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Wild bison hunts back on the table in Helena

By WALT WILLIAMS, Chronicle Staff Writer

HELENA - A Manhattan lawmaker wants to resurrect hunting of wild bison to prevent cattle from contracting brucellosis.


 Sen. Gary Perry, a Republican, has introduced a bill instructing Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to establish a special wild buffalo or bison hunting license for the general public.

That bill, partnered with a proposed joint House resolution urging the elimination of brucellosis among Yellowstone National Park's bison herd, would be a significant tool in fighting the disease, Perry said Tuesday.

"Our main objective is a 10-year program whereby we eradicate brucellosis and we can have free-ranging bison in the national forests in a program managed by Fish, Wildlife and Parks," he said.

Hunting of wild bison was banned the Legislature in 1991 after a series of highly-publicized hunts generated public criticism of the sport.

"A lot of (the criticism) was in the mechanism in the way those hunts were conducted," FWP Director Jeff Hagener said.

Previously, bison hunters were put on a notification list for when bison wandered out of the park. Game wardens then escorted the hunters to the animals.

After the 1991 ban, FWP was in charge of culling the herd for a few years. That task eventually was handed over to the state Department of Livestock.

Perry's bill wouldn't take that control away from the DOL. Instead, it would make sport hunting one more tool the state could use in controlling the disease.

Hunters groups such as the Gallatin Wildlife Association generally support bison hunting, but only as long as bison are allowed to freely wander outside Yellowstone.

"We oppose hunters to be used as a tool to shoot bison as (bison) cross over some arbitrary line," Gallatin Wildlife Association President Glenn Hockett said.

But bison hunting could once again draw fire from animal rights groups who helped end the practice in 1991.

"They'll be angering animal rights groups and the vast majority of the public will shoot (the proposal) down," said Jim Coefoll of the Ecology Center.

Coefoll and other bison supporters say Yellowstone's herd still has too small a gene pool for hunting.

They also say there hasn't been a single documented case of cattle contracting brucellosis from bison in the wild.

The bill, LC1657, is still in draft form.

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