Keeping Montana Secure From Wandering Bison

[Nemont]

Nice to see that the Department of Homeland Security is able to help us here in Montana keep our border with Wyoming secure from Bison wondering over. I really don't care if the buffalo are slaughtered, hunted or hazed just wondering what role the DHS would play in all of this. I can't figure out why they would need these guys to secure the Buffalo and people between the park and the slaughter house in Nampa, Idaho.

Roundup, slaughter of approx. 800 bison costs $181K
By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff

More than $181,000 has been spent to send about 800 Yellowstone National Park bison to slaughter this winter, including $42,000 for the services of U.S. Homeland Security agents.

Those estimates are from the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which has taken a lead role in moving captured bison from Yellowstone to meat processing plants in Montana and Idaho.

Yellowstone National Park also has spent extra money to round up and hold bison this winter, but estimates of the park expenditures were not available Thursday.

APHIS and Park Service crews have been busy since early January rounding up bison wandering north from Yellowstone. The bison are captured because state and federal officials are worried the animals might spread brucellosis to nearby cattle. So far, 818 bison have been sent to slaughter, including 65 on Thursday. The remaining 26 bison in the Stephens Creek capture facility are expected to be trucked to meat-processing plants today.

The effort hasn't been cheap.

Several loads of bison have been trucked to a slaughter operation in Nampa, Idaho, more than 500 highway miles from Yellowstone's northern border. Others have gone to Columbus, Roundup and Sheridan, Wyo.

Transportation, processing, personnel and security have cost APHIS $181,300 so far this year, according to agency estimates.

As many as seven employees from the Department of Homeland Security worked on bison operations last month, mostly to ensure that the animals and the public were safe during transportation between Yellowstone and the meat processing plants, said Teresa Howes, an APHIS spokeswoman.

"It's the right thing to do. To not do so would be irresponsible," Howes said.

Homeland Security agents have not been involved in the latest round of bison activity this week but remain on call, Howes said.

Aside from the $42,000 for federal security, APHIS paid about $9,000 for help from the Park County Sheriff's Office.

The bison meat, head and hides are donated to American Indian tribes and charities.

So far, 28 tribes in Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, Idaho, California and elsewhere have received bison meat. That's one of the bright spots in the ongoing controversy over managing Yellowstone's bison, Howes said.

"It's all very difficult," she said, "but there are good things that come out of it."

APHIS is one of several federal agencies that signed an agreement with the state of Montana on managing bison that attempt to leave Yellowstone in the winter for lower elevations.

The agency has spent about $4.3 million on bison since 2002, including money for research, testing, personnel and equipment.

The treatment of Yellowstone's bison has continued to be controversial this year. The Buffalo Field Campaign, an advocacy group, has protested the capture and slaughter of bison and Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years, which ended this week with 40 of 50 tags filled.