Vol 3, # 47

   Wednesday, May 5, 1999

YELLOWSTONE
WEATHER
Highs 50s, Lows 20s
Mostly Sunny
 

Yellowstone Net Home Page
Vacation Reservations

ROAD REPORT
As of Friday,
all entrances
other than the
NE entrance
will be open.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- With the coming of spring and the warmer weather it brings, the bison crisis appears to be over for this season.  A total of 91 Yellowstone bison were slaughtered by the Montana Department of Livestock this winter, many more than the eleven killed last season.   The Montana DOL emerged this winter as the one government agency that is showing and unwillingness to acknowledge that the brucellosis issue is overblown and that a hard line stance against Yellowstone's bison is unnecessary.

This week the National Wildlife Federation announced that it will pay ranchers in the Yellowstone area for the cost of vaccinating their cattle against the disease brucellosis.  This action by the National Wildlife Federation is viewed as an effort to work with the Department of Livestock and Montana ranchers to end the threat to Yellowstone's bison.

Montana ranchers are reacting cautiously to this offer, however.  The DOL continues to insist that brucellosis is a major concern.  The NWF, on the other hand, hopes that their offer can be a beginning to the end of the bison slaughter through working together.

Brucellosis is a disease, carried by many of Yellowstone's bison, which if transferred to cattle can cause cows to abort.  Although there is no evidence that Yellowstone's bison have ever or can transfer the disease to domestic cattle, the Montana Department of Livestock continues to take a hard line stance and insists that all infected bison leaving the Park in the winter months should be killed.  However, as the Greater Yellowstone Coalition pointed out last month, the DOL is not discriminate about killing Yellowstone's bison, as a large percentage of bison killed this winter were not carriers of the disease.   Many observers interpret the bison controversy as more of a range war than an issue over brucellosis.

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS

Ralph Maughan
Kim Steinbacher
Kevin Sanders
Steve Brashear
Clint Wilkes
Tim Gourley
Hon. Bob Gammage
Ruth Colter-Frick
Lee Whittlesey
Tom Mazzarisi
Russ Finley
David Monteith
Denise Elmer
Dr. Robert Bara

BELGRADE, Mont. (YNET) -- I want to thank Mr Bruce Ziemer and the staff at McKinley Park Library in Chicago for their warm hospitality and also extend a special THANK YOU to my host and friends Bob and Annamarie Bara.

If you know of a non-profit organization such a library or museum that needs a Yellowstone speaker to present a multimedia slide show as part of a fund-raising event, I will be glad to participate at no cost other than travel expenses. Let me know if I can help your library or group.

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (NPS) --  In Yellowstone's early years, America and the world understood Yellowstone as a majestic and mysterious place.  Only those with a good deal of money -- or those who were migrating West -- could generally afford to visit the Park, but others could read about the ongoing Yellowstone saga through the pages of certain popular magazines.   And read they did!

The following is an another excerpt from Forest and Stream magazine (as reprinted in the latest edition of Yellowstone Science), a publication which chronicled the early years of Yellowstone:

"The most important achievement of the Forest and Stream's Yellowstone Park Game Exploration was Mr. Hough's prompt and authoritative report upon the work of the buffalo butcher Howell.  This report came just at a time when its publication in our columns was calculated to compel attention at Washington and to demonstrate the necessity of immediate action.  It opened the eyes of the public and of Congress to the cold hard fact that the National Park game must be protected by adequate provision of law, and that law was enacted." (June 16, 1894)

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Friday morning the east and south entrances to Yellowstone National Park will open to motorists.  At that point, the only unopened entrance will be the northeast entrance, which is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend.  The northeast entrance is via the famous Beartooth Highway, whose 11,000 feet altitude and dense snowpack require extra time and effort when it comes to clearing the highway.

Road construction information for this summer is available by clicking here.

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