Buffalove
One of my favorite reporting assignments remains the few days I spent with the Buffalo Field Campaign near West Yellowstone, Montana, in late winter 2005. Perched along Hebgen Lake, the BFC uses direct action and around-the-clock field surveillance to protect Yellowstone-area buffalo and oppose the management policies of the state of Montana, which insists on rounding up animals that leave the park, testing for disease and often killing them.
A few weeks ago, the BFC and other environmental groups sued the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect buffalo outside the park — and allowing the state livestock managers to call the shots. The case could force the federal agencies to do more to ensure that buffalo are allowed to migrate beyond park boundaries to favored breeding grounds, but one suggested solution has been to send some of the animals to Ted Turner’s Montana ranch, north of the park. I’ve driven around the edges of Turner’s land and it looks like a pretty sweet spread for a buffalo.
My 2005 story, “Buffalo Soldiers,” originally ran in the Bullhorn, and is still available via AlterNet, which published the article online back when.
Tags: buffalo, Buffalo Field Campaign, Yellowstone
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
Blog-Like Thing, Stories, Vault: Bullhorn