It seems the cattle industry has maintained it’s scapegoat for the time being. Montana representative Rehberg killed a house amendment based on Schweitzer’s plan to buffer the rest of the state’s brucellosis free status from those that wander around Yellowstone. That would have protected the buffalo AND the livestock industry’s sacred brucellosis free status. Rehberg prefers to slaughter an icon of his state – and of the West – “saying the problem should be dealt with inside the park.”
New York congressman advocates Schweitzer plan in U.S. House
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press Writer
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Comments
rehberg always claims he has his own preferred way to deal with things like this (remember HR1975?) but never seems to get any of them going. I think this time around his bid for re-election will be a very rocky one.
Why don’t they just get it over with and build a huge fence around yellowstone. If one of these morons proposed that i dont think I would be surprised at all… I hope mad cow disease breaks out in montana.
The bill that has been blocked wouldn’t have protected buffalo at all. It only made it so that there would have been a 100% brucellosis testing regime for cattle entering and leaving the zone but would not have allowed for any additional habitat for buffalo.
The idea makes sense but I think that it should allow for buffalo habitat outside of the Park.
I might add, Rehberg is an idiot and these people don’t look for any solutions other than the solutions that call for killing wildlife and are heavily subsidized by the taxpayer.
My letter to the governor, in response to a message from him (7/19) based on my interest in bison management. He included the text from a 7/3 Bozeman Chronicle article on the buffer zone proposal.
Dear Gov. Schweitzer:
I’m confused. You have sent me an article about brucellosis risk management for cattle based on my interest in Yellowstone bison management. One need not be terribly astute to understand that this plan offers absolutely nothing for bison–it’s right there in black & white. “Schweitzer said bison management would not change with the creation of a buffer zone. The animals would still be hunted in the winter and hazed back into Yellowstone National Park in the spring, he said.” Duh.
While I’m glad to see that you are now being truthful about the source of transmission (“This is more about elk,” he said, because that species is the likely suspect for outbreaks in Wyoming and Idaho, and now in Montana), that admission only emphasizes the corrupt and indefensible actions of those who are party to the bogus Interagency Bison Management Plan.
While your zone plan is great for Montana’s cattle, and for elk, who are never hazed, captured, and/or slaughtered, isn’t it time you began working on your campaign promise of “greater tolerance” for Yellowstone bison in Montana? After you’ve pulled out of the IBMP, after you’ve designated year-’round habitat for native wild bison in Montana, and after you’ve placed their management under the jurisdiction of wildlife professionals who employ sound science (this probably excludes FWP…), THEN I look forward to hearing from you because of my interest in bison management!
But until then, I’m really not interested in cattle management schemes designed to benefit industry and accommodate elk while America’s native, wild bison continue to face persecution and death.
Sincerely…
Good point pronghorn. I got the same email but I havn’t responded yet.
A public media campaign against Schweitzer for having lied about the buffalo would be in order. He has unfortunately become a kind of poster boy for western Democrats, as has Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, but both have proven themselves to be at heart Republicrats with no real interest in land or wildlife, or the environment in general. Both have sold out to the industries that call the shots in Montana and Wyoming–the livestock industry and the minerals industry.
I too got a response letter and was also stunned by the implication that, as a bison supporter, Governor Schweitzer’s call to keep bison management the same would please me. Nothing is changing… Schweitzer is just spouting a more polished and articulate version of the same old line.