Yellowstone Bison

American Bison are an icon of the West.  Once numbering 50 million strong, the last remaining genetically wild buffalo population has been reduced to just over 3,000 in Yellowstone National Park.

Bison are a keystone species ~ their distinctive grazing, wallowing and horning behavior creates important habitat for many species, including imperiled sage grouse. 

Bison were also an important resource of many people providing food, shelter, clothing and spiritual & cultural sustenance to many indigenous peoples in the Great Plains and the West.

Why are bison being slaughtered ?

It is because of public lands ranching.

Federal and state land, wildlife, and livestock agencies have confined the last remaining wild bison within the borders of Yellowstone National Park.  The National Park Service, the Forest Service, and livestock associations use the fear of Brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle (which has never happened in the wild, and is unlikely to happen - Kilpatrick 2009) to justify aggressive management including hazing, slaughter, and population supression.

The real reason bison are confined to the Park is more a matter of control of land and grass.  Bison compete with livestock for forage.  Currently, public land ranchers have exclusive privelege to federally subsidized grass that grows on public lands surrounding Yellowstone National Park.  If wild bison were allowed to roam these public lands that would mean more grass for wildlife and less grass for public land ranchers to utilize for profit.

Bison Advocacy

Western Watersheds Project has joined with the Buffalo Field Campaign, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native American Tribes and individual activists in insisting that America's last wild bison be able to roam and reclaim their iconic presence on American public lands. 

WWP is the lead group in initiating new litigation to restore bison to suitable habitat on public lands.

Bison Mismanagement & Impact to Habitat Conditions Within Yellowstone National Park

The consequences of the current Interagency Bison Management Plan's (IBMP) aggressive management to force bison to stay within Yellowstone National Park also have negative environmental impacts to the Park's landscape in addition to the injustice inflicted upon bison themselves.

Agencies' enforcement of artificial boundaries is in direct conflict with bison's natural instinct to roam over broad landscapes.  By confining bison to the National Park, public agencies are altering bison's relationship to the natural world, in effect managing bison like livestock.  Bison prevented from roaming create negative impacts to streambanks (riparian areas), wildlife habitat, and other environmental values as illustrated by the following photographs (click to enlarge) of bison impacts including loss of woody species, bank trampling, channel widening, and destruction of fish habitat on the Lamar River within Yellowstone National Park:

By seeking to expand bison habitat on public lands surrounding Yellowstone National Park, WWP is helping to restore bison's room to roam and the health of streams and rivers in the Park.