HELENA, Mont. (AP) - An environmental organization with ties to media tycoon Ted Turner objects to a legislator's suggestion that the governor's bison management proposal mirrors one from the Turner group.

"We don't work on bison," Mike Phillips, executive director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund in Bozeman, said Monday.

At a meeting of the state Environmental Quality Council on Friday, council member Rep. Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, suggested a bison management proposal presented by Gov. Brian Schweitzer matches one from the Turner Endangered Species Fund.

Attempts to reach Barrett for further comment Monday were unsuccessful.

On Friday, Schweitzer told the EQC that he wants to explore an alternative to the existing state-federal plan for managing Yellowstone National Park bison that enter Montana. There are concerns among ranchers and others that bison infected with brucellosis will transmit the disease to cattle. Montana has a brucellosis-free designation that is a marketing advantage for the state's cattle industry.

Schweitzer said he wants to look into paying ranchers not to graze their cattle in some areas near Yellowstone. The governor said he wants to eliminate a "mixing zone" in which cattle and bison mingle.

Bison would not have full use of those lands, but would be hazed back into Yellowstone seasonally, he said.

Schweitzer said the plan would cost less than present expenditures under the state-federal agreement that include the cost of transporting bison to slaughter and hazing them into the park.