Commissioners back proposed bison hunting rules

By Susan Gallagher

HELENA (AP) — State wildlife commissioners recently rejected a plea to call off Montana’s 2008 bison hunt and tentatively supported keeping regulations and quotas the same as in 2007, when hunters reported killing 166 bison.

With Yellowstone National Park’s bison population having fallen from 4,700 animals to 2,000 during the past year, largely due to slaughter under a state-and-federal management plan, a 2008 hunt would be inappropriate, said James Bailey of the Gallatin Wildlife Association in Bozeman. The retired wildlife biologist said the bison count is low enough to raise concern about maintaining the herd’s genetic diversity, which has implications for bison reproduction, survival and disease resistance.

Bison hunted in Montana have entered the state from Yellowstone. Hunting is in the West Yellowstone and Gardiner areas.

Slaughter occurs under a plan advanced as a way to help control spread of the disease brucellosis, found in the Yellowstone bison herd. Some of Montana’s livestock producers say they fear bison will transmit brucellosis to grazing cattle.

Bailey told the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission that hunters are being asked to accomplish goals of the Montana Department of Livestock. That violates both sound wildlife management and hunter ethics, he said.

The Montana Wildlife Federation also noted the reduction in the Yellowstone herd and said commissioners would be wrong to conclude that hunting regulations satisfactory in 2007 will work in 2008.

The commission emphasized the bison regulations were advanced Thursday only as a tentative package and could change before the panel takes final action in August, after public hearings. Even after final action, commissioners have authority to amend seasons, quotas and regulations as they deem necessary for wildlife management.

State officials say that of the 166 bison reported killed in the 2007 hunt, 63 were shot by people with state licenses and 103 by those with tribal licenses.

In setting the 2007 regulations and quotas, commissioners decided that at least 44 state-issued licenses would be available for the hunt scheduled for mid-November to mid-February. Montana law required that of the 44 state-issued licenses, 16 be set aside for eight recognized Montana tribes. Those licenses were apart from tribal licenses.

Commissioners last year also supported allowing up to 100 additional state-issued bison permits, depending on how many of the animals migrated out of Yellowstone. They said they expected any increase to be matched by an equal increase in tribal permits.

Representatives of Fish, Wildlife and Parks plan to meet with tribal representatives in the next few weeks to discuss Indian hunting in 2008, said Ron Aasheim, spokesman for the state agency.