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Yellowstone National Park (YNP) agreed on April 19th to a down payment of $1.8 million to the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), plus additional payments of $76,500 per year for 20 years, totaling $3.3 million, for a 30-year narrow bison corridor easement and the removal of CUT’s small, recently acquired herd of cattle. This would allow 25 bison, tested and fitted with neck and vaginal electronic transmitters, to walk the easement and keep the bison from acting like wildlife. They must obey the impossible strictures of the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), written by the stock growers, and stay within its restrictive zones 1, 2 and 3 boundaries.
We are paying $3,300,000 twice for a single easement along a Park County road that has a public right-of-way!!! Why do four non-government organizations (NGO’s) and a seriously misled Governor support this $3.3 million deal?
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to mask the fact that our Governor has allowed the elimination of 1,700 bison on his watch in 2008, more than any time since the late 1800s.
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to perpetuate a falsehood that bison are being allowed to widely roam in Montana.
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as a ruse to brag that adaptive management is practiced under the IBMP.
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as a public relations stunt to divide and shut up those who question this situation.
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to hide the fact that the population is below 2,500 bison within YNP.
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to obscure the recent congressional audit by the General Accounting Office (GAO) harshly critical of the IBMP and recommending drastic revisions of the plan.
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the $3.3 million deal supports and reinforces the stock growers’ IBMP, the plan the GAO recommends changing.
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The deal will lead to bison slaughter in the future and does nothing for a real solution. Bison are a gift to Montana from YNP. Millions of acres of national forest and acquired wildlife ranges in the Gardiner, West Yellowstone and Gallatin basins can accommodate these adaptive animals managed by Montana as native wildlife.
Please write, call or e-mail the GAO and request an audit on this deal.
April 23, 2008 |
