Bison
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HB249 would allow Montana landowners to kill bison for any reason- 2012, and it looks like 2013, is shaping up to be another year of livestock interests trying to repeal a generation or two of progress in the management of wildlife. Alan Doane, a Montana Republican legislator, has a bill that would allow landowners to…
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Today Montana Judge E. Wayne Phillips shot down a lawsuit brought by powerful livestock interests to stop the State of Montana from allowing bison to use areas of Montana outside of Yellowstone National Park. In the spring of 2011, after many years of unsuccessfully trying to keep bison from leaving the northern boundary of Yellowstone…
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Hunter lockout underscores the privatization danger to our public lands- As if to underscore the value of our national public lands, this time for hunters, NE Montana ranchers have locked hunters out of their ranchland to protest and put pressure on Montana FWP because they didn’t get their way on keeping bison strictly restricted to…
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Republican Hill sees wildlife in terms of hunting; Democrat Bullock takes a more expansive view of the value of wildlife- The view of governors on wildlife makes a big difference because wildlife management is the province of the states except for endangered species and some marine mammals. Montana’s Democrat and current attorney general Steve Bullock…
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American Prairie Reserve has purchased as huge ranch next to the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge- The American Prairie Reserve is trying to put together a huge private wildlife reserve in NE Central Montana. This is a place where there is a lot of open space and a fair amount of public land. The C.M. Russell…
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With the exception of the Yellowstone population and a few other small herds of bison which came from Yellowstone, virtually all of the buffalo in in the U.S. are hybrids with cattle genes. The amount of genetic material from cattle may be small but there has been debate about whether it can affect the fitness…
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Unfortunately, the last story on the killing of a bison bull in Idaho got diverted by an incorrect, unfortunate discussion of the Nature Conservancy who was blameless in the matter. Today, however, the Island Park News reports a second bull bison was shot Idaho by agents in the Island Park area. It was wandering near…
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Continuing enlightenment from state in this long controversy- Final outcome will depend on 2012 election- The state of Montana continues to lessen restrictions on the movements of Yellowstone Park bison that try to live outside the Park. Now they will be allowed to live there year-round in two areas, the Gardiner Basin just north of…