Bison/Brucellosis in Yellowstone National Park

Although more than 20 million bison once roamed throughout many of the lower 48 states, by the early 1880s these vast herds had been decimated through hunting. Only a handful (less than 30) remained in the wild within Yellowstone National Park. Other survived in captivity at ranchers and in zoos. In order to save the bison from extinction, a decision was made to import captive bison to the park and to breed them with the remaining wild bison. For a number of years, Yellowstone's bison lived in a semi-domestic state and were fed hay and tended like a herd of cattle. Cattle also occupied the area and it was during this period of intermixing that bison are thought to have become infected with the Brucella abortus, the bacteria which causes brucellosis.

Bison numbers increased rapidly through the park's ranching efforts: by 1930, there were more than 1,000 bison. Until the early 1960s, the park managed the population through culling. In 1963, when the Park Service implemented its natural regulation policy, culling, corralling and winter feeding ceased. In response, bison numbers increased rapidly from 397 animals in 1967 to 2,000 in 1982 and to more than 2,500 in 1988.

Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the early 1990s, a series of mild winters allowed the bison to increasingly seek winter foraging areas outside the park. In addition to the climatic factors associated with the population increase, human activities within the Park were affecting the bison population. Yellowstone had become a mecca for snowmobilers and cross country skiers. Snowmobile paths and the cleared roads that allowed winter users to access the Park have provided easy travel routes for the bison to non-traditional wintering grounds, mainly outside the Park.

Under normal conditions bison became more sedentary in the winter and movement is usually confined to the limits of the wintering valleys, with egress difficult if not impossible due to heavy snowfall. The inability to leave these traditional wintering ranges resulted in the death of sick, weak, young and old bison and kept bison numbers stable. If winter activities were curtailed more bison would remain within the Park and would be forced to use traditional ranges. Over a period of years the population would likely decrease to previous levels.

The emigration of bison to both public and private lands adjacent to the Park has greatly concerned the Montana Department of Livestock because Yellowstone bison are known to harbor Brucella abortus. Brucellosis in cattle causes pregnant cows to abort or to produce non-viable calves. It is easily spread through the ingestion by non-infected cows of fetuses or afterbirth materials. However, fears that wild bison will pass brucellosis to cattle in the wild are scientifically unfounded. In addition, bison movement out of the Park occurs predominantly in the winter months when cattle are not grazed in the area, making the risk of transmission even more negligible.

In 1985, in response to the alleged threat of transmission of brucellosis, the state of Montana instituted a widely publicized and harshly criticized bison hunt. Due to public outcry, the State suspended the hunt and ordered the State game wardens and livestock officials to kill the bison as they left the Park. Over the years, thousands of bison have been killed by the state of Montana which has been assisted in certain years by National Park Service (NPS) personnel. The annual slaughters also resulted in public outcries. In response the state of Montana filed a lawsuit in 1995 challenging the Department of Interior's and the NPS's management of bison because it allegedly "causes diseased and disease-exposed bison to enter the state of Montana."

This suit also challenged the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) policy that would revoke Montana's brucellosis free status because of the occasional presence of bison near YNP. The suit was settled in November of 1995 and pursuant to the settlement, the state of Montana and NPS agreed to: 1) prepare an environmental assessment for an interim bison management plan based on the Interim Draft Management Operating Procedures; 2) release a draft environmental impact statement for a long-term bison management plan by November, 1996; 3) release a final environmental impact statement for a long-term bison management plan by May 1, 1997; and 4) issue their responsive decision documents by July 1997.

The Interim Management Plan

Pursuant to the settlement, and in alleged conformance with NEPA, the NPS and state of Montana prepared an Environmental Assessment for an Interim Bison Management Plan. In August of 1996, the NPS approved a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Interim Plan and the Montana Department of Livestock and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks issued a decision notice announcing their decision to implement the Interim Plan in cooperation with the NPS, the Veterinary Services arm of the APHIS, and the United States Forest Service.

The Interim Plan instituted a policy of zero tolerance of bison on public lands surrounding the Park and allowed the capture or slaughter of Yellowstone bison both inside and outside the Park.

Defenders' Legal Challenges to the Interim Plan

Anticipating that the interim plan would result in the death of many bison, in late 1996, Defenders joined four conservation groups (Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Alliance for Responsible Planning, Gallatin Wildlife Association and the American Buffalo Foundation) in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The groups were represented by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now known as the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund). The action was brought under the National Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C. §1 et seq., 16 U.S.C. §21 et seq., Dept. of Interior regulations, as well as NEPA and its implementing regulations. The plaintiffs brought this action in order to prevent a fundamental betrayal of the NPS's conservation mission, to prevent the senseless and wholesale slaughter of bison from the nation's sole remaining free-ranging bison herd, and to force a thorough analysis, disclosure, and public discourse concerning the environmental impacts of this wild bison destruction plan.

Defenders and the other parties also filed a companion lawsuit on the Interim Plan. This second lawsuit alleged primarily that circumstances had changed so much with the death of nearly 1,100 bison during the first year of implementation that supplemental environmental review was necessary under NEPA. Such review was presumed necessary because the interim plan would remain in effect until the long-term management plan was released. Despite the lethal results of the interim plan, legal challenges to the plan were unsuccessful. This plan remained in place until the long overdue final plan was adopted in late 2000.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement

In early June of 1998, the federal government and the State of Montana released their long-awaited Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Interagency Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park (DEIS). The DEIS identified seven alternative plans for managing buffalo. Unfortunately, none of the alternatives was acceptable to those that value our wild buffalo herds. The preferred alternative, which is similar to the interim plan, is flawed because it would continue to capture, test, sell, and kill buffalo and essentially prevent these animals from using public lands outside the park.

The Citizens' Plan to Save Yellowstone Bison

Shortly after the release of the DEIS, more than a dozen environmental and tribal organizations agreed to work collectively to develop a better solution -- one that allowed for a free-roaming wild bison herd and at the same time minimized the risk of transmission of brucellosis between cattle and bison. The alternative, known as The Citizens' Plan to Save Yellowstone Buffalo, was completed in July of 1998 and formally submitted to the agencies when the comment period for the DEIS ended on November 2.

In the spring of 1999, the agencies released a summary of the comments received on the DEIS. Of the more than 67,000 public comments received on the bison DEIS, 47,000-plus supported the Citizens' Plan. The number of comments received on the bison DEIS is the second greatest amount ever generated on a wildlife-oriented action -- second only to those received on the Yellowstone wolf EIS.

The Final Plan and the Current Situation

A record of decision implementing the final plan was signed on December 20, 2002. Since that time, hundreds of bison have been killed since the final plan was put in place. To date, no organization has challenged the legality of the final plan.

In the winter of 2005/2006, close to 900 bison were killed. Despite the Park’s objections, they were forced to assist the Department of Livestock in hazing, capturing, testing and slaughtering of bison outside the park. The federal government continues to funnel federal dollars to the state to conduct this ludicrous operation.