Bison Re Introduction

88man

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So hum a push to stock wolves in Colorado. Why no push to reintroduce buffalo in the Red desert or in various places in WY/CO/NM ??
 
So hum a push to stock wolves in Colorado. Why no push to reintroduce buffalo in the Red desert or in various places in WY/CO/NM ??

There is. Mostly it's being done by tribal governments & private entities looking to establish conservation herds on private & reservation lands, but some states are looking at ways to increase wild, huntable populations of plains bison. ND just released some, and I think CO did as well. MT just released their draft EIS on how to approach the issue as well.
 
There is. Mostly it's being done by tribal governments & private entities looking to establish conservation herds on private & reservation lands, but some states are looking at ways to increase wild, huntable populations of plains bison. ND just released some, and I think CO did as well. MT just released their draft EIS on how to approach the issue as well.
Wyoming??
 
Wyoming??

Wyoming's efforts are linked to the YNP bison coming out to the south in the Parkway & GTNP (and the associated hunting season) and the Wind River Indian Reservation Conservation Herd, which is comprised of YNP animals and a few others.

Lots of resistance from the old guard due to unfounded fears & political haymaking by anti-wildlife groups across the west for increased conservation of wild bison, unfortunately.
 
If it's a YNP bison, then there's a big disease issue at play with brucellosis. I can see why you'd put it down, especially being in the same allotments as cattle. Sad, but it's a fact of life that we live in vastly different conditions than pre-settlement.

The FWP effort is pretty well thought out from a public policy standpoint, yet the anti-wildlife/ anti-access crowd has already decided that the world will end if Montanans' get together to have the discussion about where, when & how bison could be reintroduced.
 
If it's a YNP bison, then there's a big disease issue at play with brucellosis. I can see why you'd put it down, especially being in the same allotments as cattle. Sad, but it's a fact of life that we live in vastly different conditions than pre-settlement.

Is the threat really any more/less relevant than with elk carrying the same disease? IIRC the prevalence in elk is about 2-3x higher than in bison.
 
One of our employees saw it along the haulroad as he was headed to the Pit and took this picture on a Sunday. By Monday morning I was fielding calls from RSGA, they had heard about it as well. They wanted to know where the pic was taken and what direction it was heading. They found it and had it killed later that afternoon. Several miles to the Southwest of where the pic was taken. The story I was told was that this bull escaped from a ranch near Baggs. If this was accurate then killing it seemed sensible to me.

Between rogue Bison, wondering bighorns, mobile wolf pack that eventually settled South into CO and black prairie dogs, this climate changing coal mine has some interesting wildlife pass through it.
 
Is the threat really any more/less relevant than with elk carrying the same disease? IIRC the prevalence in elk is about 2-3x higher than in bison.

Relevance, current law, G&F agency practices & biological reality have little to do with bison recovery.
 
Is the threat really any more/less relevant than with elk carrying the same disease?
Bison re-introduced through the official YNP program are first tested, then disease-free bison are held in quarantine for some time prior to re-introduction to wherever they are sent.
While the prevalence of brucellosis is greater in the much more freely roaming elk, the commercial value of huntable wild elk as a "cash-cow" is likewise much greater.
 
we are worried about the bison giving the cattle disease but not worried about wolf introduction and the wolf eating the cattle
 
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Seems to me that the most deadly animal in the West is a cow. 30 million dead buffalo, cow farts are warming the face of the earth, and eating too much of their meat can cause heart disease.
Real patriots would support, “Kill a cow, save the world.”
 
we are worried about the bison giving the cattle disease but not worried about wolf introduction and the wolf eating the cattle

Probably because losing your state's brucellosis free status means your entire livestock industry will suffer from not being able to export cows to slaughter to packer states, and other states will impose strict standards on the movement of live cows.

With wolves, you don't have that industry-wide implication of despair and loss. Just locally-driven despair & loss. There's an economy of scale here to consider.
 
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