An Inside Look at Capturing Yellowstone's Bison

In mid-February the Stephens Creek bison capture facility (the trap) opened for business inside Yellowstone. The National Park Service runs the trap--a deadly cog in the controversial Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). 

Two concepts sit at the heart of that plan: migration and social tolerance. Bison--in a race between starvation and spring--migrate out of Yellowstone and into Montana each winter in search of grass not locked away under ice or snow. But the Montana has no tolerance for bison outside the park near Gardiner and West Yellowstone. State officials claim this is because some bison are infected with brucellosis that can be transmitted to cattle. But there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild bison to cattle. On the other hoof, wild elk have transmitted brucellosis to cattle numerous times and Montana has survived.

This unfounded fear of brucellosis was one factor leading to the creation of the IBMP—a court-ordered coalition of federal and state agencies and some Native American tribes. The IBMP calls for the capture of bison at Stephens Creek and for their shipment to slaughter in Montana. It also calls for a hunt (a firing squad, really) just outside the park to further reduce Yellowstone's bison population. This winter the IBMP goal is to remove 600-900 bison from Yellowstone's herd.

Along with members of the media and conservation organizations, I toured the Stephens Creek facility in the winter of 2016 and 2017 when bison were in the trap. The 2018 tour was cancelled due to security concerns. Unfortunately, no tours have been scheduled since then. I publish this post each year the trap is open so that what goes on inside is not a secret.

Below are photos I took during the tours. I've added captions that explain how bison are handled once captured at Stephens Creek. 

Processing began as NPS employees on horseback rode into the pen that holds captured bison. During the tours we observed the shipping of some bison and the processing for later shipment of more.

Shouting, whistling, and waving their hands, horseback riders ran the bison toward a second pen.

The bison were hazed from the second pen into a long chute that leads to a device with the brand name “The Silencer.” NPS employees used long poles to prod the bison out of the chute and into The Silencer, one at a time. 

The Silencer performs a number of functions. In this photo, a park bison biologist waiting to work stands to the left of the machine, while a supervisor on the catwalk makes sure the machine is ready for bison. (As of 2017, NPS had painted over The Silencer brand name on the equipment.)

We watched many bison go through The Silencer. They bucked and kicked and grunted, the whites of their frightened eyes obvious. Once a bison is in The Silencer, an operator slides levers that slowly moves the sides of the machine inward, squeezing the animal and holding it in place. Once the bison is still, a bar pushes the animal’s head to the side and holds it there so the biologist can draw a blood sample. The large needle used to draw blood is in the biologist's right hand in the photo. 

In addition to a blood draw, each bison was weighed, and its sex, age, and brucellosis status was determined. 

An employee showed us the blood samples. We were told that an NPS bison biologist analyzes the samples at a small lab at Stephens Creek. A positive test result means that a bison has been exposed to brucellosis, but does not necessarily mean that the bison can transmit the disease. Test results, say NPS officials, are not used to determine which animals are shipped to slaughter. Instead, they use them to understand the disease status of the population and to identify a few animals that are appropriate for brucellosis research studies.

After release from The Silencer, bison were directed to various holding pens, depending on age and sex. In the photo, female bison are seen through a small hole in one of the sheets of plywood that cover the fence of the holding pens. NPS officials said that if bison can't see past the plywood, can’t see an escape route, they stay calmer. 

These captured calves--born the previous spring--were waiting to be shipped to slaughter. This view is from a catwalk above the holding pens. An armed law enforcement ranger accompanied each of us when it was our turn to observe from the catwalk. 

About eight employees work on the catwalks. They open and close gates and keep bison moving. Four other employees draw blood and gather data at The Silencer. Workers often communicate with silent hand signals.

Once a bison has been processed and assigned a number by a tag placed on its back, it's ready to be shipped. The blood on this bison is either from an injury to this animal or from rubbing against another injured bison.

A trailer from a Native American tribe backed up to the loading gate, and the door of the trailer was opened. Bison were released from the holding pen and hazed down a chute. NPS employees prodded the animals with long poles from above to make them step through the open door of the trailer. 

In this photo, sixteen bison were in one of these trailers and fourteen in the other. Once the bison were loaded, the trailer was sealed. The trailers left together, followed by a Montana Department of Livestock law enforcement officer in a DOL truck. The officer was armed and ready to shoot the bison in case there was an accident and a bison escapes or was injured. We were told this procedure is required by the state of Montana. 

Since 1985, more than 12,500 bison have been captured and sent to slaughter or killed by the firing squad, according to Buffalo Field Campaign. During this bison season, 600 to 900 more could be killed. 

The original bison management plan requires this capture and slaughter and hunt. In 2016, an NPS spokesperson told us that they have outgrown the old plan. In 2017, a different spokesperson said that it could be up to ten years before a new plan is in place. 

Early this year, the NPS said they want to evaluate bison management based on new scientific information and changed circumstances. They want to explore ways to reduce bison being sent to slaughter, while continuing to work closely with Tribal Nations and agency partners in bison management. In the meantime, this capture and slaughter and hunt will continue.

Since 1952 the image of a bison has appeared on the arrowhead patch—the official emblem—worn by NPS employees. In the time I spent touring Stephens Creek, I heard numerous NPS employees state that they do not want to be sending these genetically pure bison to slaughter. They added, however, that they are required to do so by the IBMP. I was also told that the Montana Department of Livestock wants a quicker return from Yellowstone's current population of around 5,000 bison to the IBMP target of 3,000. To reach this target population, of course, even more bison--our national mammal--must be killed. 

The Interagency Bison Management Plan 

controls the shooting, capture, and slaughter of 

Yellowstone bison our national mammal.

This court-ordered coalition is composed of eight members:

National Park Service

USDA-Forest Service

USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Montana Department of Livestock

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

The Inter Tribal Buffalo Council

The Nez Perce Tribe

The two annual IBMP meetings are open to the public.
If you want to speak for bison,

public comment is allowed at each meeting.

Next meeting: April 13, 2022 in Bozeman, MT.

Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands.

His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. 

His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

All photos by Rick Lamplugh

LAST DAY to COMMENT on Yellowstone's Bison Management

Park officials want to evaluate bison management based on new scientific information and changed circumstances. They want to explore ways to reduce bison being sent to slaughter, while continuing to work closely with Tribal Nations and agency partners in bison management. And they want to hear how you want our national mammal treated. 

Last month the park announced a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the park’s Bison Management Plan. The EIS will also consider bison management actions that could occur on lands outside the park in Montana, while acknowledging that Yellowstone National Park does not have control over actions such as hunting or tolerance for bison beyond the park boundary.

The park's goal is to preserve an ecologically sustainable population of wild, wide-ranging bison while continuing to work with other agencies to address issues related to brucellosis transmission, human safety, property damage, and to support tribal hunting outside the park.

The EIS presents three alternatives that would manage bison with varying population ranges and management activities.

Alternative 1 (No Action, Continue Current Management): 

Under Alternative 1, the park would:

• Continue management of bison according to the more than 20-year-old Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP).
• Maintain a population range of bison similar to the last two decades—3,500 to 5,000 bison after calving.
• Continue coordinating bison capture at Stephens Creek with hunting opportunities outside the park.
• Increase the number of brucellosis-free bison relocated to tribal lands via the Bison Conservation Transfer Program. (The BCTP aims to avoid slaughtering hundreds of Yellowstone bison; instead the park transfers live bison to Tribal Nations. By shipping instead of slaughtering, the BCTP supports the culture and economy of Native Americans and preserves the unique Yellowstone bison genome.)
• Work with the State of Montana to manage the already low risk of brucellosis spreading from bison to cattle.

Alternative 2 (Enhance Restoration and Tribal Engagement): 

Under Alternative 2:

• Bison would be managed within a larger population range—4,500 to 6,000 bison after calving.
• The park would emphasize using the BCTP and tribal hunting outside the park to regulate numbers. 
• The park might use proactive measures such as low stress hazing of bison toward the park boundary to increase tribal hunting opportunities outside the park. 
• The park would reduce shipment to slaughter based on the needs and requests of Tribal Nations.

Alternative 3 (Food-limited Carrying Capacity): 

Under Alternative 3:

• The park would rely on natural selection, bison dispersal, and public and tribal harvests in Montana as the primary tools to regulate numbers. Bison population would be the largest—5,500 to 8,000 or more bison after calving. 
• The park would immediately stop capturing bison at Stephens Creek for shipment to slaughter. 
• The park would continue capturing bison at Stephens Creek to maintain the transfer to tribes as in Alternatives 1 and 2.

The LAST DAY to submit your comments is TODAY.  The deadline is Monday, February 28. (See below for details.)

At the conclusion of the 30-day public comment period, the NPS will analyze and consider all comments received and refine the Draft EIS. The Draft EIS will then be released for a 45-day public review and comment period in fall 2022.

Sources for Writing Comments

In preparing my comments, I had lengthy discussions with a representative of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC). On its website, GYC states it is “working to end decades of hazing and slaughtering bison that migrate beyond Yellowstone’s boundaries. The Tribes of Fort Peck, InterTribal Buffalo Council, National Park Service, and non-profit partners like GYC are working to give bison the best chance at meaningful restoration, despite the considerable logistical and political barriers in place. Central to these efforts is the Bison Conservation Transfer Program and the collaborative partnership working to support and expand it to reduce the need for Yellowstone bison culling.” You can read more about GYC's position here.

I also studied the Buffalo Field Campaign's response to the EIS. BFC is asking for “consideration of managing wild buffalo like wild elk to expand the range of alternatives for people to comment on. BFC is also asking Yellowstone National Park to stop slaughtering buffalo.” You can read more about BFC's position here.

I also drew upon my experience of the last seven years when I have observed, researched, and written about Yellowstone’s bison management and the bison hunt. I have also toured the bison capture facility at Stephens Creek. I have talked with numerous NPS staff about bison management.  

***

The LAST DAY to submit your comments  is TODAY, February 28. Your comments can be short or long. You can simply say which alternative you prefer. Or if you don't like any of the alternatives, just tell NPS how you want to see bison managed. 

***

I submitted the following comment:

I am a Montana author and wildlife advocate. I live in Gardiner. For the last seven years, I have observed, researched, and written about Yellowstone’s bison management and hunt. The annual hunt that occurs primarily in Beattie Gulch is not fair chase; I describe it as a firing squad.  I have toured the bison capture facility at Stephens Creek, both when bison were present and when they were not. I have seen the stress that capturing causes in bison. I have talked with numerous park staff about bison management. Many have said they don't want to be managing bison with capture and slaughter.

I ask that wild bison be treated like wild elk. Bison, our national mammal, should be able to roam freely across this nation. Bison should not be confined to Yellowstone and a small--and practically unreachable--tolerance zone (only for male bison) just north of the park. 

I understand that the state of Montana is dead set against free-roaming bison. But that’s Montana’s position. I think that Yellowstone National Park should state clearly that it wants bison to be “free-roaming” not just “wide-ranging.” The park should not be in the business of managing bison; the park doesn't manage any other wildlife.

Given that Montana will probably never allow free-roaming bison, I also support Alternative 3. I support immediately stopping the shipment of our national mammal to slaughter. I support shipping bison to Tribal Nations so that Yellowstone’s genetically pure bison can return to some of their original range. 

Photo Credits:

Bison on road at top of post by Mary Strickroth

Bison standing in water by Mary Strickroth

All other photos by Rick Lamplugh

Award-winning Indie author Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands. 

His award-winning book In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon. 

You can also join Rick in his latest writing adventure, a free weekly letter to subscribers entitled Love the Wild. You’ll find excerpts from his books, podcasts, photo essays, opinion pieces, and more. All aim to excite your mind and warm your heart.

Signed Sets Available

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Recommitting to Wildlife and Wild Lands

Each January I write about my commitment to protect wildlife and preserve wild lands. This year will bring a change in my approach, and I’ll describe that in a few moments. But first I want to thank the wolves that led me to advocating. I started following wolves down this path one winter ten years ago. That was the first of three winters that my wife Mary and I volunteered and lived at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch in the heart of Yellowstone’s wolf country. Part of our job was helping seminar participants spot wildlife. Since wolves topped the list of animals to see, I watched wolves almost every day.

I learned to identify specific wolves and discovered with amazement the distinct personalities of some. I observed wolves interacting within their family. I watched rival families battle over food, mates, or territory. And I listened to experts discuss what we saw each day. 

Slowly, I began to understand how essential wolves are. Not just in Yellowstone. Not just in the Rocky Mountains. Not just in the Great Lakes region. Wolves are essential wherever they’re allowed to live.

Some evenings I would return to our cabin at the Buffalo Ranch exhausted from a day of watching and learning. I would journal about what I had seen or heard, felt or wondered. As the winters added up, I found myself wanting to learn more about wolves. I read books and scientific articles. I interviewed experts. My early journal entries and that later research eventually came together in a book, In the Temple of Wolves: A Winter’s Immersion in Wild Yellowstone.

As that book became an Amazon best seller, I realized that I owed wolves. If I was to profit from a book about them, I needed to pay them back. One way to do that was to advocate. I waded in.

Over the last decade, I’ve written articles and social media posts. I’ve produced slideshows and podcasts. I’ve also been an active advocate: volunteering with conservation organizations; presenting to individuals, groups, and the media; speaking with legislators at our state capital and in Washington D.C. 

Seven years ago, drawn by Yellowstone, Mary and I left Oregon—our home for 36 years. We moved to Gardiner, Montana, at the park’s north gate. That move led to another book: Deep into Yellowstone: A Year’s Immersion in Grandeur and Controversy. While writing that book, I realized that the battle we fight goes beyond protecting any one species. The battle is about protecting wildlife and preserving wild lands.   

As a new year and another Yellowstone winter unfolds, I want to reaffirm my commitment to wildlife and wild lands. And I want to change my approach. 

This year I will spend less time in active advocacy (volunteering, presenting, speaking)  and more time writing about how and why we can change our relationship with wild lands and wildlife, especially wolves, coyotes, and bison, my favorite Yellowstone neighbors. Each of these creatures has an incredible natural history and an essential place in this ecosystem we share with them. Each deserves our best efforts to move toward coexisting and away from killing.

This year I want my writing to bring together ideas and actions, facts and feelings that you and I can use in our efforts to make this world a better place for wildlife, wild lands—and for us.

I would love to read in a comment or private message about your goal for this year as a supporter of wildlife and wild lands. 

Award-winning Indie author Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands. 

His award-winning book In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

You can also join Rick in his latest writing adventure, a free weekly letter to subscribers entitled Love the Wild. You’ll find excerpts from his books, podcasts, photo essays, opinion pieces, and more. All aim to excite your mind and warm your heart.

Photo Credit:

Photo of Rick by Mary Strickroth

The Reality of Yellowstone's Bison Hunt

[Note from Rick: Buffalo Field Campaign recently reported seeing 21 bison shot at one time in Gardiner Basin. That report reminded me of a day when Mary and I witnessed a similar massacre. This blog is based on that day and describes the reality of the Yellowstone bison hunt.]

One winter day, Mary and I take turns scanning with binoculars along the floor of Gardiner Basin and to a thin line of conifers that marks Yellowstone National Park's northern border. Just beyond that border is Beattie Gulch in Gallatin National Forest. There, winter-hungry bison that migrate past the invisible park boundary in search of dried grass not buried under deep snow are shot by hunters. 

But really, hunter is the wrong word. Those people we watch through binoculars in Beattie Gulch—there are at least fifty of them, some in camo, some in bright orange vests—they’re not hunters. They’re shooters. They’re a firing squad. They stand in the open, within sight of their pickup trucks, their guns ready, alongside the route that bison use each year. The shooters wait for bison to unwittingly enter their field of fire.

When we look toward the park, we count twenty-nine bison, walking in a long line toward the firing squad. The animals seem oblivious to danger. But why shouldn’t they be? They spend most of their lives in Yellowstone protected from hunting. We watch and worry as they close in on the firing squad.

Then we hear the first shots, popping sounds at this distance. 

We’re shocked to see a bison fall and amazed that the rest of the herd does not flee. Instead, they circle their fallen member, as if wondering what’s wrong. 

Pop! Pop! Another bison down.

Some of the group moves toward the second bison on the ground.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Two more bison fall. Still the rest don’t turn tail.

Within minutes, twenty-one bison lay scattered and still in front of the firing squad. We feel some relief as eight survivors turn from the slaughter and in a much shorter line escape Beattie Gulch and climb up a draw, heading back towards the park. One limps, perhaps wounded. 

Mary and I sit silent, sad, and angry. We know that if today’s survivors make it back into the park they could be safe. Or their days could be numbered. Though these eight escaped the firing squad today, the annual winter capture of bison by the National Park Service at the Stephens Creek Capture Facility within Yellowstone may take them. (Buffalo Field Campaign reports that the Park Service informed them that the capture facility will not operate this year.)

This controversial hunt outside the park and capture within the park are required by the Interagency Bison Management Plan—the IBMP. That plan was written years ago by a court-ordered coalition of federal and state agencies including the National Park Service, US Forest Service, USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Later, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, and the Nez Perce Tribe joined. Goals of the IBMP include confining bison within Yellowstone and reducing the park’s population from around 5,000 to 3,000 bison.

Each winter the members of the IBMP decide the number of bison that will die. Many—like the ones we saw slaughtered--will be killed outside the park by shooters. The bison hunting seasons, state and tribal, last at least three months. Many other bison—which may include those eight survivors—could be captured and interred at the Stephens Creek facility. From that facility, Native American tribal members will haul the imprisoned bison to slaughter houses in Montana.

Managing Yellowstone’s bison—our national mammal, mind you—with confinement and death is done in the name of protecting cattle from brucellosis. The disease can be transmitted from elk or bison to cattle and cause infected livestock to abort calves and ranchers to lose money. But there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transfer from bison to cattle. Never.

Elk, on the other hand, have transmitted brucellosis to cattle at least two dozen times since the year 2000. But elk aren’t confined to the park, aren’t captured and slaughtered like bison. Elk aren’t treated as livestock, but bison are. Elk are seen as wildlife, as trophies, to be hunted and stuffed. Bison are used as brucellosis scapegoats to be confined and killed.

The way elk are hunted fits with the "fair chase" model. Elk are not confined to Yellowstone. Elk are free to move about the landscape and can elude hunters. But that is not the case with bison. Every year hungry bison leave Yellowstone along that same route through Beattie Gulch. Every year a firing squad sets up on their known path, leaving little chance for bison to elude hunters: Few bison make it past the firing squad. This approach to bison hunting is close to a canned hunt where game is released from captivity to be shot in an artificial hunting situation where a kill is almost guaranteed. 

If the state of Montana allowed bison to leave the confines of Yellowstone and migrate freely--as elk do--then bison could be hunted under a fair chase model in the fall as elk are. In the fall female bison would only be a couple of months pregnant. But in February and March when they are killed in Beattie Gulch or captured in Yellowstone, bison are just two to three months away from giving birth.

The IBMP’s approach to bison management evokes protests from locals, Montanans, and people all across the United States. The protests often start in early January, after the hunt begins and before the capture starts. 

As Gardiner residents, Mary and I have been drawn physically, emotionally, and intellectually into this life and death struggle. We can watch through binoculars from our dining room window as the bison walk through the Roosevelt Arch and toward death awaiting a few miles away in Beattie Gulch.

We joined a local conservation group and worked as part of a team of dedicated volunteers to stop the senseless killing. Mary has found news reports and scientific papers detailing the management of bison and elk. I used that information and our field observations to write chapters about the bison slaughter in two of my books. We have attended meetings where those for or against killing bison sometimes shout opposing views at one another. We have joined about fifty others in a Buffalo Field Campaign-organized march down the main road in Gardiner, protesting this inhumane treatment of bison.

But watching those bison fall in Beattie Gulch is not talking, reading, or writing about unfair killing. This is seeing and hearing it. This is feeling the anger and shock and sadness. This is all too real, and no matter how much we dislike it, the controversial killing will not end anytime soon. Neither will the protest against it.

Since 1985 more than 12,500 genetically pure Yellowstone bison have been killed by slaughter or shooters, according to the Buffalo Field Campaign, an organization committed to protecting bison.

If you want to help change this situation, you can find actions to take to protect bison at Buffalo Field Campaign.  

This commentary based on a chapter from Deep into Yellowstone: A Year's Immersion in Grandeur and Controversy.

Photo Credits: 

All photos by Rick Lamplugh

Rick Lamplugh writes, photographs, and speaks to protect wildlife and wild lands.

His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

Signed Sets Available

Signed Copy

Signed Copy

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