24 Jul Active Learning Wildlife Management Discussion

Playing Politics: Bison, Brucellosis, Business, and Bureaucrats

(Robert)
Yellowstone National park is dealing with the controversy over how they manage its bison population and whether this management should be done by humans or nature. Yellowstone currently has an abundance of bison, which is currently controlled by the Montana Department of Livestock, working with the National Park Service. Bison is managed for multiple reasons, one being the fear that a bacteria disease known as brucellosis found in bison can be transmitted to local cattle. For years, the bison population has been an ongoing problem, dating back to when hunting them was legal to now when poachers are illegally killing them. 

When establishing criteria to evaluate alternatives, some universal criteria must be met for all policy areas, including the following: technical feasibility, economic feasibility, cost-effectiveness, political viability, and the legality and ethics of the proposal. Over the years, most technical obstacles have been met and dealt with, from stopping hunters from killing off the bison to having the army help prevent the killings of bison to then President Cleveland prohibiting the killing of animals in national parks. The economic feasibility and cost-effectiveness are that many see the killing of bison as a source of cash instead of being concerned for their preservation and what they bring to the land. The bison have been part of the Yellowstone ecosystem dating back to 1872 and have provided years of resources to the land. Lastly, the legality and ethics behind the killing have also evolved over the years, beginning with the legal hunting of bison to the more current preservation of bison and the killing of them becoming illegal. Bison are now only killed for reasons beyond human control, such as population control and disease. 

A recommendation would be to have a controlled number of bison capped at 3,000 as this number makes sense biologically and is a number that seems to protect the population of bison and is big enough to maintain and manage effectively. While bison population control is still ongoing, the focus should be on a viable vaccine to treat the disease-affected bison so the disease can be controlled and not spread to other bison and cattle in the area. 

Bison population will continue to be an issue; whether they allow the population control to happen naturally, such as cold weather, old age, or disease, or whether humans kill them, the bison will still need to be limited. Keeping a manageable number of bison to be a part of the Yellowstone ecosystem and continuing to provide resources to Yellowstone should be the priority. The number of 3,000 bison seems like the most feasible number, followed by an effective vaccine that can not only treat the sick bison but can prevent the disease from occurring in the future. Both these policies should be adopted to provide the bison population’s resources to continue striving and living in Yellowstone.