Friends of NBR hold first membership meeting

By Maggie Plummer

What it's all about - These massive, majestic bison were "home on the range" in Moiese, resting in dusty wallows to beat last Saturday's afternoon heat. (Maggie Plummer photo)

MOIESE — Paul Bishop, founder of the new Friends of the National Bison Range (NBR) and 10-year NBR roundup volunteer, likes to tell a story from the last bison roundup.

He told it to about 80 people gathered at the bison range picnic area last Saturday for the Friends' first membership meeting.

Every year there are two public days of bison roundup and a third private day to finish up, he explained. On that third day, historically the last few stubborn bison that had managed to evade the roundup riders would be herded by Jeep - a rough process that sometimes injures the animals, Bishop said.

This last year, under the Tribes, no Jeep appeared to herd that group of cantankerous bison, he noted.

Bishop said he watched as the tribal employees, with patience and gentleness, got the stubborn animals to actually walk into the corrals.

He commented that when comparing the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Tribes, "it's a world view difference." He added that when he goes to the NBR Visitor Center, he wonders where the Tribal perspective is.

The weather cooperated for Saturday's hour-long meeting. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the wildflowers were blooming as people sat in chairs and at picnic tables to listen.

The Friends group is an independent, membership-based, volunteer organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the NBR and its satellite refuges.

The core principles of the group include:
    • continued management of the NBR as a premier wildlife refuge, with the current numbers of bison and staffing levels; and
    • continued and increasing involvement of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in the management of the NBR.

Opening the meeting with a prayer was tribal spiritual leader Johnny Arlee.

After his prayer, the Yamncut group drummed and sang part of a buffalo song.

Bishop noted that this was the largest group of Indian people on the NBR since last fall, when tribal NBR employees were abruptly, forcibly escorted off the range.

Although many tribal members attended the meeting, and tribal officials were invited to participate, no tribal officials spoke. However, two FWS representatives, Steve Kallin and Dean Rundle, addressed the gathering.

Kallin, outgoing NBR manager, said that the FWS has chosen "meta-population management" of the nation's bison, so that original wild genetics may be preserved.

According to him, 80 bison will be transferred out this fall, to different refuges. That means that the herd size will be 280 to 300 animals after the roundup in October, he said.

Both he and Rundle, refuge supervisor for the Mountain-Prairie Region of the National Wildlife Refuge System, told the group that the NBR herd is not being reduced to 100 animals, as reported in some newspapers. That number was taken out of context, they said.

"A public debate about misinformation serves no one," Kallin commented.

He said that the 100 number came up when tribal officials asked a representative of the FWS how low the bison population could go and still allow the NBR to still provide public bison-viewing. According to Kallin, that 100 number has been misconstrued and distorted, to say that the FWS is "burning the village to thwart CSKT involvement at the bison range."

The FWS is doing no such thing, he said.

However, Bishop said this week that he feels the FWS officials are simply backpedaling, and that they'd like to change what they said.

Tribal officials said Tuesday afternoon that a team of tribal leaders sat in council chambers and heard Rundle say that plans were in place to reduce the bison herd to 100, down from the usual 350 or more.

"Now FWS managers are telling the media a different version of what was said to the tribes," Rob McDonald, Tribal Communications Director, said. "We know what we heard. We also know local FWS officials are not denying they talked about reducing the herd to 100 bison. We'd like to see the FWS explain to the public their plans to move staff and animals from the National Bison Range."

He added that if the FWS has heard the public outcries against shrinking the bison range, maybe their public statements are attempts to reverse their previously stated policies. If FWS does intend to stop their plans to diminish the bison range, the Tribes support that policy direction, McDonald said.

At Saturday's meeting, Rundle predicted that people wouldn't see very much change at the NBR this year. "Maybe in a couple years we'll be bringing animals here from other refuges," he said. "We want your input."

The current budget crunch makes the FWS "like a family on a fixed income," he remarked.

The best thing for everyone, he said, would be a close, true partnership between the Tribes and the FWS. "I think there is more than one way to get there, to build those partnerships," he said.

The FWS and the new Friends of the NBR group "have a lot in common," he added.

Bishop said he agreed with Rundle's words but would like to see actions.

"Let's see the actions of a partnership," he emphasized, pointing to FWS accusations that tribal employees mal-nourished bison, which Bishop said were false accusations. Another FWS report, that volunteers were scared away by the Tribes, was also not true, he said.

"Social and environmental justice are issues," he remarked. "We're not going to lie down and let the NBR be denigrated."

The several-weeks-old Friends group has about 50 members and picked up another 20 members during Saturday's meeting, according to Bishop.

He would like to eventually see the Friends have as many members as there are bison at the range.

The group's current strategy is to encourage members as well as everyone else to contact the Montana congressional delegation and stress the Friends' core principles.

The group's web site is www.friendsnbr.org

Bishop's mailing address is P. O. Box 461, Polson MT 59860.