Yellowstone releases draft Environmental Impact Statement for managing bison
Just seven generations ago, tens of millions of bison roamed free and wild across North America. Today, the number of truly wild North American plains bison is confined to the roughly 5,000 that call Yellowstone National Park home. That’s a staggering decline. Yet, the fact that wild bison exist today at all is a miracle; in the late 1800s the species was almost obliterated by overhunting and acts of war against the Native American Tribes that depended on them. By 1902, just two dozen wild bison remained – sheltered in the high, rugged interior of Yellowstone National Park.
It is the descendants of these last remaining wild bison that are the subject of Yellowstone National Park’s newest wildlife management planning effort. Currently, the park is midway through developing an updated bison management plan. This is an important opportunity to protect the conservation successes made in the last 20 years while looking ahead to the future. But the process – and reactions to it – underscores the continued complexity and extraordinary range of opinions when it comes to managing America’s national mammal.
In August 2023, the park released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as part of the ongoing process of developing the new Yellowstone Bison Management Plan (YBMP). That draft EIS outlines three alternative management scenarios (Alternatives 1, 2, and 3) and is currently open for public comment.
Bison grazing in Round Prairie near Pebble Creek Campground. Yellowstone National Park is in the middle of updating its Yellowstone Bison Management Plan and just released the attendant draft Environmental Impact Statement. (Photo NPS / Jacob W. Frank)
We reviewed the Yellowstone Bison Management Plan Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Here’s what we think:
After careful review of the draft Environmental Impact Statement and all three management plan alternatives, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition supports a modified alternative that incorporates elements of Alternative 2 and Alternative 3. We will be submitting formal comments on the planning documents that reflect our specific recommendations. We want to see a plan that protects the last 20 years of progress made in bison conservation while incorporating enough flexibility to allow for future adaptive management of Yellowstone bison in response to a variety of factors, such as changes in the climate, improved social tolerance for the species, and successes in conflict reduction outside the park.
Broadly speaking, our recommendations are centered on the following two priorities:
That any plan must support the long-term genetic and ecological health of Yellowstone bison and provide ample opportunity for bison to play their important ecological and cultural role on the broader landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
That any plan must allow for meaningful progress toward managing bison as a valued native migratory wildlife species by accommodating and planning for the natural migration of bison to and from important winter range and calving grounds outside the park.
Specifically, we are advocating for a plan that includes the following management considerations:
The incorporation of science-centered, adaptive management that eschews rigid population objectives and allows for the bison population to fluctuate in response to changing environmental and climatic conditions, amount and quality of available habitat, and successful management of bison through non-slaughter population actions such as Tribal hunting and the use of the Bison Conservation Transfer Program.
A commitment to increasing the use of the Bison Conservation Transfer Program (BCTP), which GYC helped fund a recent expansion of, and which puts disease-free bison through a multi-year quarantine program so that they can be legally transferred to Tribal lands across North America to help augment cultural herds and provide a population control alternative to slaughtering bison.
A commitment to moving away from the ship-to-slaughter management practice, and instead putting more bison through the BCTP, allowing dispersal of bison into bison tolerance areas outside the park, and supporting opportunities for safe, diffuse Tribal and state hunting.
An emphasis on Tribal consultation and cooperation that supports Tribal treaty rights and acknowledges the indispensable role bison play in the culture, spirituality, and food sovereignty of treaty Tribes.
Further, we have some thoughts on the population objectives. We are concerned that the base population target of 3,500 within all three alternatives is too low to ensure the long-term genetic health of the population and is insufficient to promote migratory behavior and broad dispersal beyond the park boundary. This number is outdated, was originally chosen to restrict migration, and is well below the 4,200 to 6,000 animals the park has successfully accommodated over the last decade.
A bison calf in Yellowstone National Park. An updated Yellowstone Bison Management Plan will help set the stage for a future where productive collaboration and problem solving between the park, tribes, state, and conservation advocates is the norm. (Photo NPS / Neal Herbert)
This is a highly sensitive issue and too complex to do full justice to in a blog post. But, in short, managing towards a set population objective is at best difficult and in all probability archaic to the point of counterproductive for managing a species as iconic, wide-ranging, and ecologically vital as bison. If the park must include a target population in the final management plan, we strongly urge them to consider maintaining a population of at least 4,000 to 7,000 bison to support natural migratory behavior and dispersal of bison into new areas both in and outside the park and sufficient Tribal access to bison through hunting and the BCTP. This objective range should be flexible and allow for adaptive management of bison into the future as conditions and circumstances continue to change.
Overall, population targets should not drive bison management. Instead, bison management should be focused on supporting bison dispersal/migration, supporting tribal treaty rights and access to bison through hunting and the BCTP, and managing in response to real on-the-ground conflicts.
Now, this is where you come in. Submitting your own comments on the draft EIS is a meaningful way for you to help influence the management and continued conservation of Yellowstone bison. Please note it is vital that any comments you submit are in your own words and convey your own experiences.
If you wish to submit comments, here are the themes we recommend you build your remarks around:
Progress toward managing bison as a valued native migratory species – more like how elk are managed – instead of managed like livestock.
A scientific basis for any population objective, with an emphasis on flexibility and adaptive management based on environmental factors and real potential for conflicts.
Want to chat further? You can reach out to me at sdrimal@greateryellowstone.org.
Take action: The public comment period is open until 11:59 pm MT on October 10, 2023. Find a PDF of the entire draft EIS here and submit your comments using this form.
Thank you for your continued support of Yellowstone bison and the wellbeing of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as a whole.
—Shana Drimal, Senior Wildlife Conservation Associate
