Wilkinson Part 8 + 'Last Best Dead Place'

katqanna

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Bozeman, MT
Public forces rewrite of Y’stone bison plan, Part 8 by Todd Wilkinson Article posted below so those of you with no access to the paper can see it.

To compliment Todd's article, I whipped up an editorial cartoon on the lack of science in Montana's management of wildlife with brucellosis - "Last Best Dead Place'

last%20best%20dead%20place.png


Public forces rewrite of Y’stone bison plan
Marking a potential game-changing shift in how wildlife diseases are confronted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, government agencies soon will announce a rewrite of the controversial 14-year-old Interagency Bison Management Plan for Yellowstone bison.

The decision, sources say, will be made public within days and could represent a breakthrough in a decades-old conflict.

The Montana Department of Livestock is under increasing public pressure to justify its singular lack of tolerance for migrating Yellowstone bison that wander beyond the northern and western national park boundaries.

Only days ago the department informed Yellowstone that, as a quid pro quo, it may allow bison to inhabit adjacent public lands outside the park year round, but only if Yellowstone limits its total bison population to 3,000 animals or fewer.

The proposal met with immediate rejection from Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk and chief park scientist Dave Hallac, who told the state it runs counter to fundamental principles of sound wildlife management.

One principle is accommodating the seasonal migratory behavior of free-ranging bison, the same as states do for elk, deer, fish, birds and other wildlife. The second tenet, a pillar of North American wildlife management, is to manage wildlife based on science.

The best available science makes clear that migrating elk, not bison, represent the greatest risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle. Almost all verified disease outbreaks in livestock herds are traced to wapiti, none to bison.

Even then the odds that wild elk carrying brucellosis will infect beef herds, particularly if livestock have been inoculated and kept off elk calving grounds, is incredibly low.

This week Park Service Rocky Mountain Regional Director Sue Masica approved Yellowstone’s rejection of Montana’s demand to round up and remotely vaccinate all bison inside Yellowstone with “bio-bullets” to try to eradicate brucellosis from the ecosystem.

Not only do scientists say brucellosis eradication in Yellowstone wildlife is impossible but ostensibly remote vaccination (using a brucellosis livestock vaccine that is only marginally effective in wildlife) would need to also target tens of thousands of elk.

The prospect of the latter brought condemnation from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Critics of the existing IBMP, first implemented in 2000, blame political motivations for the slaughter of thousands of Yellowstone bison in recent decades.

The IBMP also is the impetus for heavy-handed hazing of Yellowstone bison by state and federal agents driving physically exhausted animals back into the park using helicopters, snowmobiles and horsemen.

More than a decade ago former Yellowstone Superintendent Mike Finley said that Montana livestock officials and the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service were mandating needless lethal and brutal intolerance of bison when they leave the park.

Finley added then that the IBMP, along with action by the Montana Legislature, “put a gun to the head of Yellowstone managers” forcing them to forsake ethical principles of stewardship.

“The Montana Board of Livestock’s open hatred of bison is so strong that it’s blind to seeing the realities of brucellosis,” says hunter and citizen conservationist Kathryn QannaYahu who operates a website — EMWH.org — tracking the issue.

“Board members are being myopic, much to the detriment of public wildlife,” she claims. “Their actions are staining not only the credibility of the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Department but the reputation of Montana Gov. Steve Bullock who has allowed mismanagement to continue.”

Wildlife experts I contacted say there is no scientific basis for the livestock department’s recent proposal, supported ironically by the Fish Wildlife and Parks Department, to arbitrarily hold the total number of Yellowstone bison at 3,000 as a precondition for increased bison tolerance in the state.

In fact, recent scientific studies of habitat have determined that the carrying capacity for bison inside Yellowstone itself is a minimum of 6,000, acknowledging that bison, like elk, will seek lower elevation grasslands outside the park in winter.

Many welcome a new IBMP.

“With so many big changes over the past decade and a half, it’s definitely time to take a fresh look at bison management and develop a new plan,” says Matt Skoglund, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council Northern Rockies office and a member of a citizens working group on bison. “It’s a totally different world for wild bison in 2014 than it was in 2000.”
 
Great stuff and love the cartoon! Talent of a Dave Hawk with the whit of noharley. Well done sir.
 
Kept trying to get to the post to say thanks on the editorial cartoon, but the phone has been ringing off the wall today about the cartoon. Not so worried about the "Sir", that happens a lot on forums, but thanks Topgun for clarifying for me.

I had a conversation yesterday about the No Science Monkeys, how long they took. It was suggested to add them to a number of future cartoons, since so much of public trust issues seem to abandon the science for politics. Then people could be on the look out for the No Science Monkeys in a strip. So I decided to do the next strip, introducing the felonious No Science Monkeys that have escaped. Talking with a retired wildlife biologist from Helena this afternoon, knowing the science library growing at my site, a major point in my research, suggested that we give an annual or bi-annual award of No Science Monkeys, letting the public vote on the public agency recipient. Brilliant!

After discussion with others, I think it is a done deal. Those agencies not advocating the the Public Trust, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation - scientific management, might receive a No Science Monkeys Award.
 
My sincere apologies katqanna - well done mam!!!!! I see there is a little website in there so will check it out! Again, very sorry.
 
My sincere apologies katqanna - well done mam!!!!!


I'm sure Kathryn understands a Coloradite being gender perplexed.:D


..nice art sentiments Ms. Quanna Yahu
 
My sincere apologies katqanna - well done mam!!!!! I see there is a little website in there so will check it out! Again, very sorry.

Seriously, no need to apologize. For decades I have participated at forums that are predominately male dominated, with nongender oriented usernames that did not involve my name. It is a common misunderstanding, especially with my interests in blacksmithing, repairing my truck, hunting, paleo tools, etc. I do have to say, this forum has been the best in regards to how you treat a woman, when gender is known. And by that, I mean y'all dont totally ostracize a woman at the point of knowing, nor only defer stupid ass house cleaning or sandwich making questions to her. ;)

Thanks Noharley. It must be that sarcastic Texas upbringing. Land of extreme political wars and saying what you mean. Now to pick up my drawing supplies again so I am not limited to this damn graphic editing program that is not really a drawing program, then I can get perspectives and line feathering done properly.
 
Seriously, no need to apologize. For decades I have participated at forums that are predominately male dominated, with nongender oriented usernames that did not involve my name. It is a common misunderstanding, especially with my interests in blacksmithing, repairing my truck, hunting, paleo tools, etc. I do have to say, this forum has been the best in regards to how you treat a woman, when gender is known. And by that, I mean y'all dont totally ostracize a woman at the point of knowing, nor only defer stupid ass house cleaning or sandwich making questions to her. ;)

Thanks Noharley. It must be that sarcastic Texas upbringing. Land of extreme political wars and saying what you mean. Now to pick up my drawing supplies again so I am not limited to this damn graphic editing program that is not really a drawing program, then I can get perspectives and line feathering done properly.

While you are out getting your art supplies, can you swing by Subway and pick me up a samich? Sorry I couldn't resist. I was born and raised in Texas too. :D Please don't tell my wife that I made this poor taste joke or she will hit me up side the head with a samich. :W:

On a serious note, you are doing an outstanding job with your yeomen's work and seem to have a talent for the political cartoons. Love the Science Monkey thing. Keep up the good work.
 
And by that, I mean y'all dont totally ostracize a woman at the point of knowing, nor only defer stupid ass house cleaning or sandwich making questions to her. ;)

QUOTE]

Most of us male characters on this site have enough common sense to not play keyboard commado with someone that knows 99% more than we do on a subject regardless of their gender - well most of us anyway.

PS: I'm going to speculate that your cartoon endeavor is going to get legs faster than most can imagine. :hump::hump: That is funny, and the fact is that it is so sad because of the truth of it all. My prediction is your cartoons will have as much, if not more, effect that all your other efforts.
 
EODRay, lmao!!! I am an outstanding cook and make far better sammichs than Subway. I have a very playful, often times wicked sense of humor, so a smart man, mockingly, mischievously demanding a "sammich", would be very glad he did.

Cowboy, I just received two more calls, from out of state, on the cartoons, encouraging me in this process and stating the reach they are having. Me, I get off on the data and details, though I know not everyone does, so perhaps that will be an asset in the nuances of editorial cartooning.

We get bison on a larger landscape so we can treat them as wildlife in Montana, as a properly hunted population, out of DOL's jurisdiction, back into FWP's, then I will throw a giant assed Texas style BBQ shindig (I have catered for groups of several hundred) to celebrate.
 
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