As the editorial makes clear, Montana's brucellosis-free status would in no way be placed in jeopardy by managing bison as a wildlife asset, in areas where there is no risk of disease transmission. In fact, the case can easily be made that the Department of Livestock is acting in a reckless and irresponsible manner, similar to practicing unsafe sex. Their endorsement of the handful of landowners who have little more than hobby herds of disease-susceptible breeding age cows in prime wildlife wintering areas carries a grave risk. Let's not forget; it's not just bison who carry brucellosis. Many operations, such as the Sun Ranch, practice responsible livestock husbandry by running yearlings. Wild bison do not frequent their neighborhood in the upper Madison, but they host several thousand elk, who also carry brucellosis. It would appear that the Department of Livestock should be counseling the handful of hobby ranchers in the upper Yellowstone to employ similarly responsible practices, and by failing to do so, they are doing a grave disservice to the overwhelming majority of Montana livestock producers.

Cooke City was written up in the Big Sky Journal some years back, as retaining the sort of lawless frontier vibe common to mining camps of a century ago, although I’d venture to guess that crime is basically non-existent. I’d say the populace is pretty well self-policing, and as I recall the Journal article touted the unofficial "mayor" as being one of a contingent of somewhat disaffected young males, given to pool sharking, philosophy, and liquor consumption at the Miner’s Saloon. Kim and I ate at the Miner’s, and while a couple of "councilmen" appeared with cased pool cues in hand, we left before things really got rolling. What struck me, and earned mention in the Journal article also, was the vastly disproportionate male/female ratio. In fact, I hadn’t seen such a gross imbalance since my days in the farming communities of Montana’s Hi-Line. An unofficial census of about 35 patrons resulted in only two of the fair gender, and fortunately one of those was with me! Obviously, one might draw all sorts of sociological conclusions from this data, but if a woman was looking to meet eligible males the Miner’s would be fertile ground, so to speak. Especially if she were wearing an Arctic Cat parka and a low-cut sweater, as aside from the local philosopher/pool sharks the clientele ran heavily toward Midwestern snowmobilers. As the saying goes; "the odds are good, but the goods are odd".

We hadn’t gone to Cooke for the night life, though, or snowmobiling either, for that matter. The northern range of Yellowstone from Gardiner to Cooke is one of the premier winter wildlife viewing areas in the world. The big draw anymore are arguably wolves, but other wildlife is in abundance, and we saw loads of bison and elk, plus bighorn sheep, antelope, beaver, plus an assortment of waterfowl and raptors. We also had reliable reports of a spot to look for otters, but alas, they were not in evidence, so my dearth of otter sightings continues. The most up-to-date journal of area wildlife sightings I know of is on Dan and Cindy Hartman’s website. They’re wildlife photographers based out of Silver Gate, and if you check out their website I’m sure you’ll agree their work speaks for itself.

We didn’t see any wolves this trip, although spoke with some folks who’d seen a couple of lone ones near Slough Creek. Interestingly, we did see several coyotes. The smaller wild canids reportedly find life a much more harrowing proposition since the re-introduction of their larger cousins, as wolves will kill coyotes when opportunity presents. I suppose the upside is that wolf kills provide an additional food source that benefits a variety of scavengers, at least as long as they don’t perish themselves in the process. On that note, a flock of ravens and a coyote were cleaning up a recent elk kill near Soda Butte. Interestingly, on our departure a Ranger was in the process of sawing up the elk’s antlers. I suppose that’s to reduce the temptation for antler enthusiasts to trot out there and pick up a souvenir, which I must admit briefly crossed my mind before better sense prevailed. Still, conspiracy theorists (which abound when it comes to wolves, arguably with some merit) might question whether it also tends to hide evidence of wolf predation to the casual observer.

The northern Yellowstone elk herd is clearly suffering significant predation. One of the quickest ways I know of to get into a heated debate in these parts is to take a position on that. Since we don’t really get winter to speak of in these parts anymore, it seems, a lot of the elk never leave the Park and hence their numbers can’t be controlled by hunters here in Montana. The wolves are filling that role quite effectively (too effectively, many say), so once again I’m glad to see that Montana and Idaho have been granted greater autonomy in managing wolves that have migrated from Yellowstone. The other predominate species that arguably overpopulate the northern range are bison, who are relatively impervious to wolf predation. On that note, our bison bill, HB544 is up for its first hearing before the House Fish, Wildlife, and Parks committee tomorrow (2/17/05). We have the Governor’s and FWP’s support, and the Department of Livestock will be neutral on it, we’re told. At this point, we’re cautiously optimistic that our bill will find widespread support. It clarifies three points;

• Designate buffalo as "valued, native wildlife in the state of Montana."
• Designate Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as the agency responsible for fair chase, public hunting. (The bill does not mandate a buffalo hunt, however when a buffalo hunt is reinstated it will be managed by the wildlife professionals at Fish, Wildlife and Parks.)
• Continue to insure that private property rights and Montana’s valued brucellosis free status are protected, by maintaining cooperation with the Department of Livestock.

The exact bill language is available on the Legislature’s website, but the Cliff Notes version is that FWP will be allowed to manage bison as wildlife in areas where there is no risk of disease transmission (brucellosis) to humans or livestock. Fortunately, there are vast areas of public land adjacent to Yellowstone where livestock conflict is basically non-existent, and we feel it’s high time we stop treating bison as a potential problem, and turn them into an asset! Once again, there has never, not once, been a documented case of brucellosis transmission between bison and cattle, and in fact there is considerable evidence that bison develop a natural immunity to it. Some of the more radical elements are actually advocating the total depopulation of bison and elk in Yellowstone as a disease control measure! Eliminating brucellosis is a worthy goal, but that’s an unrealistic (and thankfully; politically and biologically impossible) way to go about it.

If those points make sense to you, which they overwhelmingly do to most, I’d urge you to follow HB544’s progress on the Legislature’s website, and express support to legislators via e-mail (their addresses are on that website) or by calling the legislative hotline at 406-444-4800.