County commissioners in Park County have a bit more on their plate than the average commissioner. Marty Malone told the Montana Farm Bureau Federation on Wednesday that while Yellowstone National Park was ready and willing to ship bison overwhelming the Stephen’s Creek Facility to be processed earlier this year, an order from Governor Schweitzer stated that the transport couldn’t happen on his roads. The result was a lot of bison moving out of the park in the Gardiner basin just outside of the Park’s north boundary. Those bison are now back in the Park, but Marty said that their time out made for a dangerous spring.
With worries about the safety of the public, Park County has now filed a lawsuit that the Montana Farm Bureau has been allowed to intervene in against the State of Montana, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the Montana Department of Livestock. The lawsuit hinges around the adaptive management plan that is part of the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Under the Adaptive Management Plan, the government was to release 25 bison, see how that went, then release more the following year. However, Marty says that there were hundreds of bison outside the perimeter.
These images from Malone how the reality of living in the Gardiner basin with the bison:
Along with being allowed to intervene in this lawsuit, the MFBF has also been granted intervener status into the Park Country Stockgrower, Inc. v. MT Department of Livestock suit.
© Northern Ag Network 2011
Haylie Shipp
