Emergency Action Needed to Protect Central Bison Herd
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Buffalo Field Campaign
March 2018

ACTION

Please USE OUR SAMPLE LETTER, and in your own words tell Montana and Yellowstone that they must take emergency action to protect what remains of the Central buffalo herd and close all buffalo hunting west of Yellowstone National Park and cease plans to capture for slaughter or any other reason.

Make some calls and then SIGN THE LETTER.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock
(406) 444-3111
(855) 318-1330 (toll free)
[email protected]

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Director Martha Williams
(406) 444-3186

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk
(307) 344-2002
[email protected]

Yellowstone National Park Bison Biologist Rick Wallen
(307) 344-2207text

INFORMATION

TALKING POINTS

Yellowstone's Central buffalo herd has declined by nearly half since last year. When Yellowstone released their report on the status of the Yellowstone bison, there were only 847 buffalo remaining. Now that hunting has commenced, fewer than 800 remain. This subpopulation of the last continuously wild, migratory buffalo has been in seriously dire straights and is continuing to decline at a rapid pace due to the nefarious actions of the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park. In a little more than a decade, government capture, slaughter, harassment, and hunting, has reduced the Central Interior herd to less than one-fourth its size.

The status of the Central herd is so dire that Yellowstone bison biologists are recommending that state and tribal hunting cease in the Hebgen Basin, west of Yellowstone National Park, where the Central herd exclusively migrates. This hunting closure suggestion will likely be met with resistance by hunters and hunt managers, so it is imperative that we raise our voices and be heard for the herd!

But, Yellowstone cannot place the conservation burden on hunters alone.

The Central herd migrates both west into the Hebgen Basin and also north into the Gardiner Basin, where Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek buffalo trap is. It is irresponsible and unjust for Yellowstone biologists to suggest hunters cease to kill, when they intend to capture-for-slaughter or removal, hundreds of wild buffalo this winter, knowing that many of these buffalo will be from the Central herd. Aside from a few radio collared females, they will not know which buffalo are from which herd. Yellowstone’s capture operations kill hundreds more buffalo than hunters do on the west and north side, combined. If Yellowstone moves forward with capture-for-slaughter operations, they will be neglecting their responsibility to the buffalo, ignoring the tragic shift that they recognize and have directly caused, and will be placing the bulk of the conservation burden on hunters, especially the five Tribes hunting under treaty right.

Finally, for the few survivors remaining in the spring, Montana must also cease hazing or harassing buffalo and let them roam in peace.

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Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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