Getting wired: Western Watersheds Project board secretary-treasurer Gene Bray made the trip to WWP's Bozeman office from Boise in February and devoted the better part of a week to setting up a new computer system for me. I'm now equipped with a refurbished scanner, new laser color printer, flat-screen monitor, storage system, GPS unit, digital camera, Gateway computer with CD burner, as well as a new e-mail and mapping program to learn. Thank you, Gene, for all your hard work and dedication in making the Montana office efficient and thoroughly up-to-date.

Bighorn sheep: How many viable populations of bighorn sheep are there in southwestern Montana? How much hunting opportunity was available to the public in 2003? What is a bighorn sheep worth? These are a few of the questions I posed to the Bureau of Land Management's Western Montana Resource Advisory Council when they convened a meeting Feb. 19 in Missoula. This was my first official meeting with the RAC, and I believe the opportunity was well worth the trip from Bozeman. I introduced WWP and the Gallatin Wildlife Association to this important BLM advisory board. I intend to develop a long-term working relationship with this RAC.

The Western Montana RAC is an appointed, citizen advisory board serving the Missoula, Butte and Dillon field offices of the BLM. Most of my work has focused on public lands under the supervision of the Dillon field office. The office is currently developing a Resource Management Plan, the BLM's equivalent to a U.S. Forest Service Plan.

It is the opportunity for both the BLM and the interested public to think big.

Bighorn sheep need people to think big. These magnificent animals, once numbering in the millions throughout the Rocky Mountain region (1.5 million to 2 million estimated), have declined dramatically to about 2 percent of their historic population levels (about 40,000 individuals). Remaining populations are imperiled, surviving in small fragmented herds. I will be working to restore these monarchs to the mountains of southwestern Montana. WWP Wyoming director Jonathan Ratner and I will be evaluating the challenges and opportunities to restore bighorn sheep across their historic range.

Wild bison: The last remaining wild bison herd has begun its annual migration to winter ranges surrounding Yellowstone National Park. However, instead of being allowed access to the peaceful bunchgrasses that flourish on the southern slopes and valleys of Greater Yellowstone near Gardiner, Montana, these animals are encountered by government agents acting on behalf of the livestock industry. Hazed, harassed and eventually corralled into makeshift livestock-handling facilities constructed at the Stephens Creek capture site within Yellowstone National Park, these incredible animals have been relegated to inhumane treatment in an atmosphere of hysteria. If they test sero-positive for exposure to Brucella aborta, the bacteria that can cause brucellosis, their fate is a trip in a crowded stock truck to a closed-door slaughterhouse where killings are carried out. America's icon, the wild buffalo, slaughtered and hanging on a bloody meat hook, courtesy of the National Park Service and the Montana Department of Livestock.

It is important to understand that exposure to the disease is not the same as infection. In fact, many of these "seropositive" animals may indeed be the most genetically resistant to the disease. Nor has it ever been demonstrated in the field that bison transmit brucellosis to cattle. Why, then, are we eradicating these animals in our national parks when their winter ranges on Forest Service and state-owned Wildlife Management Areas lie just to the north in Montana?

I toured the Stephens Creek capture facility on Feb. 24 to observe this atrocity first-hand. My commitment to reverse this unnecessary and unbelievable boondoggle of native buffalo harassment, confinement, testing and slaughtering has been branded into my soul. I urge you to engage your political representatives on the wild bison management issue and hold them accountable for their position and their decision to solve this livestock-induced nightmare within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park.

Appeals and protests: I appealed, unsuccessfully, the decision by Madison District Ranger Mark Petroni in Ennis, Montana (406-682-4253) to dedicate approximately 48,000 acres of public land in the Antelope Basin-Elk Lake area near the boundary of Yellowstone National Park to stock tanks, pipelines, barbed-wire fences and domestic cattle. The denial of our appeal is being reviewed by our legal team as Petroni failed to address the significant environmental consequences of his decision. Petroni also failed to review reasonable alternatives to more domestic cows, more stock tanks, more pipelines, more barbed-wire fences and more costs on this otherwise pristine and wild landscape.

I also protested a decision by BLM Butte Field Manager Rick Hotaling to trench pipelines and construct livestock watering troughs on prime bighorn sheep habitat in the southwestern Highlands. This action is pending, and I have scheduled a meeting with BLM to discuss this and other matters related to livestock management in the area.

Glenn Hockett is Montana director of WWP. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.