E
Eric Simandl
Guest
As long as they keep the cattle and bison out of Lake Superior, it's
on-topic.
Gallatin wrote:
>
> Anti-cattle, pro-bison letters surprise Forest Service
> By the Associated Press
>
> http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/06/30/news/local/news04.txt
>
>
> ENNIS - A surprise stumbling block has complicated the Forest Service's periodic review of
>
> grazing allotments on 37,000 acres of federal land west of Yellowstone National Park.
>
> "We didn't see this one coming at all. It probably set us back a couple of weeks," said Mark
>
> Petroni, Madison District ranger of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
>
> More than 150 letters from across the nation and Canada ask the Forest Service to kick
>
> cattle off 12 of the allotments in Antelope Basin so Yellowstone bison can graze there
>
> safely. They came from supporters of the Buffalo Field Campaign, whose members have tried to
>
> protect the bison from state-sponsored slaughter for several years.
>
>
>
> The basin extends from south of Wade and Cliff Lakes south to the Idaho border and is about
>
> 35 miles from the park.
>
> "It's some of the most productive grasslands that we have on the entire (730,000-acre)
>
> Madison District," Petroni said.
>
> The Forest Service and local ranchers have spent time and money developing an intensive
>
> grazing management system in the area, he added.
>
> The buffalo periodically wander out of the park into Montana in search of food. Some carry
>
> brucellosis, which causes domestic cattle to abort. A federal-state management plan to
>
> protect domestic cattle from infection allows bison to be hazed back into the park or, in
>
> some cases, sent to slaughter.
>
> The letters came from as far away as Calgary, California and New York state. They asked for
>
> the agency to consider an alternative that would remove domestic livestock from the area in
>
> hopes of it becoming summer and winter habitat for bison.
>
> "The long-term public benefit of having a free roaming herd of bison on the Beaverhead
>
> National Forest outweighs the short-term benefit of continued livestock grazing, as the
>
> Beaverhead would be one of two national forests providing habitat for free-roaming bison,"
>
> Daniel Brister, project director for the Buffalo Field Campaign, said in one letter.
>
> Another came from Bina Robinson, director for Citizens for Planetary Health in Swain, N.Y.
>
> "After slaughtering this species (bison) to the verge of extinction, we filled up their
>
> habitat with cows for the benefit of a small number of cattlemen," Robinson wrote. "It is
>
> scandalous that Montana's Department of Livestock is allowed to round up and slaughter any
>
> bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park under the scientifically unsupported
>
> premise that they can infect domestic cattle with brucellosis, especially when the cows are
>
> not there."
>
> Petroni said about 10 ranching families summer their cattle in the Antelope Basin area.
>
> "The ranchers have just kind of rolled their eyes, kind of like 'What's next?' " Petroni
>
> said.
>
> __________________________________________________
> You Rock! Your E-mail should, too. Visit Rock.com!
--
"If you don't do it this year, you'll be a year older when you do."
--Warren Miller
on-topic.
Gallatin wrote:
>
> Anti-cattle, pro-bison letters surprise Forest Service
> By the Associated Press
>
> http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/06/30/news/local/news04.txt
>
>
> ENNIS - A surprise stumbling block has complicated the Forest Service's periodic review of
>
> grazing allotments on 37,000 acres of federal land west of Yellowstone National Park.
>
> "We didn't see this one coming at all. It probably set us back a couple of weeks," said Mark
>
> Petroni, Madison District ranger of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
>
> More than 150 letters from across the nation and Canada ask the Forest Service to kick
>
> cattle off 12 of the allotments in Antelope Basin so Yellowstone bison can graze there
>
> safely. They came from supporters of the Buffalo Field Campaign, whose members have tried to
>
> protect the bison from state-sponsored slaughter for several years.
>
>
>
> The basin extends from south of Wade and Cliff Lakes south to the Idaho border and is about
>
> 35 miles from the park.
>
> "It's some of the most productive grasslands that we have on the entire (730,000-acre)
>
> Madison District," Petroni said.
>
> The Forest Service and local ranchers have spent time and money developing an intensive
>
> grazing management system in the area, he added.
>
> The buffalo periodically wander out of the park into Montana in search of food. Some carry
>
> brucellosis, which causes domestic cattle to abort. A federal-state management plan to
>
> protect domestic cattle from infection allows bison to be hazed back into the park or, in
>
> some cases, sent to slaughter.
>
> The letters came from as far away as Calgary, California and New York state. They asked for
>
> the agency to consider an alternative that would remove domestic livestock from the area in
>
> hopes of it becoming summer and winter habitat for bison.
>
> "The long-term public benefit of having a free roaming herd of bison on the Beaverhead
>
> National Forest outweighs the short-term benefit of continued livestock grazing, as the
>
> Beaverhead would be one of two national forests providing habitat for free-roaming bison,"
>
> Daniel Brister, project director for the Buffalo Field Campaign, said in one letter.
>
> Another came from Bina Robinson, director for Citizens for Planetary Health in Swain, N.Y.
>
> "After slaughtering this species (bison) to the verge of extinction, we filled up their
>
> habitat with cows for the benefit of a small number of cattlemen," Robinson wrote. "It is
>
> scandalous that Montana's Department of Livestock is allowed to round up and slaughter any
>
> bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park under the scientifically unsupported
>
> premise that they can infect domestic cattle with brucellosis, especially when the cows are
>
> not there."
>
> Petroni said about 10 ranching families summer their cattle in the Antelope Basin area.
>
> "The ranchers have just kind of rolled their eyes, kind of like 'What's next?' " Petroni
>
> said.
>
> __________________________________________________
> You Rock! Your E-mail should, too. Visit Rock.com!
--
"If you don't do it this year, you'll be a year older when you do."
--Warren Miller
