Feds Kill Buffalo, Terrorize Bald Eagles

opinion by Buffalo Folks, contributors

The buffalo management plan--as now operated by the State of Montana--and the US government in Yellowstone are illegally harming bald eagles, trumpeter swans and their habitat, according to a lawsuit filed recently in Federal District Court in Helena, Montana, by Cold Mountain Cold Rivers, Buffalo Field Campaign, and the Ecology Center, Inc.

The groups charge that the Montana Department of Livestock, the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are in violation of several federal environmental laws. They are seeking an injunction prohibiting the hazing and capturing of Yellowstone's wild buffalo herd on the Horse Butte Peninsula, part of the Gallatin National Forest near Yellowstone National Park. The area provides habitat for several threatened species and sensitive migratory birds including bald eagles, grizzly bears, gray wolves, and trumpeter swans. These species may be harmed by the hazing and capturing process, which involves use of helicopters in wild areas. During winter-spring 2000-2001, the Department of Livestock repeatedly used helicopters over the Horse Butte area to haze and capture buffalo. Five buffalo bulls have been shipped to slaughter this year. Since 1984, the state has shot or shipped to slaughter 3,182 buffalo. The Yellowstone buffalo herd is targeted by the agencies for "brucellosis control" when they migrate to winter and spring range primarily on public lands surrounding Yellowstone Park. Over the next 15 years Montana and the US government plan to spend $40-$45 million taxpayer dollars to haze, capture, test, vaccinate, and slaughter wild buffalo that migrate outside the Park.

"All this illegal activity impacting threatened bald eagles and the Yellowstone ecosystem is done to protect cattle that don't winter here," said Mike Mease of Buffalo Field Campaign. "Five buffalo bulls have been shipped to slaughter. Trumpeter swans and migrating waterfowl have been displaced. Bald eagle nests are failing to produce young. Why? So a few more taxpayer subsidized cattle can range on public land--land the buffalo is wrongfully denied."

In 1999 and 2000 the Ridge bald-eagle nest failed, and in 2000 the Horse Butte bald-eagle nest also failed to produce young. This year, no bald eagles have been detected at the Narrows nest. The Forest Service has not determined the causes of these nest failures, and has a duty to cease any operations "in the interim period between initiation and completion of the new consultation if any additional taking is likely to occur," according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The bald eagle and the wild buffalo are the great symbols of freedom and wildness in this land," said Jim Coefield of The Ecology Center, Inc. "The Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are allowing the Montana Department of Livestock to run amok and do what it pleases at any cost. The vast majority of people do not support the agencies' actions."

Another spokesperson for the plaintiffs stated, "The Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife have wholly failed to analyze the effects of aircraft on bald eagles and other native wildlife. Further, all of the Federal Defendants have actively assisted the Montana Department of Livestock in its illegal activities. This lawsuit seeks to uphold the laws that protect native wildlife and the ecosystems that are part of the American people's heritage."

For more information about the buffalo and to get active: www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo