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| MONDAY March 26, 2001 Vol 5, # 30 |
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| MONDAY March 26, 2001 Vol 5, # 30 |
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| Site Search | Support Yellowstone! Discussion $7.95 Internet, Email, More Email Newsletter | |
YELLOWSTONE ROAD
REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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 PROTECTING YELLOWSTONEby Bruce Gourley Yellowstone is a national treasure which is owned by the American public. Protecting Yellowstone is the responsibility of the American public. This weekly feature will help identify and explore the issues which are crucial to the ongoing, healthy existence of the "Crown Jewel" of America's National Park system. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- West Yellowstone, Montana, is a town in transition. The town sits on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park and is the center of the controversy over the use of snowmobiles in the Park. During the winter months, this small town is snowmobile mecca, with visitors coming from all over the world to ride snowmobiles both within Yellowstone and throughout the thousands of National Forest acres next door to the town. Some business owners believe that Yellowstone Park is so vital to the winter, snowmobile-based economy that a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone would destroy the economy. Others counter that snowmobilers, in the face of a Park ban on snowmobiles, would turn to the vast National Forests nearby. Indeed, they believe that visitor numbers in Yellowstone during the winter months will remain basically the same, and that snowcoaches-only transportation will be well-received by winter visitors. Although many business owners in West Yellowstone are vocally opposing the snowmobile ban, a number of business persons in West Yellowstone who support the ban have formed a group called "West Yellowstone Citizens for a Healthy Park." And thus the lines have been drawn in this small tourist town on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park where many locals have long had a love-hate relationship with the National Park Service and where one's stance on snowmobiles in the Park is the defining issue, and a decidedly contentious one at that, among the town's residents. With 2004, the date for the proposed ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone, edging ever closer, the rhetoric and the division will only intensify. And yet the words of Doug Edgerton, West Yellowstone City Council Member, as quoted in Sunday's edition of the Billings Gazette concerning the key to West Yellowstone's economy, put the controversy into perspective: "It (the key to the town's economy) is not and never has been snowmobiles. The key to West Yellowstone's economy is and always has been Yellowstone National Park." (Yellowstone Net provides you opportunity to voice your opinion regarding the various Yellowstone issues to your congresspersons and to editorial sections of magazines and newspapers by clicking here.) |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Russ Finley
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SEVEN BISON
CAPTURED WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. -- Thursday morning a Department of Livestock helicopter hazed four bulls from Grayling Creek and captured them in the Duck Creek facility at 9:00 AM. Three other bulls on Cougar creek were hazed by the helicopter and captured at 10:00 AM. One BFC volunteer was arrested in the Cougar creek area. According to BFC spokesperson Peter Leusch, "Early spring is the deadliest time of year for wildlife. By flying low over these creeks, DOL threatens the lives of elk, moose, deer and other wildlife. The bison were in an area where cattle are never present, and posed absolutely no threat to Montana's livestock industry." A tripod was built early this morning on Forest Service road 610, blocking access to the Horse Butte bison capture facility. One individual occupied a platform below the tripod's apex. The action was taken to prevent the capture of several bull bison that have been grazing in the Horse Butte area all winter. BFC, Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers, and The Ecology Center Inc. have filed a Notice of Intent to Sue in Federal District Court to halt the use of the Horse Butte Capture Facility. BFC volunteer Megan Fishback stated, "We feel that this facility has been put in illegally and that it has harsh effects not only on buffalo but on bald eagles, an threatened species." DOL claims that wild bison could transmit brucellosis to cattle and pose a threat to Montana's cattle industry. Yet the closest cattle are over 50 miles away. Grazing by livestock in the area doesn't start until June 15. In addition, there has never been a documented case of transmission from bison to cattle in a natural setting. Peter Leusch said, "Montana continues to capture and kill these animals because they have no tolerance for bison in the state. The real reason for the slaughter is rooted in a bureaucratic power struggle for control of public lands. The only losers are wildlife, the American public, and the local economy." Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection. BFC is the only group working in the field every day to document and stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo. |
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| WOLF UPDATE by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service HELENA, Mont. (USFWS) -- Approximately 30 wolves, collared in the last four years in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, are missing from their packs and are unaccounted for. Two high elevation flights were conducted over northwestern Montana in the last week, and one missing wolf was found. A 3-year-old female wolf from the Grave Creek pack, missing since summer 2000, was found in a pack of 4 wolves northeast of Eureka, MT. Of the two times the pack was located this week, they were found once the US side of the border, and once on the Canadian side. The Whitefish pack (NW MT) has again entered Glacier National Park and they are probably going to den there this year, rather than in the Stillwater River Valley where they denned last year. It is likely that 3 packs will be denning on the west side of Glacier Park this summer. On 3/23/01 Leopold wolf #148 was found dead along a road in Paradise Valley north of Yellowstone National Park. Initial observations suggest cause of death may have been a vehicle strike but a full necropsy is being conducted by LE. The black female would have been 3 this April. She was with the pack until a month ago and had been located in the Park until last week. She has not’t been located since. The alpha female from the disbanded Stanley pack (B23) killed and fed on a calf near Mackay, Idaho on the morning of the 16th. That pack had been involved in livestock depredations the previous year but had split up in late 2000 and several pack members had been traveling alone. WS confirmed she acted alone (radio signals and fresh tracks in the snow) and WS was authorized by the Service to take her ASAP. She was shot from the ground early that afternoon. On the morning of the 19th, a rancher in central Idaho heard his cattle being disturbed and when he investigated he saw 4 members of the White Hawk pack killing a newborn calf on his private property. Previously several remote activated guard (RAG), light and siren, devices were placed on the property because this pack had been frequenting the area. It is unknown if the devices were triggered by the wolf's collar but the RAG counters will be checked. The landowner shot a 2 year-old male and the others just stood their ground. He didn't shoot again even though he could have and finally just scared the wolves off. The wolf and calf were left and covered with a tarp. Niemeyer and Service LE, were immediately contacted and investigated that afternoon. Niemeyer said "Evidence revealed that this was a classic wolf depredation incident, and that the property owner had every legal right to act as he did." No agency control is planned unless other livestock are killed but the situation will be closely monitored. This is the 3rd time since 1995 (twice in Idaho and once in the Yellowstone area) that a wolf that was attacking livestock on private land has been legally killed by the landowner. There has been much positive feedback from livestock producers in Idaho that the professional and by-the-rules manner in which these two most recent livestock depredation conflicts were handled gave them faith that, as promised, livestock depredations would be dealt with promptly and fairly. A few wolf advocates were not so assured and thought the rules favored livestock producers over wolves far too much. |
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| YELLOWSTONE RIVER TO BE
STUDIED News Brief BILLINGS, Mont. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to launch a cumulative effects study of the Yellowstone River from the point where it exits Yellowstone National Park all the way down to its confluence with the Missouri River, a total of some 670 miles. The study will examine the effect of bank modifications and related activities concerning the hydrology, biology and socio-economics of the river. A planning meeting is scheduled for April 4 and 5 in Billings with local, state and federal representatives. The Corps, which has been criticized in the past for being too lenient in its overseeing of bank stabilization projects, was authorized to conduct the study in 1999. |
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