by [email protected]
Last Thursday night the A & E network aired a program on
the continued slaughter of the bison of Yellowstone National Park by the
state of Montana. I was very pleased to see this national exposure to a
problem which has bothered me for years. The state officials and the
cattlemen who are responsible for killing thousands of bison over the
last decade gave their own excuses for their actions, and it was obvious
to the viewer that the motivation was greed. The cattlemen of Montana,
who pay below market value to graze their cattle on federal land
surrounding Yellowstone want to view the bison as pests which could
possibly pass disease to the cattle. This claim was shown to be
ludicrous. Mike Mease, the organizer of the activist group Buffalo Field
Campaign, came across as the most intelligent and rational voice on the
program.
I am hopeful that this program will cause people who saw
it to write letters, because continued protests to our elected officials
is our best chance of ending this tragic waste of a national treasure
which belongs not to Montana, but to all the people. Something which is
not very well known is that Montana Governor Marc Racicot, one of the
men primarily responsible for the bison slaughter, is a strong
possibility to be appointed Secretary of the Interior by George Bush
Jr., if Bush is elected. As a Park Ranger, I would hate to see Racicot
in this position, as the National Park Service is a branch of the
Department of the Interior; the symbol of the Interior Department is the
bison. The environmental destruction which would follow to benefit
ranchers, loggers and other special interest groups would be
intolerable.
So far this year's winter has been mild in Montana. Most
of the bison have stayed inside the safety of the park and none have
been killed for wandering out into this backward state. But there are a
couple of months of winter left that far north. Let's not wait until the
killing begins again. Please go to the website of the Buffalo Field
Campaign and learn what actions you can take to help end this senseless
situation.
Buffalo Field Campaign
http://www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/index.html
[Editor's Note: Anyone interested in helping to work on
the campaign to stop the harassment and killing of the Yellowstone
Bison, please email
[email protected] ]
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