Purchase of grazing rights from CUT ranch would create corridor for migrating animals
By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press
The owners of a ranch bordering Yellowstone National Park have sold off their cattle in anticipation of a deal with federal and state officials that could stem the slaughter of some bison leaving the park.
The deal, which may be announced today, calls for the purchase of grazing rights from the Royal Teton Ranch to create a corridor that bison could use to access thousands of acres in the Gallatin National Forest.
That would mark a breakthrough in a decadelong effort to expand tolerance for bison outside the park. However, most bison leaving the park still would be subject to slaughter.
For more than a decade, bison migrating from Yellowstone during winter have been captured and killed - including a record 1,600 animals this season. The capture program was started out of concern the bison could transmit the disease brucellosis to livestock.
The Government Accountability Office released a report last month criticizing state and federal agencies for failing to resolve the issue despite almost $16 million spent over the last five years.
Kate Gordon, president of the Church Universal and Triumphant, which owns the Royal Teton Ranch, said the grazing rights deal would be announced today.
The price on the deal has been estimated at $2.5 million to $3 million.
"I have no doubt this is going to be finished. I wouldn't have been so foolish to have sold the cattle if (a deal) were not in place," Gordon said Wednesday.
She said the ranch earlier in the week had shipped off the last of its 150 cow-calf pairs and six bulls.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis have scheduled an announcement at 1:30 p.m. today in Bozeman regarding a federal-state agreement that governs Yellowstone's bison. Details were not offered, and representatives of both declined to comment Wednesday.
Completion of the Royal Teton
Ranch deal would allow a small number of bison to range well outside the park's northern boundary, on more than 7,000 acres that would be free of cattle.
Initially, 25 bison that test negative for brucellosis would be allowed passage. In coming years, that could grow to 100 bison if the program proves successful.
Bison that wander outside Yellowstone's northern boundary in excess of those numbers would still be subject to slaughter.
A bison advocacy group, the Buffalo Field Campaign, has been critical of the proposal's limited scope.
The Church Universal and Triumphant is a religious sect that gained notoriety last decade for its predictions of impending apocalypse. Since 1998, the federal government has paid the church $13 million for conservation easements on the ranch but has never resolved grazing rights.
A tentative deal between the church and state negotiators was reached last July, but state and federal officials had previously been unable to come up with money to pay for it.
Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican, blocked a Congressional amendment last year that would have urged the Department of Agriculture to commit $1.5 million to the deal.
Brucellosis causes pregnant cows to abort their calves and can have dire financial consequences for the cattle industry.
About half of bison test positive for exposure to the disease, although the actual infection rate is much lower. There have been no recorded cattle-to-bison transmissions.
Published on Thursday, April 17, 2008. Last modified on 4/17/2008 at 12:48 am
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"I wouldn't have been so foolish to have sold the cattle if (a deal) were not in place," Gordon said Wednesday." *** Don't sell your group short, Guru Kate. We all remember when 1989 when your cult was yelling "The end is here!!" and digging bomb shelters that you would later drop bulldozers through, and the whole fuel tank spill fiasco. We're pretty sure you'll mess it up somehow!
The article states *** "breakthrough in a decadelong effort to expand tolerance for bison outside the park. However, most bison leaving the park still would be subject to slaughter." *** This classic government doublespeak reminds us all of the old Native saying "White man speaks with forked tongue".
And Sooo...The Bison now have a gateway into Montana....and in five more years the population will double, and the Buffalo cult will want more land...and more land...and more problems will result.....Watch and see...
Some idiots think this this will solve the problem, it will not. 25 to 100 bison are not a drop in the bucket. Where does it stop. They have piss poor plan to contain bison in this 7000 acres of forest lands. If they leave they will either be hazed or shot. This is not about expanding the bison herd it is all about setting the presedence of lack of mangement of population control by a bunch of power hungry, land grabbing liberals. If theyget this mark my words they will want to move the bison into Paradise valley within 10 years. If you force me to alow free roaming bison on my property I will subdivide it to death just in spite. How about some really low income illegal alien housing. Since the same people are all for them also and us taxpayers are footing the bill we will just stick them in one place. You will not even be able to fit a bison between a house. plus they will have something to eat. And nobody ever said the Royal Teton was smart. I wonder if anybody ever told them the Teton's are at the south end of the park not the north.
So who wouldn't lease their place out for 2-3 million? The usual price for 150 cow-calf pairs is 150 X $25 = $3750 per year. That smell is not buffalo chips coming out of the Yankee Jim canyon. It is corruption. Your tax dollars hard at work. Is there going to be a conflict between tribe members when they go out to the cult ranch to join hands while praising the buffalo when the singing and dancing begins? Yellowstone Park is just turning into one big game ranch except it's run by the government. Illegal for everyone else but not Uncle Sam.
so assuming one hundred bison were "allowed" to leave the park this year under this deal the slaughter of bison would have been "limited" to 1500 animals rather than the 1600 that were killed.....bad choice of words for a headline
A few years ago the government wanted to control the number of buffalo by dropping in Canadian wolves. All that did is kill off everything in the park BUT the buffalo. Now the government is spending moneys to lease more land to expand the buffalo range down off the mountain when the snow gets deep. I'm all for everyone in the world holding hands and singing Kumbaya and getting some lovin but I wish Gov. Schweitzer would be a little more discrete about it.
The way the Bison excess was addressed this last winter was the proper one. The rest of this corridor garbage is expensive and ultimately useless. What is so hard to understand about the fact that these Bison breed themselves out of the grazing capacity and must be culled. We cull livestock for that reason , we cull deer, elk, antelope, waterfowl, predators to prevent overpopulation. We ought to be culling wild horses to a level that will allow them to live without starving. There is a large enough herd in the park to stay healthy but they actually have calves every year believe it or not and the numbers must be controlled - not just turned loose on the public land to decimate that for the other wildlife. Spend money on catching them in the park, testing them, culling the brucellosis carriers, and bangs vaccinate the rest once and for all. While this is being done arrest the nutcases that get in the way of getting it done.
well said most of you responders! hope the CUT doesn't forget to put on their boots as they walk through all that bison muck - $$$ are in their eyes and they are laughing all the way to the bank! having HAD close ties with YNP management for years, i wouldn't expect anything different from them regarding their 'agreements' with such a group.
I know I'm going to get slammed for this but I didn't finish the equation. 150 cow-calf pairs at $25 per month is 150 X $25 per pair X 12 months is $45,000 per year. It's still a little off from the 2.5 to 3 million paid to cowgirl Kate down on the ranch.
I think Mr. Looking Horse would do better to pray for an end to the killing of innocent Iraqis by American imperialists. Pray for world peace as Chief Two Moons used to do.
I want to be happy about there being some sort of "progress" but $3 million for 25 bison seems wrong on several levels. I thought the point of the GAO report was addressing the waste of time and money. All this hustle from interested parties looks more like a bunch of kids reacting to their dad reaching for the belt than progress toward a real resolution.
Lets see what Ben Nighthorse Campbell has to say, but I agree with culling, and when the herd gets big, ship them to tribes. Ranchers got what they want now, the herd will take years to populate to 1500 again so slow down...... they got what they wanted and as for all the capitalistics, you guys don't make sense, "Horray, the bison got some more land" I don' care where it is, just as long as they got a more land to me. Orvil talked for the buffalo spirits that didn't deserve to be treated that way, how dare you say that, besides Bush put Americans over there not Orvil. Someone is getting rich off the hides and skulls but not for long, buffalo aren't as prevalent as the 1800's. Leave the 'icon; bison, buffalo" alone ok..go comment about something else, you must have a lot of problems to be saying negative things, do us a favor and play hookie or something!!!!!!!!
And I thought the wolves where going to solve the problem, if it really is a problem to begin with. All of it is a bunch of B.S. $3 million for 25 buffalo?
Is it just me or do I sense a bias in this reporter's slant on this story? "Killing the park bison" , "subject to slaughter". There is no mention that there are too many buffalo for the park to support and that managing the herd is better than starvation. Yellowstone Park is not a natural ecosystem as some would like to believe. It is more like a very large zoo and the wildlife needs to be managed that way.
I have been quite adamant about my stand against the slaughter of buffalo coming from Yellowstone Park, and my feelings about the so-called hunters that line up like so many kids at the carnival shooting gallery and take pot shots at an animal that is not much more "wild" than ranch cattle, BUT...what HENRY has written makes sense to me; it needs more consideration in my opinion. The Cut deal stinks to high heaven, and CHUCK FENEY makes a good point about the shape the governmental tongue.
So we are now going to pay a cult 2.5 to 3 million to allow at least 25 and up to 100 bison to graze on there land. Once again i feel like as a taxpayer I am getting the shaft and not even getting kissed. Who could we be happy or proud about this deal other then CUT, but somehow our Gov acts like he just saved the world once again. Great deal Governor and Gov't. This is the most idiotic plan i have ever heard of, how does my cost equal my reward???? I have land outside of billings and you can put 25 bison there for just 1 million. Come on gov give me a call. The fact that our gov thinks he made a good deal just goes to show how he has no business running our state and that our Fed Govt is just as dumb.
This is great until they've overgrazed the CUT Ranch like the herds have the Park. They still have not addressed the fact that the species will soon enough rebound to numbers requiring the herd to be culled. Why isn't there a formula that's accepted for bison that has a remedy when the herd reaches maximum capacity? Fish And Game has one for Elk. If the Northern Herd reaches high numbers they issue more late season hunting permits (those were the days before wolves). Also, what happens next when the someone suggests that the CUT Ranch and surrounding Forrest Service be incorporated as National Parkway or National Park? Are we ready to make Yellowstone bigger? Start expanding the borders to lap over and contain the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. When the inmates run the asylum anything is possible.
Let the buffalo in, move the cattle out, so we have a viable population to hunt. Those of you with mad cow will still get your downer meat at all the fast food joints, so don’t worry if you can remember how to. The cattle ranchers can’t afford to feed their steers now anyways might as well raise a more efficient eating machine with a higher profit margin.
I think Guru Kate Prophet should adopt all the BFCers and make them cult members. Seems like such a good fit! The CUT folks would never notice the buffalo poop smell with the BFC there! Seems like way too much $$$ for no more than it accomplishes.
--"When the inmates run the asylum anything is possible."....So, in essence you're calling a mammal that has naturally been migrating in North America since the time of woolly mammoths 'the inmates? What gives you the right to play God against what was once North America's lifeline? The bison's pointed hooves actually used to naturally till the Great Plains, and they only basically cut the tops off the grasses they walked on with their lifeline. All of this mass slaughter started when some cow hundreds of miles away from any buffalo contacted brucellosis, and panicked of losing their disease free status, they essentially 'took it out' on the bison which have never been proven to give that disease (which by the way, came from across the seas) to any cow before. I mean, Elk carry brucellosis! I don't see them being single out and being penned in from natural migratory routes. Nope, just the buffalo.
As usual on this topic - lots of trash talk, but little logic or facts. First, let's remember the FS offered old Malcolm Forbes more for the land in question than CUT paid for it, but he was a right winger, opposed to the government owning land. The CUT has been milking their good luck like crazy, for years, while trashing the environment in their care. It seems there is always someone in Govt. willing to overpay them. 'launchpad', it is pretty silly to threaten us with subdividing whatever he had the great good fortune to inherit in Paradise Valley. Sooner or later, he, or his heirs, are going to go for the bucks, anyway. Force you to graze free roaming bison, guy? Yeah, that happens all the time. Nice little racist threat thrown in there, too, bringing those monstrous 'illegals' to Park Co. As for the part of the threat you will build so many houses a buffalo couldn't squeeze through - nice try, but you need subdivision permits which would never allow this pipe dream. For those who are claiming wolf reintroduction would contro/reduce bison numbers...well, I believe that is so much BS. I followed the issue pretty closely and I do not remember that. Thge idea is so stupid I'm guessing I would remember. Everyone splashing crap at NPS and Schweitzer should read the article more carefully. NPS has no voice in what happens to the bison outside the Park, and all the article says is the Supt. and the Gov. are going to announce some agreement we still do not know anything about. Anyone with a brain knows this little deal will not end the problem, or the debate. For those suggesting the Park should be run like a game farm, or complaining it is already run like a game farm, should read a little Park history. They used to try to control and manipulate every detail, and the results were a disaster. Beginning in the 60's advancing science convinced Congress, and Park managers, that the original mandate to preserve wildness and nature, as best as possible, was better. The results have been remarkable, and even though a lot of you like to attack everyone with a government check and a college education, the Park wildlife is far healthier today. Are there problems? Of course. Should we let rednecks who live in proximity, the Stockgrowers Assc., all the commercial interests only concerned with profits, and/or generally ignorant hysterics afraid of everything wild, manage this marvel of nature? Again I hear everyone complaining about the numbers of bison, not brucellosis. If it can be established this is a problem, we should apply pressure to the NPS to address it. You all quit bringing up brucellosis when it became obvious elk also carry the disease. You know you can't get the political support you would need to start killing off the elk, so now the problem is bison numbers. I don't think too much of this plan, and I hate to see CUT scam another dime, but all this hysterical misinformation drives me nuts.
Again, Lefty I'm in solidarity with you on this. DrGonzo: Inmates Running the Asylum are people that are not rational enough to realize that bison are just animals. There is a rabid anthropomorphism that is pervasive in our culture. Disney started it and there hasn't been an animated movie produced in the past 25 years that wasn't completely tainted by animal activism. "The Lion King", "Brother Bear", "Over the Hedge", "Wallace and Grommitt" all have unabashedly presented a warped anti-hunting message to a very impressionable age group. "Bambi" started it. The BFC kids watched a bit too much TV back home in Massachusetts. No, the inmates are the folks that are incoherent not to see that there needs to be a realistic balance between wildlife and humans, and wildplaces and development. It's a very romantic notion about immense herds of bison running wild again; but it's not realistic.
This is finally a step in the right direction thit is going to cost way too much. Here's a novel idea "Get those stupid, dirty, useless cows out of our public forests" and let wild places stay wild. Bangs hurts cattle because they are not allowed to grow past it like Bison and Elk, wolves kill cattle because they are genetically manipulated to be brain dead and fat. Bison could become a regular part of MT wildlife and could be hunted which would generate giant profit for the state. I am tired of delas being made for cattle and cattle ranchers...their concerns are not mine!
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