Montana and federal officials announced a deal Thursday to let some bison migrate through a private ranch bordering Yellowstone National Park.

The deal will allow a small number of the animals to avoid slaughter under a disease-control program that has claimed more than 3,000 bison since 2000.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said the ranch’s owner, Church Universal and Triumphant, agreed to sell their grazing rights and initially allow 25 bison to pass through the property. The deal, estimated at $2.8 million, would let the bison access more than 5,000 acres of federal land outside the park.

Despite criticism from both the livestock industry and bison advocates, Lewis characterized the deal as breaking an eight-year impasse on one of the National Park Service’s most divisive wildlife issues.

“Until today, bison were never allowed to use that space,” she said.
All other bison leaving the park during the winter migration still will be subject to slaughter. Since the fall, a record 1,601 bison have been killed to prevent the spread of the disease brucellosis, which can cause cows to abort their calves.

Starting next winter, officials will allow 25 bison to pass through the ranchlands to Gallatin National Forest. All the bison must test negative for brucellosis. Officials say eventually up to 100 bison could be allowed to migrate through the ranch to Forest Service land.

Yellowstone National Park spokesman Al Nash said the agreement, which is outlined in the Interagency Bison Management Plan, is long overdue.
“Frankly, this plan has been stalled for eight years, which is why today’s announcement is so historic,” Nash said.

The deal could open the way for similar agreements with other landowners outside the West and North entrances of the park, Nash said. He said the Montana Department of Livestock has scheduled a meeting with landowners near West Yellowstone, Mont., who have expressed a willingness to have bison roam freely on their land.

“We do have changing conditions on lands surrounding the park,” Nash said. “We have some land ownership changes that are out there and those changes, coupled with our experience [with bison on the Church Universal and Triumphant land], might open other areas for us to look at for increased tolerance of bison.”

Bison advocates noted most of the killings this season would still have occurred even if the deal had been in place, since only a small number of bison would have been allowed through the ranch.

“Sixteen hundred dead American buffalo later, they give us this lip service,” said Stephany Seay of activist group Buffalo Field Campaign. “This will do nothing to stop the slaughter and just means 25 wild bison will be run through the typical gauntlet.”

The grazing rights deal had been delayed for almost a decade. It comes on the heels of a highly critical congressional report that said state and federal agencies were largely failing in efforts to expand where bison can roam.

Beginning in 1998, the federal government paid $13 million to the church for land and conservation easements. But it was unable to seal an agreement on grazing rights, which had been delayed since 2000 as negotiations stalled and government agencies could not come up with enough money for the church.

Lewis said Thursday that the National Park Service will contribute $1.5 million for the church’s grazing rights. The state will put up $300,000. On Thursday, conservation groups the National Wildlife Federation, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Montana Wildlife Federation pledged to raise the remaining $1 million.

“We, and several others, are committed to raising the million dollars to round out this deal,” said Tim Stevens of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Schweitzer praised the Park Service for coming up with the money to make the deal work. A spokesman for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said Tester had prodded the Department of Interior — which oversees the park — to help fund the deal.