From the National Park Service
Why don’t you just let the bison roam freely outside Yellowstone National Park?
- The State of Montana allows some bison to migrate outside Yellowstone National Park and occupy suitable winter range near the park boundary—and tolerance on additional range may occur in the future. However, mass migrations of many hundreds of bison out of the park have, at times, upset state and local governments and many private landowners and cattle operators.
- If bison were allowed to increase in abundance and disperse unimpeded into cattle-occupied areas of Montana, it is likely those bison would be lethally removed by state employees or during regulated hunts. Also, the state may retract tolerance for bison in Montana in some areas because the agriculture department has superseding management authority due to chronic brucellosis infection in Yellowstone bison.
- Thus, management practices such as hunting, hazing, capture, and culling are necessary at times to limit the abundance and distribution of bison and allow people (including federal and state managers) time to learn to live with, and manage, bison.
- What is the current bison population?
- Why are bison being removed from the population?
- How will the bison be removed from the population?
- Why are bison being shipped to meat processing facilities?
- Why can’t you harvest bison through hunting instead of shipping them to meat processing facilities?
- Why don’t you just keep all the bison within Yellowstone National Park?
- Are the bison leaving Yellowstone National Park because it is overgrazed?
- Why don’t you just let the bison roam freely outside Yellowstone National Park?
- Why don’t you allow native predators to control bison numbers?
- Why can’t you ship bison to other areas or quarantine facilities rather than meat processing facilities?
- What happens to all the meat, hides, horns, etc. from bison shipped to meat processing facilities?
- Why are bison managed differently from other wildlife and not allowed to move freely into Montana and disperse to new areas?
- Are removals of bison and shipments to meat processing facilities precedent setting for national parks?
- What are the economic costs of bison removals from Yellowstone National Park?
- Has the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) been successful at accomplishing its goals?
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