A
Anonymous
Guest
A couple of articles in the Great Falls Tribune that caught my eye---more and more leases going to wildlife :???:
Sheep grazing allotment closes
BILLINGS — A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to graze their sheep elsewhere, under an agreement announced by the National Wildlife Federation.
Between 1999 and 2003, government officials verified more than 100 conflicts between domestic sheep and grizzly bears and wolves on the allotment, which is adjacent to Yellowstone National Park.
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This one is kind of like a double edged sword- damned if they do- damned if they don't...I sure would hate to see the state lose its Bangs free status--- but then again you hate to see anyone forced from their leases- especially for a few shaggy buffalo...
Schweitzer says it is time to consider buying out grazing leases
By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday it's time to consider buying out the leases of ranchers who graze cattle near Yellowstone National Park, before the state loses its brucellosis-free status.
Schweitzer spoke at a meeting of the state Environmental Quality Council.
He said about 740 cattle graze in what he calls "mixing zones," areas where bison leave the park in winter and cattle later graze.
He wants to explore a deal that would pay cattlemen not to graze their animals in those places. Federal funding might be available, Schweitzer said.
The present federal and state management plan allows for the hazing of migrating bison, back into Yellowstone, and for the slaughter of animals because of concerns about brucellosis. Many park bison have the disease, and ranchers fear those wandering could spread it to cattle in Montana — a fear that critics of the management plan say has never been proven in the wild. Some elk in the region also have brucellosis, which can cause cows to abort.
The management plan does not do enough to protect the Montana livestock industry's brucellosis-free status, Schweitzer said. That status is among the industry's marketing advantages.
"If we continue what we are doing today (for bison management), we lose our ... status," Schweitzer said. In signing the joint management plan more than five years ago, "we got nothing," he said.
He also said Montana's expenditures for hazing bison and for hauling the captured to slaughter houses are not the best use of money. Sending bison to slaughter costs about $200,000 a year and hazing costs the state $750,000, he said.
In its most recent estimate, the National Park Service said Yellowstone has about 3,500 bison.
Those grazing in areas no longer supporting cattle would be in those places only part of the year and would be hazed back into the park seasonally, Schweitzer said.
He indicated ranchers unwilling to sell their leases ultimately could be forced to sell them, but "we're hoping we don't get to that."
An administrator at the park said lease buyouts are one of the phases in the present management plan.
"That's something that was envisioned," Tom Olliff, acting chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said in a telephone interview. "It just hasn't happened yet." Acquiring grazing rights would fall to the state, not the Park Service, he said.
Sheep grazing allotment closes
BILLINGS — A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to graze their sheep elsewhere, under an agreement announced by the National Wildlife Federation.
Between 1999 and 2003, government officials verified more than 100 conflicts between domestic sheep and grizzly bears and wolves on the allotment, which is adjacent to Yellowstone National Park.
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This one is kind of like a double edged sword- damned if they do- damned if they don't...I sure would hate to see the state lose its Bangs free status--- but then again you hate to see anyone forced from their leases- especially for a few shaggy buffalo...
Schweitzer says it is time to consider buying out grazing leases
By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday it's time to consider buying out the leases of ranchers who graze cattle near Yellowstone National Park, before the state loses its brucellosis-free status.
Schweitzer spoke at a meeting of the state Environmental Quality Council.
He said about 740 cattle graze in what he calls "mixing zones," areas where bison leave the park in winter and cattle later graze.
He wants to explore a deal that would pay cattlemen not to graze their animals in those places. Federal funding might be available, Schweitzer said.
The present federal and state management plan allows for the hazing of migrating bison, back into Yellowstone, and for the slaughter of animals because of concerns about brucellosis. Many park bison have the disease, and ranchers fear those wandering could spread it to cattle in Montana — a fear that critics of the management plan say has never been proven in the wild. Some elk in the region also have brucellosis, which can cause cows to abort.
The management plan does not do enough to protect the Montana livestock industry's brucellosis-free status, Schweitzer said. That status is among the industry's marketing advantages.
"If we continue what we are doing today (for bison management), we lose our ... status," Schweitzer said. In signing the joint management plan more than five years ago, "we got nothing," he said.
He also said Montana's expenditures for hazing bison and for hauling the captured to slaughter houses are not the best use of money. Sending bison to slaughter costs about $200,000 a year and hazing costs the state $750,000, he said.
In its most recent estimate, the National Park Service said Yellowstone has about 3,500 bison.
Those grazing in areas no longer supporting cattle would be in those places only part of the year and would be hazed back into the park seasonally, Schweitzer said.
He indicated ranchers unwilling to sell their leases ultimately could be forced to sell them, but "we're hoping we don't get to that."
An administrator at the park said lease buyouts are one of the phases in the present management plan.
"That's something that was envisioned," Tom Olliff, acting chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said in a telephone interview. "It just hasn't happened yet." Acquiring grazing rights would fall to the state, not the Park Service, he said.
