Hunters 14; bison TBD

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Now entering its third week, the recently re-introduced, reauthorized, permitted bison hunt on the National Elk Refuge remains slow, refuge officials say. While one wildlife official is calling the controversial effort a success, another is saying it is too early to tell.

Wyoming Game & Fish Project Manager Tom Reed said last week the hunt had pushed most of Jackson’s 1,200-head bison herd off of the refuge, which is helping to keep the 25,000 acres of limited forage intact while foods still remain accessible at higher elevations.

“They’re reacting to the hunters and moving north,” thereby conserving the forage on the refuge, Reed said. Reed noted that many more bison were on the refuge in late summer and did concede the hunt is off to a slow start.

As of midday on Tuesday, 14 bison – 12 cows and two bulls – had been killed since the special hunting season on the refuge began Sept. 15. That is a figure not quite commensurate with the 50 hunting tags released for the season’s first two-week window, which ended Friday.

Now into the second interval, during which time a different 60 hunters have permission to take one cow or bull, depending on their tag, hunters and wildlife officials will observe if cooler temperatures and snowfall might drive the herd down from higher elevations and onto the refuge.

Though there are some desirable upshots of the hunt shooing the bison herd off the refuge for now, it remains to be seen how that might offset the heavy feed demands of a 1,200-head herd that officials hope to eventually cut to 500, and the 12,500 elk herd that is 1,500 elk too many, according to a major refuge management plan approved in April.

The controversial winter feed program, whereby winter forage on the overcrowded refuge is supplemented with alfalfa pellets and hay, is widely thought to contribute to spread of brucellosis, a bacterial infection that causes aborted calves, and could lead to more serious diseases in the future.

When asked if keeping the bison temporarily at bay had any real desirable long-term implications, National Elk Refuge Manager Steve Kallin said, “I believe it’s too early to tell.”

But that is not to say the hunt, which is beginning slowly and is somewhat experimental to begin with, is off to a bad start. Apart from a handful of letters published in local newspapers recently, Kallin has seen no great public relations fallout from the bison hunt, which some detractors have likened to baiting and then killing the animals.

“Certainly the process of involving the public in the [environmental impact statement] process has really helped improved the understanding of a need for management activity,” Kallin said. “I think we’re looking at some positive results … in a well-informed public that understands, by and large, the need for reduction. From that standpoint I’d call this a success.”

In the next week or two, the Buffalo Field Campaign, a West Yellowstone group that has called for volunteers to apply for bison tag lotteries in Montana in the hopes of letting won permits go unused, will tour the National Elk Refuge, Kallin said.

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Hunters 14; bison TBD | Planet JH News Article: Sports & Recreation

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