Bill would give FWP the power to manage bison

The old Supreme Court chambers were crammed with those hoping to testify on the controversial bill. (Photo by Molly Priddy)

HELENA -Wildlife groups and others squared off with the ranching industry today over a bill that would strip the state Department of Livestock of its responsibility for managing bison that wander from Yellowstone National Park.

House Bill 253, sponsored by Rep. Mike Phillips, D-Bozeman, would give the job to the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. As wildlife, bison should be managed by wildlife professionals, he told fellow legislators.

“We have operated under a paradigm that says the Department of Livestock can manage wild bison,” Phillips told the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee.

Phillips said FWP would do a better job of working with of private landowners near the park. The switch also would allow the Department of Livestock to concentrate more specifically on the fight against brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to abort their offspring.

Phillips said the Department of Livestock has angered some landowners by going on their property, without permission, to haze bison. “They have interpreted that to mean trespassing is legal,” Phillips said.

The bill's supporters spoke in three-minute increments for an hour and a half. Many were from rural towns near Yellowstone National Park who said they were tired of the bison being hazed near their property.

Jim Bailey, representing the Gallatin Wildlife Association, said the Livestock Department has mismanaged the animals, allowing Montana to lose its brucellosis-free status in the process.

“We’ve been managing brucellosis with a feather,” Bailey said, adding, “We’ve been managing bison with a hammer.”

Other supporters said bison are wildlife and should be allowed to roam freely as they had for generations. Many said the number of bison slaughtered annually by the state was overkill.

But ranchers and their representatives told legislators they feared what would happen if the Livestock Department stopped managing the animals.

“The question is disease, not bison,” said John Bloomquist, lobbyist for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. He said other states would surely question Montana’s ability to manage brucellosis if FWP, an agency without a disease control department, took over.

Bob Hanson, president of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, said the bill would not help Montana get its brucellosis-free status back.

“We feel that it puts the cattle industry at risk,” Hanson said.

Others also said the bill does not address eradicating brucellosis from Montana.

“It does nothing to solve the problem, and you’ve heard time and time again the problem is disease and wildlife,” said Sen. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek.

Other opponents included the Montana Association of Counties, the Montana Board of Livestock and the Citizens for Balanced Use.

The Department of Livestock was given primary authority to manage bison by the 1995 Legislature.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy