One of the big regional news stories this winter is that one of the big regional news stories of the winter didn't live up to its billing. Montana's resumption of bison hunting outside Yellowstone National Park has been interesting to watch, but has been altogether devoid of drama. This is not a bad thing.
With the season about to wrap up and nearly all of the special permits to hunt bison filled, the new-and-improved hunting season can be fairly described a success. It featured none of the circus atmosphere and unsavory self-parody of hunters featured in the structured shooting-gallery situations authorities organized a decade ago under the guise of “hunting” bison. The new bison hunt may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it certainly seems plausible as part of the effort to better manage wild bison migrating from Yellowstone. It's a freezer-filling opportunity for participants and is filled with possibilities for examining and contemplating a variety of cultural and conservation issues for everyone.
The infection of cattle by bison with brucellosis has never been documented in nature. Nevertheless, federal authorities have declared bison wandering into Montana could jeopardize the state's brucellosis-free status.
Hunting bison can help control their numbers. But hunting is not a solution to the underlying issue related to brucellosis. Indeed, over the long-run, the interests of hunters and the livestock industry may well follow divergent paths.
This year's bison hunt helps demonstrate that bison can be managed as game animals, like many other species. Game management, however, generally aims to maintain thriving, sustainable populations throughout suitable habitat. Game animals sometimes are managed to keep their numbers lower than what the land can support because of social or economic considerations. But the number is never zero.
Similarly, wildlife management over the past century has been all about repopulating native habitats with game animals, encouraging them to expand their distribution naturally and, in fact, speeding up the process through transplantation.
The good news this winter is that wild, free-ranging bison are back among the state's game populations and a successful launch of the new hunting season shows they can be managed like other wildlife. The complicating thing is that, the more that people consider free-ranging bison as game animals, the less interested they're going to be in seeing them treated as vermin to be eradicated - again. Don't be surprised if successful hunting seasons translate into public pressure to revise the bison management plans written largely to address agricultural interests.
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