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FWS to reduce bison range staff, herd

Tribal officials call decision 'heartbreaking'

By Maggie Plummer

PABLO — Last Wednesday, tribal officials were surprised when the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced plans to reduce the bison herd as well as staff numbers at the National Bison Range (NBR) in Moiese.

According to a news release from FWS, officials plan to send bison from here to other federal refuges, and to shift from the current 17 full time NBR employees to 6.3 positions.

"CSKT had offered its partnership in running the range, which is located entirely on the (Flathead) Reservation," Tribal Communications Director Rob McDonald said this week. "The range is a cherished piece of living history and culture for the Tribes. Tribal members started this herd. To see the herd broken up and sent in a dozen different directions is heartbreaking for the Tribes."

He added that, had the FWS been cooperative in working with the Tribes, "this drastic reduction may have been avoided and the general public would be served better."

An annual funding agreement between the Tribes and FWS, which allowed for some of the jobs at the NBR to be performed by tribal members, was cancelled last December by FWS officials.

But the Department of the Interior, which oversees the FWS, promptly restored a working relationship with the Tribes.

No new agreement, however, has been reached.

Earlier this year, FWS officials were defending their uncooperative actions as driven by their desire to keep the NBR "crown jewel" in pristine condition, McDonald commented.

"Even though the Dept. of Interior has reversed the FWS removal of the Tribes from the bison range," McDonald said, "the FWS now has control and their decision is to shrink a place cherished by the community, including Indian and non-Indian alike."

Tribal leaders continue to operate under the belief that the Interior Department is working toward its pledge of reinstating a contract to return CSKT workers to the bison range.

Especially with the 100th anniversary of the National Bison Range coming up next year, "it's not hard to imagine the general public, including tribal members, will be upset by this move to shrink the Bison Range - a place that's as familiar as trees growing new buds in the spring," he added.

During a visit to the NBR last Thursday afternoon, an employee said that several job vacancies there are not going to be filled, so they're not expecting to lose any FWS staff members.

Meanwhile, out on the range about 130 cows have begun calving.

At the end of Prairie Drive, on the range's eastern edge, groups of bison napped and lounged, quiet amidst the greening-up field grass.

If they'd caught any news about upcoming changes, they weren't talking.

A choir of meadowlarks performed a stereo serenade, the only other sound the wind. Far overhead, a couple of soaring hawks were silhouetted by a blue sky dotted with puffy clouds. Off to the north an April shower filled the horizon with gray streaks.

Magpies flitted here and there, as elk and pronghorn grazed along the Mission Creek bottom.

Back in the human arena, FWS officials say the changes will bring the local range in line with fiscal challenges other federal refuges have been dealing with since budgets from Congress and the Bush administration began in 2003.

It also ushers in a "more holistic" approach to managing the public's national bison herd, they say.

Bill West, NBR assistant manager who is due to become manager in June, believes that visitors won't notice much difference at the Moiese range. (NBR manager Steve Kallin is moving on, to the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming.)

West and other FWS officials say there will still be plenty of NBR bison to view. But they haven't said exactly how much the 300-to-400-head herd would be reduced.

The NBR may have to cut some services, such as maintenance of the day-use area and length of visitor center hours. Some NBR work will be performed by additional seasonal or temporary employees. Service personnel located at other refuges will also assist with NBR work, FWS personnel said.

In addition, management responsibility for Swan River and Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuges, currently part of the NBR Complex, will be transferred to the Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge Complex, headquartered in Great Falls.

Implementing these changes is possible because of two developments, according to the April 11 FWS news release:
    • the redistribution of wild bison throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System; and
    • the conclusion of the nearly two-year agreement with the Tribes for work at the Range.

The FWS began developing its workforce plan as early as 2003, the release states, but could not include the range in that plan until the FWS reassumed full responsibility for all operations at the range.

In late 2006, the FWS began a redistribution of its "high-quality genetic material" from National Wildlife Refuge System bison herds, including the NBR herd, according to the release.

According to Dean Rundles, supervisor of national wildlife refuges in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, the NBR bison are the most valuable the FWS has. "They are disease-free," he said, "unlike herds in Yellowstone Park and at the National Elk Refuge, and they have very low cattle gene integration."

The FWS also has bison at Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Fort Niobrara in Nebraska, Wyoming's National Elk Refuge, Sully's Hill National Game Preserve in North Dakota, and the Neal Smith Refuge in Iowa.