Copyright © 2002 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT - Winter has come to us here on Hebgen Lake. More snow has fallen, as has the temperature--yesterday morning's patrols left with the mercury hovering around -2 degrees Fahrenheit. Our maintenance coordinator is busy ensuring that the vehicles, the water pipes, and other sensitive elements of this campaign will continue to function through the intense cold. Gear coordinators begin in earnest to equip volunteers with the cold weather gear they will need as others provide trainings in hypothermia and frostbite. What we lack in natural cold weather protection, the buffalo have in spades; if only they could share our freedom to roam...

As it has been another quiet week, with no hazing operations to speak of, we have been able to turn our resources and attention to the other fronts. On December 6, the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service (APHIS) called a meeting in Billings, Montana with other state and federal agencies to discuss plans to eradicate brucellosis from the wild. This meeting was a precursor to future ones on the topic, including a public meeting that could be held as early as February 2003. All of these meetings are part of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process to examine whether to proceed with complete brucellosis eradication within the Greater Yellowstone Area while maintaining free ranging bison and elk herds. Since the EIS process is required to seek public comment, we will have some opportunities to let the government agencies involved know what our "preferred alternative" is--stop the slaughter. More information on this as it unfolds.

As we write this, several DOL agents are involved in a plowing operation on Horse Butte - the area in which the buffalo capture facility has been installed in previous years has been plowed, as well as the access road, Forest Service Road 610. This action implies that the capture facility, which is stored inside the northern boundary of Yellowstone Park when not in use, may be on its way back to Horse Butte soon. It also raises our yearly concern regarding bald eagle monitoring. According to the Biological Assessment for the Horse Butte Bison Capture Facility, pre-monitoring of the bald eagle nesting territory is required two weeks before scheduled installation of the capture facility. Of course, after we initially complained to the Forest Service over this oversight years ago, they tried to re-write the provisions for eagle monitoring to suit the DOL. We have yet to see any eagle monitoring activities in the field, and we'll be keeping our eye on the DOL to see what happens.

For the buffalo,
Jonas Ehudin & Ted Fellman
Media Coordinators