Buffalo Field Campaign Update 11/18/04

Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC)
News from the Field
November 18, 2004

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In this Issue:
* Update from the Field
* Come Stand with the Buffalo - Volunteers Needed
* 2004 East Coast Road Show Completed
* TONIGHT! Yellowstone Buffalo Documentary Airs Again - Watch with Caution!
* Action Alerts - Comment on Buffalo Quarantine
* Last Words

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* Update from the Field

We are moving quickly into winter; a time of quiet and time of stillness. For the buffalo bulls that have had the nerve to cross the arbitrary park boundary line, it is anything but. Again this week, four amazing animals were hazed off of Horse Butte, despite the pleas of the people who live there to let them stay. Another bull had been grazing peacefully along the highway on the property of an area restaurant. Department of Livestock agents requested permission to chase the bull back into the park, but it was denied - restaurant owners said he could stay. The folks who live out here have an extremely important role in helping protect the Yellowstone buffalo. BFC is continuously building relationships with the local people who want wild buffalo around, and in doing so, we build a stronger voice for the buffalo.

We are still in need of volunteers here at camp. As more buffalo leave the park, it takes more people to cover patrols. Everyone here right now has been working sunup to sundown. Department of Livestock agents have been hazing several times per week. Energetic volunteers with a strong desire to protect the last wild bison are needed now.

We sit with the buffalo again this week. We see the light changing a little bit more each day. The lakes and ponds are beginning to freeze. The greater Yellowstone area is a complex, diverse, and wonderful region. Living here, I am thoroughly amazed on a daily basis. Bison, elk, woodpeckers, wolves, herons, eagles, coyotes, ravens, lodge pole pine, big sagebrush, rivers, streams. There is so much life and so much that is still wild. In a world where wild places disappear everyday, we must protect this one. People from all over the world visit Yellowstone because of this uniqueness. As humans, some of us are drawn to the wild. Some of us just need to know it's there. The bison embody all that is wild and free. They will continue their resistance until they can roam where they choose.

With love and respect for the wild,

Amy

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* Come Stand with the Buffalo - Volunteers Needed!

Buffalo are coming out of the park, the Department of Livestock is in the field, and we need YOU to come stand with us in defense of the buffalo. Winter is upon us, and as the buffalo migrate out of the park in search of winter forage, the agents lurk in the background, waiting to chase, capture and slaughter members of America's last wild herd. We are in need of field volunteers, so if you have ever considered coming to West Yellowstone, MT to stand in the buffalo's defense and document actions taken against them, now is a great time to do so. We also need help around the cabin and office, so please consider arriving whether you want to be out on skis or indoors. Anyone willing to stand in defense of our last wild buffalo are always welcome, our doors are always open.

BFC provides free room and board to anyone willing to work in defense of the buffalo. To volunteer or to learn more about being a BFC volunteer, please email us at "buffalo at wildrockies.org" or call 406-646-0070. If you can't make it in person, but would like to keep us in the field, please make a monetary or in-kind donation. Use the mailing address at the end of this email, or email Su at bfc-programs at wildrockies.org if you have questions. For more information visit our new web site at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org.

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* 2004 East Coast Road Show Completed
After six weeks of travelling the east coast highways, carrying the buffalo's story to folks from Virginia to Maine, we have finally returned home to Montana. Even though we were up against some serious competition - the 2004 elections, the World Series, and a fabulous lunar eclipse - we were able to bring the buffalo's message to many new and inspiring people. Thanks to the many folks who helped organize these important presentations, scores of people on the East Coast were able to witness BFC's video footage from the field, and hear the buffalo's story for the very first time. We distributed nearly 8,000 newsletters, placed video footage in the hands of people who will show it far and wide, and most importantly we reconnected with familiar folks while we garnered many strong new supporters, volunteers and friends. These connections are critical and priceless and they strengthen our ability to stop the senseless harassment and slaughter of America's last wild buffalo. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making the last wild herd of buffalo important in your life.

As we enter this season, buffalo are already under attack from many directions, and BFC volunteers are hard at work defending them. Your support, whether you volunteer, organize in your community, write much-needed letters, or support us financially, keeps us in the field and inspires us to carry on. In connecting with you we have strengthened our alliance and added thousands of voices to the buffalo's cause. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you again next year, if not sooner!
For the Buffalo,
Dan, Stephany and Jasmine

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* TONIGHT! Yellowstone Buffalo Documentary Airs Again - Watch With Caution!

The Yellowstone buffalo will be featured again in an Animal Planet special to be aired tonight (Thursday) at 8pm and 11pm EST. The program includes information on the natural history of America's only continuously wild herd as well as news of the buffalo's current plight and an interview with Mike Mease of the Buffalo Field Campaign. Please tune in tonight and tell your friends!

WATCH WITH CAUTION: Animal Planet aired this program on Sunday, November 14, and many of you tuned in only to discover the program didn't represent the issue very well. The story heavily focuses on "controlling" the disease brucellosis, rather than the tragedy befalling the last wild buffalo, and made it appear that the National Park Service was doing everything to stop the supposed threat of brucellosis transmission from buffalo to cattle. The program also repeated how buffalo that are not back in the park by May 15 are then subject to capture and slaughter; unfortunately, although this date is written as a deadline for buffalo in the plan, our first-hand experience in the field has repeatedly belied it because buffalo are subject to harassment, capture and slaughter *anytime* they are out of Yellowstone National Park, and as we've experienced in the last two years, sometimes without ever even leaving the park. Please contact Animal Planet and thank them for airing the documentary, but urge them to tell the whole truth, based on all the facts. Use the link below to fill out a comment form for Animal Planet's Viewer Relations Staff: http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations.

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* ACTION ALERT--Buffalo Quarantine Comment Period Extended until 5 PM on November 24th

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks along with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have released plans to capture, quarantine, and slaughter up to 200 buffalo calves in the next two years. The plan is to test a hypothesis about the effectiveness of brucellosis serologic tests. Please let the agencies know that Yellowstone's wild buffalo are not available for science experiments. Comment information is available on our web site at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legislative/quarantine.html.

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* Last Words
"There is nowhere in this country, nor in any of the waters adjacent to it, a living species of any kind which the United States Government can not fully and perpetually protect from destruction by human agencies if it chooses to do so. The destruction of the buffalo was a loss of wealth perhaps twenty times greater than the sum it would have cost to conserve it, and this stupendous waste...was committed by one class of the American people and permitted by another with a prodigality and wastefulness which even in the lowest savages would be inexcusable."

~ William Temple Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison (1889)

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Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
http://buffalofieldcampaign.org
buffalo at wildrockies.org

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