Well, January might have even passed for dull, just staying down on the farm, and hardly going anywhere. Except there have been a couple of events that blow that theme completely out of the water. The most recent; our son Cody moved out yesterday. It's time, he just turned 20, and went in on an apartment a couple of weeks ago with two girls, friends of his.

Packing was not a rapid process, which was certainly fine with all of us, and I think we were all dreading the actual event. So there was a lot of hugging and crying went on here yesterday afternoon. It's good, needs to happen, etc., but personally I'm just really glad he's only moved into town, and is going to be helping out with buffalo skulls and whatnot so will still be around a good bit. It's pretty friggin' quiet around here this morning, though...

A bunch of us had a heck of a day on Thursday, also. The House Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Committee heard testimony on House Bill 253, the Wild Buffalo Recovery and Conservation Act.

The "primary ball-carrier" for this bill is the Gallatin Wildlife Association, a group I became involved with... about ten years ago. This came about mainly because several of them were steady customers in our game processing plant. They seemed OK, and before long I was on the Board and realized they were some pretty serious activists. Malcontents and rabble-rousers, big game hunters. Ones who finally started implementing Dale Carnegie principles, with the occasional lapse, although opinions still vary on just how "inappropriate" that may be.

I'm not going to re-hash the merits or somecomings of this bill again, as it's been abundantly covered here, and here, and quite a few other places.

Maybe you had to be there, and I'm still tracking down video. All hearings in that room are recorded, and there was a TV camera or two around, but so far I haven't turned up any TV news reports directly from the hearing.

I'm not sure a single lens could really capture it, anyway. To our immense gratitude, supporters turned out in droves, and we filled the chambers, which is what we needed to do. Significant carpools came from the Gardiner and West Yellowstone areas, including two 12-passenger vans courtesy the Natural Resource Defense Council. Many area landowners were represented, as well as an incredible cross-section of residents. 42 proponents spoke in support, as I reported on New West "IMO to a person delivered sound, quite often impassioned, and still remarkably civil testimony." By the time it got to Senator Johnathon Windy Boy, and FWP Committee member Rep. Frosty Calf Boss Ribs who both pointed out the paintings of (dead) bison on the ceiling of the chambers...

Maybe ya had to be there. I need to renew my search for video footage, to see if it captured any of the mojo that was apparent to most.

Then 14 opponents, representing the Old Guard, objected with the SOS. This was followed by four "informational witnesses".

Of those, we were of course pleased with Federal wildlife veterinarian Dr. Tom Roffe. The unofficial analysis is that his stuff about the necessary vectors for transmission went somewhat over the heads of most, but not his analysis that effective wildlife vaccination programs remain a fantasy.

Oddly enough (from our standpoint), reports were also pretty favorable on the Dept. of Livestock's Christian Mackay. He was on the hot seat, and handled it well.

Fish, Wildlife, and Parks; less so. I was and am sort of willing to cut them a tiny bit of slack, as at least we finally received assurance that they wouldn't oppose our bill, which they didn't. "Benign Neglect" is what we asked for and got.

And then private contractor John Mundinger, who wrote much of the existing bison "plan", and has a long history with all this... I don't know, maybe I'd listened to too much testimony by then, but I was seated fairly close and at 90 degrees to the podium, and was most struck by his eyebrows. I've seen eagle nests in the rimrocks that stick out less!

So that was about the most fun I'd had in a while, although in some ways it's just the beginning. So we'd urge you to call the Legislative Hotline at 406-444-4800 and leave a message of support for HB253 with all the members of the House FWP Committee (which the capable staffers will deliver to them forthwith). This kind of support is critical, as we're told it's hardball behind the scenes. Key bi-partisan support from very conservative Republican Ted Washburn is under serious assault, so it's a good thing Ted is a former New York game warden, who has experience dealing with the Mafia. We'll see how the Montana legislature compares, and hang in there, Ted.