Maria Daines
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5/13/2006 11:10:33 PM
Buffalo Field Campaign Newsletter
Buffalo Field Campaign
Update from the Field
May 11, 2006
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Why are they killing the last wild buffalo?
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In this issue:
* Update from the Field
* Wild Mother's Day in West Yellowstone
* Great Editorial on Brucellosis
* Summer Opportunities with BFC!
* Last Words ~ Honoring Mothers, Human & Wild
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* Update from the Field
As we walk in the land of the last wild buffalo, the warming earth
gives off fragrant scents of pine needles and sage. Pink, yellow,
and purple wildflowers; soft white pussy-willows; fuzzy, velvety moss
together with multitudes of green and growing things charm us with
their annual, explosive mystery. Trekking along the Madison River
and out towards Horse Butte, wildlife trails teem with highways of
buffalo tracks; among them, precious tiny prints left by the baby
buffalo who have been taking their first steps in recent weeks. We
are at once giddy with excitement and extra protective of the buffalo
families we are here to defend.
Two field patrols were blessed to witness birth and recent birth this
week. On Monday, Jesse and Peter were checking for buffalo near the
Baker's Hole campground, and were rewarded with the rare and special
glimpse of a mother buffalo giving birth! Just a few short hours
later, Stephanie and I were on our way to Horse Butte, when we
spotted a mama buffalo and her brand new calf. The baby was still
wet and wobbly on her legs, umbilical chord still visible. Mom and
baby disappeared into the forest, quietly together. Indeed, this is
testament to the deeper reason we celebrate Mother's Day at this time
of year. It's a shame that this is lost on the agents who harass and
kill buffalo - sons of mothers themselves. Somehow they forget this
bond that the whole of the world shares, closing their eyes, shutting
off their heart to carry out their cruel work against the last wild
buffalo. The only "reason" they can muster is their fear of losing
control and, hence, imagined power.
Yesterday, Department of Livestock (DOL), MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks
(FWP), National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and
Gallatin County law enforcement put their muscle into kicking the
buffalo out of Montana, back into Yellowstone National Park. Agents
first went to Horse Butte and hazed buffalo moms and babies off of
their birthing grounds, east down the Madison River, and back into
Yellowstone. They were not gentle. They ran the buffalo hard.
Again, they managed to separate a mom from her baby, but the mama
buffalo's love for her baby was stronger than her fear of the agents.
She left the haze to find her missing baby, and thankfully, she did,
but only to resume being hazed together. Agents upon their horses,
donned in chaps, cowboy hats and spurs, obnoxiously shouting multiple
"hee-yas" at the buffalo, running them through the woods, down steep
and sandy bluffs, through sensitive wetlands, over the bridge of
highway 191, back into Yellowstone's boundaries. They managed to
scare a moose and every other animal in the forest in the process.
Done there, they headed down 28
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