Meredith Taylor PERSPECTIVE

Greater Yellowstone. One of the last intact ecosystems in the temperate zones of the Earth is home to free-ranging native American species. Not only is Yellowstone rich in wildlife diversity, but it is the goose that laid the golden egg to Wyoming and surrounding states' multi-billion dollar tourism and travel industry. Yellowstone is a mecca to wildlife enthusiasts from around the world who come to witness this testament to wildlife conservation. But the ecosystem surrounding the world's first national park is now the target of Interior and Agriculture departments as they try to eliminate brucellosis - a disease introduced more than a century ago in by livestock.

At a recent Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee (GYIBC) meeting in Jackson, several agencies voiced support for "free-ranging wildlife" and assured the public that there would be no test and slaughter of wildlife "to eliminate brucellosis" from Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Brucellosis elimination in wildlife by 2010 is unachievable unless Wyoming's wildlife can truly range free. For almost a decade agencies have struggled with brucellosis elimination here without success. Why? Because as long as wildlife are concentrated on feedlots to vaccinate them with ineffective vaccine, our wildlife will continue to be victims of disease. For example, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) reported to the GYIBC that elk vaccinated on the Greys River feedlot continue to show 51 percent brucellosis rates for the third year in a row while free-ranging elk tested 0-1 percent for brucellosis. Perhaps even more telling is the report that unvaccinated Dell Creek feedlot elk have the same brucellosis rates (37 percent) as Franz feedlot elk that have received Strain 19 vaccinations. Feedlots breed brucellosis.

However, wildlife management on the National Elk Refuge (NER) has reduced brucellosis rates lower (17 percent) than WGFD feedlots without vaccinating.

Why? Because the refuge's habitat improvement projects increase wildlife dispersal with more forage on available habitat. The Interior Department and WGFD imposed an incompatible (STRAIN 19) vaccination program there in February, but this program was unsuccessful because the elk were mostly dispersed on their native range. The message is - habitat, not vaccines, is the solution. Why does the fiscally strapped WGFD continue to spend as much as $2 million annually on an ineffective feed and vaccinate program when they could put those funds toward habitat and a long-term solution?

The solution is the Restoring Wild Patterns conservation plan to protect and restore migration corridors and habitat for healthy, free-ranging wildlife. But the status quo management that keeps brucellosis alive in Wyoming was ensured by WGFD when they tabled the proposed resolution at the GYIBC meeting to make habitat improvement projects a higher priority.

The resolution submitted by USFWS to the GYIBC was to encourage habitat improvement and acquisition projects as a means to the end of brucellosis, but WGFD singlehandedly derailed that idea. The WGFD's archaic technology and management methods contradict their own monitoring data and every scientific plan to reduce the risk of brucellosis, because WGFD uses density-dependent prescriptions that require feeding to vaccinate.

Wildlife feeding concentrates disease and the Strain 19 vaccine is ineffective in feedlot elk because more animals are infected by crowding than are protected by vaccine biobullets.

The message is clear, and here's how we get there. The WGFD 2010 long-range plan recommends systematic phase-out of the three Gros Ventre feedlots near Jackson and the Strategic Habitat Plan would improve available habitat to allow free-ranging wildlife populations and reduce disease problems for now and for the future. Is this feasible? You bet it is. Recent habitat acquisitions, conservation easements and habitat improvement projects have increased the available forage for wildlife with the ultimate success of reducing disease and increasing elk numbers. The Restoring Wild Patterns conservation plan also shows how free-ranging wildlife has reduced disease transmission and increased herd health and cow-calf ratios. This win-win scenario offers a series of success stories about how brucellosis has been eliminated where wildlife can still follow their ancient migration corridors. This success story is what will keep the goose laying the golden egg for Wyoming's future.

Meredith Taylor is Yellowstone program director for the Wyoming Outdoor Council. She lives in Dubois.