| Lowbagger.org
|
|
It was a hard week for five of our buffalo friends. Two weeks ago, four massive bulls were unkindly forced back into the Park. Tired and shaken, they took their time migrating back to their chosen grazing location along the Madison River inside the Gallatin National Forest. That is where they want to be, need to be, and so is where they ended up again. Rightfully so; buffalo migrate, and this is their land. In doing so, they are breaking someone else's selfish "rules", yet boundary lines and interagency management plans mean nothing to them. This weekend, the four bulls were joined by another bull, and they all appeared content to be where they were within each other's company, doing what buffalo do. As it should be. Unless, of course, you're seeing things through livestock-tainted glasses. Yesterday, the five bulls - who pose zero threat to the cattle that aren't anywhere in sight - were once again chased off their ancestral grounds and run through snow and ice back into the confines of Yellowstone National Park. But the agents didn't just haze the buffalo; a herd of nearly 50 elk were caught up in the chaos, as well as a great blue heron, not to mention the bald eagles, trumpeter swans, wolves, moose, and numerous other wildlife species that all live in the area and are negatively impacted by the DOL's insistence that wild buffalo not roam. The buffalo will be back, and things may very likely be much worse for them the next time. But we will be with them and all the world will have a chance to know what Montana is doing to America's last wild buffalo. Yesterday while our five friends were being harassed, a crew from BFC headed to Helena and attended the Montana State Senate Natural Resource Committee's hearing on SB 353, a bill to allow for the neutering and quarantine of wild buffalo, all in an effort to start herds on Tribal lands. This outlandish bill adds insult to injury, and even its author, Senator Pease, realized how ridiculous it sounded. Nevertheless, it's up for the Committee to decide. No one at the hearing, however, testified in favor of the bill. The Committee heard some powerful testimony from a varied lot, and BFC was honored to read a statement written by Marty Fire Rider and Joseph Red Bear of the American Indian Movement. And we really have to thank everyone who took action by contacting the Committee members - your voice is being heard! We overhead several members say they had received "a stack of emails from one side of the country to the next." They seem extremely receptive to comments, and it sounds like a few are really doing their homework. Let's keep the pressure on! Power to the people for the buffalo! In closing, I thought this was worth sharing: On the drive to Helena, we headed along 287 through the Madison Valley. This stretch of land is incredibly beautiful; after passing through a relatively tight canyon, you come around and down the mountain and then the land opens up like a great, vast sea of grass stretching for miles and miles and miles. A true aspect of America's Serengeti. It is prime buffalo habitat, yet it is utterly void of their presence. We could imagine how it once was, and should be again - herds of hundreds or thousands of buffalo, grazing alongside vast herds of elk and pronghorn, dotted with stalking wolves and rambling grizzly bears. But today it is empty of buffalo. The emptiness is painful. And we couldn't help but notice the absence of cattle; we travelled more than 40 miles before we ever saw one heifer. So what, then, are the buffalo supposedly threatening? The grass the cowboys think is there for fattening their cattle? Hmmmm... there's some food for thought. STATEMENT, to be read by the Buffalo Field Campaign before the Montana Legislature: It is a sad day for all Americans when there are only 4000 of the worlds pure genetic free roaming buffalo and they are treated as a pariah that have to be removed or exterminated for the protection of cattle that populate the entire planet. What will you tell your childrensomeday when they ask why buffalo are only in museums in the extinct section? Buffalo are a gift from the creator as are all living species. They are the symbol of the freedom that is inherent in all that America represents in the world. To destroy this last herd would not only bring shame on the great state Montana, but also destroy a symbol of American pride, freedom and tenacious strength. The decisions that you make from this day forward affect not only Montana, but your children and their children, including all America. How do you want to be remembered in this life time as a person of preserving our American heritage or contributing toward its destruction. The legislators attempts to roundup, slaughter, neuter, hunt buffalo, especially the attempt to allow Indians to hunt only by traditional methods was an affront to all Indians. Montana's insensitivity and methods toward the buffalo is reminiscent of the policy towards the Indians. The attempts to find any excuse overt or covert, legal or illegal to remove Indians for the express purpose of taking their land. If that policy was enforced against another human race, well it does not surprise me that a similar policy is in place against the buffalo. For greed is the great motivator of self indulgence. If you are Christian or a traditional spiritual Indian, our creators are the same God. However, God never gave man the authority to destroy the earth and all living things upon it. Remember these Indian words always; "For what befalls mother earth, befalls the children of humankind." The Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group out in the field with the buffalo every day. |
Lowbagger
Home Features Grizzly Futures: The Bear vs. the Bush Administration By Louisa Willcox Season of the Buffalo By Dan Brister A Healthy-Sized Harvest By Matt Koehler Wilderness Study Area Assault By Larry Campbell Departments Publisher's Notebook Satan is My Co-Pilot By Mike Roselle Editor's Corner What is Lowbagger.org? What is a lowbagger? By Josh Mahan On the Ground Plutonium Wind Threatens Tetons By Mary Woolen-Mitchell Green Politics Conservation and the Political Imperative By Howie Wolke National Affairs No Friend of Mine By Marilyn Olsen Planet Watch Major Free-Flowing River Faces Dams By Bryce Smedley School Zone Short, Aggressive Manifesto on Education By Shane Sanchez Readings Morning Light Shorts and Ecology By Tim Sandlin Floogle Watch The $11 Martini By Uncle Ramon Poet's Lounge His Likable Ways, and Shock and Awe By Greg Keeler Mean Streets By Phil Knight Love is a Glove By Derek Cook Mountain Step How to Lowbag a Peak By John Fothergill Conversations At the Barbershop By Peter Crumbaker Fiction Focus Coyote Goes Snowboarding By Phil Knight |
