SUSAN GALLAGHER Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, June 9, 2006 12:00 am
HELENA, Mont. - State wildlife commissioners gave tentative approval Thursday to regulations that would double the number of bison that could be shot by hunters after the animals wander out of Yellowstone National Park in search of winter forage.
The revised hunt regulations would authorize 100 bison hunting licenses next winter, up from 50 in the 2005-06 season.
The regulations are open to public comment for a month. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission plans a final vote Aug. 3.
Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years took place last fall and winter as hunters shot 40 animals that had left Yellowstone and were in the vicinity of the park gateway communities of West Yellowstone and Gardiner.
The tentative regulations are part of a plan to manage bison that migrate from Yellowstone. The cattle industry maintains that wandering bison could spread the disease brucellosis, which infects the Yellowstone herd, to cattle in Montana. Opponents say the risk has never been proven.
A state-federal management plan allows for bison that stray to be hazed back into the park, or captured and in some cases shipped to slaughter. Nearly 900 bison were sent to slaughter over the winter.
"It's not our intent to kill every bison that walks across the line," state Wildlife Administrator Don Childress said Thursday in discussing the hunting regulations with commissioners. Expanding the hunt makes sense from the standpoint of herd management, Childress said.
In early March, park officials estimated the herd at 3,500 animals, and that was before the spring birthing season. The bison management plan lists 3,000 as the target population size.
The tentative regulations include the designation of two hunting districts, one in the Gardiner basin and the other near West Yellowstone. Hunters would be licensed for a specific district, each with its own bison quota and specified periods for hunting.
In the 2005-06 season, hunters whose names were drawn for licenses chose one of the two areas. Most killed their bison near Gardiner, apparently for ease of access and because of the number of bison there.
Plans call for staggered hunts within an overall season of Nov. 15 to Feb. 15, the same span as the last hunt.
Thirty licenses would be for the Gardiner area and 70 for the West Yellowstone district. Fifteen of the licenses would be only for hunting bison cows or calves. Licensing in the last season did not distinguish among bulls, cows and calves, and there was concern too much of the hunt was for trophy bulls.
Licenses would cost $75 for Montana residents and $750 for nonresidents. Sixteen of the 100 would be allocated to American Indian tribes, at no charge.