Montana Free Press · Butte, MT
The beef over buffalo
A lot more than hunters’ bullets are chasing American bison this fall. In addition to an expanded capture plan coming from Yellowstone National Park, the United States’ national mammal faces new developments in federal court and potentially over a federal treaty. Running counter to those legal issues, a new report from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation undercuts many of the practical concerns domestic livestock producers have raised in the federal lawsuit about bison grazing on public land. Bison news began streaming in last week when a meeting of the Interagency Bison Management Plan committee in Butte hit a procedural snag right after introductions. The committee oversees Yellowstone National Park’s bison as they migrate between park and Montana state lands, seeking to reduce overgrazing and the risk of transmitting brucellosis from bison to domestic cattle (which has never been documented). The gathering on Oct.