Are wild bison coming back to Montana?

Are wild bison coming back to Montana?

By Adrian Jawort, Today correspondent

Photo courtesy Donnie Sexton

Bison on the Fort Belknap Reservation.

Story Published: Jul 19, 2010

FORT BELKNAP, Mont. – One year ago, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee Arnold Dood said he was given the task of “evaluating the opportunity to restore a huntable population of wild bison somewhere in Montana.”

Dood, a 35-year-old veteran of the MT-FWP, has been rounding up ideas from people all across the state about potential issues, problems, and benefits an area could have with free ranging bison about.

In the mid-19th century, there were an estimated 60 million North American Bison roaming the continent. By the 1890s, that number dwindled to less than 400 living in the wild. Those few left inhabited north central Montana.

“There’s a lot of people that are interested in seeing bison restored to the natural habitat, and there’s a lot of people that would just assume that the issue would go away,” Dood said. “I don’t think that the issue is going to go away, and that’s why we’re trying to move forward and have discussions with people about the problems, the possibilities, and is there some way we can sit down together (and find something) that will work for everyone?”

Brucellosis, a disease that causes potential mothers to abort their fetuses, is a word that’s always mentioned in any discussion of bison since some are carriers. Although it’s never been documented that wild bison have given cows the disease, cattle ranchers are still weary of that possibility. Brucellosis is transmitted through an exchange of body fluids.

“There’s a lot of confusion about what the risk of disease is between bison and cattle,” Dood said. “Another concern is: ‘Bison and cattle eat a lot of the same stuff, so how are we going to share a landscape? If there’s bison there, does that mean my cows have to go away?’ A lot of people look at it like, ‘if you have bison, you can’t have cows,’ but that’s not the case.”

Dood has been traveling to other states where bison and cattle roam the same landscape to observe what works well for all involved.

He said as long as bison have sufficient forage and water in regards to their herd size and aren’t bothered, they’ll usually stay in the same area as long as they can. “If you look at other bison populations like in Utah and Arizona, as long as they have sufficient grass, it’s not like they’re packing up and moving 100 miles.”

Dood cites the Fort Belknap Indian Community in north central Montana as a tribe that has worked in the past with the MT-FWP in potentially obtaining quarantined Yellowstone bison that have tested positive for brucellosis. Right now they have a herd of approximately 400. “So Fort Belknap has been working off that and been trying to determine what role they can play in helping restore more wild bison to Montana.”

The Crow Tribe has a herd of bison that they will often hunt, and the Flathead Reservation has the National Bison Range. All seven Indian reservations in Montana have been eager at the idea of obtaining more bison. The Blackfeet Reservation is adjacent to Glacier National Park, and so bison inhabiting that area is a possibility.

“I think the tribal interests and the potential future for bison in Montana has been increased.” Dood said. He has been working closely with tribes and keeping them updated. “My intention is to work closely with the tribes as we move forward.”

The InterTribal Bison Cooperative was formed in 1990 to assist tribes in returning buffalo to Indian country. Today, the ITBC has a collective herd of more than 15,000 bison divided among 57 tribes.

“Almost all of the states consider buffalo as livestock, and they don’t recognize them as wildlife,” ITBC Executive Director Jim Stone said. “Montana is one of the first states that want to recognize them as a wildlife species. That’s pretty beneficial to our tribe, because once buffalo get off of their pastures on tribal lands, a lot of times they’ll be shot or killed. If they go under state jurisdiction, they’ll be protected under the state of Montana as a wildlife species.”

That is unless one has a hunting permit. Dood believes giving hunting permits for bison will help garner it further support in Montana, where hunting is popular.

Unlike cattle, bison will not overgraze an area and will leave the grass at a certain length before moving on. Their pointed hooves and heavy bodies serve to break up and till the soil for better plant growing.

“One of the things to understand is that buffalo aren’t cattle, and they do operate on the landscape different than cattle.” Dood said. “There are also some similarities to cattle, so in the long run we need to understand those things so we can manage the species in a way that works for both.”