Advocates Call for More Habitat, Not More Hunting

For Immediate Release:
January 18, 2012

Contacts:
Josh Osher, Buffalo Field Campaign 406-646-0070
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign 443-417-3106

Helena, Montana - Wild bison advocates will be in attendance at the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission meeting in Helena, January 19 to oppose the new proposal by the Commission that would allow hunters to kill wild bison that migrate out of designated "tolerance" zones in the Gardiner Basin, north of Yellowstone National Park.

"The proposal by Montana's FWP Commission is nothing short of a dream-come-true for the Montana Department of Livestock," said Buffalo Field Campaign spokeswoman Stephany Seay. "As with Montana's regular bison hunt, these "bison management harvest" individuals will further be used to do the dirty work of killing buffalo that commit the crime of walking too far or being "unhazable."

Buffalo Field Campaign, a wild bison advocacy group based in West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana warns that the FWP Commissioners are setting up a repeat of the highly controversial firing line-style bison hunts of the late-1980s, that gave the state a serious black eye and ended the hunts.

"Wild bison need habitat immediately in Montana, and throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem," said BFC Policy Coordinator Josh Osher. "Bison are an ecologically extinct wildlife species and the only thing that the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission should be considering is how to naturally restore this treasured and ecologically significant animal."

The wild bison of the Yellowstone region are the last population to retain their identity as a wildlife species. Wild bison are ecologically extinct throughout their native North American range and efforts are underway to gain Endangered Species Act protection for this last continuously wild population.

Buffalo Field Campaign is a non-profit public interest organization founded in 1997 to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild bison, protect the natural habitat of wild free-roaming bison and other native wildlife, and to work with people of all Nations to honor the sacredness of the wild bison. Buffalo Field Campaign has its headquarters in West Yellowstone, Montana, and is supported by volunteers and participants around the world who value America's native wildlife and the ecosystems upon which they depend.