loaded onto livestock trailers, unloaded at the Duck Creek bison trap, re-loaded onto livestock trailers and hauled over 150 miles to the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. Then they were placed in the Stephens Creek bison trap where they spent a few days before being hazed deeper into Yellowstone. Agents released them at 5:30 in the morning. Starting that early indicates that there was something they didn't want the public to see. You can see a short BFC video clip of the capture on our home page: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.

Over the weekend and up through today, the agents have been continuously harassing wild bison in Montana and Yellowstone National Park. Park visitors witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Interagency Bison Management Plan participants hazing wild bison from horseback and with a helicopter inside Yellowstone's boundaries. One Park ranger explained to outraged tourists today that they were witnessing "a buffalo drive." Welcome to the world's first national park.

Wild buffalo are being managed like livestock and treated as vermin under pressure from Montana's cattle industry. The agencies and media have been describing wild, migrating buffalo with words like "renegade," "wandering" and "recalcitrant." These same terms never apply to migrating whales, salmon, birds or other animals; why does Montana insist on such misnomers for wild bison? Native to nearly the entire North American continent, wild buffalo roam. Buffalo are doing exactly what they evolved to do. They are attempting to naturally restore themselves and while this should be cause for enormous celebration, government and industry punish them.

Year-round habitat for wild buffalo in Montana is the solution.

Keep the pressure on the decision-makers and the vision of wild, free-roaming buffalo alive. We will make it happen.

Roam Free!

Buffalo Field Campaign


--

--
Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media [at] wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America.

Stay informed! Get our weekly email Updates from the Field:
Send your email address to bfc-media [at] wildrockies.org

BOYCOTT BEEF! It's what's killing wild buffalo.


Migration of bison improves prairie ecosystem!

Bison restoration for biodiversity!

Wednesday Jun 13th, 2007 10:18 AM

Seasonal migration of bison is exactly why the grassland prairies they occasionally graze contain greater biodiversity than the continuous grazing occupation of beef cattle. The grazing methods of migratory bison could be described as high intensity, low frequency. By being less frequent visitors, they allow additional space for other species while also stimulating regrowth in grasses..

"Effects on the Prairie

Bison affect both the structure and the functioning of prairie communities. They prefer grasses to forbs and prefer some grasses over others (Vinton, et al 1993; Kreuger, 1986). Thus by reducing populations of their favored forage, they improve habitat for other species thereby increasing biodiversity. Bison also affect the productivity of grasses. Vinton and Hartnett (1992) report that grazing can stimulate growth in tallgrass prairie grasses in the short term, but decrease it over longer periods of sustained grazing. Prior to European settlement bison migrated in search of better food. It is difficult to precisely reconstruct the influence of bison on the range because large herds with unimpeded migration no longer exist. However, bison grazing was probably high intensity, low frequency. In other words, a herd would intensely graze an area, then move on, so that the grazed area could then recover. This form of grazing pressure differs from fenced herds, which may be low intensity, but high frequency. This kind of grazing may have a stronger influence on community composition, because the bison are continually removing their favored forage plants, leaving the species they disfavor."

article @;
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/midewin/bison03.html

Beef cattle ranching is a capitalist market driven business and depends on the cattle developing into maturity as quickly as possible. To accomplish the fast rate of the cattle herd's growth with synthetic hormones also requires that the cattle be supplemented with additional food sources (corn, alfalfa, etc..) usually grown off site with the use of petrochemical pesticides/fertilizers/etc..

The cattle feed itself is often grown by industrial agriculture on land that was once a prairie ecosystem that fed the bison! Adding in transport of cattle feed and clearly cattle consumption is far more ecologically destructive than free range bison..

Short grass prairie background;

"The Western Short Grasslands is among the richest ecoregions in the United States and Canada for species of butterflies, birds, and mammals. Part of this pattern can be explained by the closer proximity of this ecoregion to the subtropics. This ecoregion once supported one of the most impressive migrations of a large ungulate species anywhere in the world–the American bison migration. Today, bison no longer migrate, but bison ranching is becoming increasingly popular. The Western Short Grasslands also contains the fastest declining bird populations on the continent–the endemic birds of the short grasslands of the Great Plains. These species are declining faster than many neotropical migratory birds whose plight receives much more attention."

So what happened?

"Nearly all of this ecoregion is in farms and ranches. Cropland cover varies between 30-60 percent across the ecoregion (even higher in western Kansas and western Nebraska), with grazing lands occupying the remainder. The amount of irrigated farmland varies across the ecoregion. In the northern section in Colorado, almost all of the land is in farms or ranches with a build-up of urban areas along the eastern edge of the Rockies. About 68 percent is used for grazing domestic livestock, with about 15 percent of the area planted in dry crops.

In the extreme southern section of the ecoregion, grazing covers more than 75 percent of the area. Overgrazing has allowed the spread of woody shrubs and trees and the near permanent conversion of plains grasslands to desert scrublands. Approximately 40 percent of the remaining habitat in this ecoregion is considered to be intact, one of the highest percentages among North American grasslands, and the highest among grassland ecoregions greater than 70,000 km2. In the western section of this ecoregion, rangelands are moderate to heavily grazed."

article @;
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Western_short_grasslands

The seasonal migrations of bison allow the short/tallgrass prairie (high altitude prairie in the Rockies) ecosystem to recover from grazing during their absence and regrow lush and fertile for their return. There are three basic types of prairie stretching from the Rockies to the Midwest; tall, medium and shortgrass varieties based on annual rainfall..

Background info;

"Prairies or grasslands once covered the entire central part of the North American continent, extending from what is now Alberta, Canada to central Texas and east to west from western Indiana to the Rocky Mountains. Prairies vary in type according to levels of rainfall: Tallgrass prairies are found in the eastern-most regions, where average are 30 to 40 inches a year; mixed-grass prairies are found to the west, in areas that receive about 23 to 30 inches a year; and short grass prairies predominate within the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, where average annual precipitation is less than fifteen inches. These regions correspond to the corn, wheat, and cattle grazing belts respectively.

When European settlers first arrived in the United States, prairies covered more land than any other vegetation. The primary Great Plains ecosystem, the "tallgrass prairie," was a vast sea of waving grasses as far as the eye could see. It was an almost treeless world featuring rich dark soil and grass species adapted to modest rainfall and regular fires, populated by bison herds and plains tribes such as the Sioux. Today, only five percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains."

article @;
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/92.html

Reality is that the consumption of beef cattle is resulting in the decimation of bison, a species far more adaptable to the native prairie ecosystems of north american continent.

other info;
http://www.okrangelandswest.okstate.edu/FireEcology.html

America's Lost Landscape: Tallgrass Prairie
http://www.lostlandscapefilm.com/lostland/

Bison are delicious. Make them food for the poor.