American Prairie Reserve

[kucala5]

This is my daughter on location for National Geographic to film a bison release on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana.

 

[melking]

How cool. Gives me an idea.

 

[kucala5]

Here's the link to the published Nat Geo story...very cool. I want to go to Montana! (she's at Yellowstone this week for a story then Arkansas bound for the 4th) :banana: Happy, proud mama.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... at-plains/

 

[I luv herfrds]

Glad your daughter is filming but honestly APR rubs all ranchers wrong here. Pretty hard to buy land when some non profit comes in and dumps money like water no working family can compete.
As for the bison touchy subject there too.

Sorry I hate that group.

 

[greybeard]

Glad your daughter is filming but honestly APR rubs all ranchers wrong here. Pretty hard to buy land when some non profit comes in and dumps money like water no working family can compete.
As for the bison touchy subject there too.

Sorry I hate that group.

Yep, they'll be as powerful and corrupt as BLM before we know what hit us.

 

[I luv herfrds]

What makes you think they are not already. I was sent a copy of the map from their big plan. It showed their plans to extend from the Charlie Russell clear up the Missouri River clear up to our town, as far south as Lewistown and as far north as Big Sandy which covers an area 3 times the size of Yellowstone Park.

 

[branguscowgirl]

This is my daughter on location for National Geographic to film a bison release on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana.

Beautiful daughter kucala! You should be proud! And what a fun job for her!

 

[Workinonit Farm]

kukala---you're daughter has a pretty cool job! I'm sure its given her some pretty good opportunities to travel and see things, first hand, that many folks never will.

Katherine

 

[kucala5]

I certainly respect the concerns of you Montanans on this topic...you are on the front lines and in the know. Thanks for the kind words from others. Shannon is a good girl trying to follow her dreams wherever they take her. Arkansas bound this week, and that makes this Mama happy. :cboy:

 

[Oldtimer]

What makes you think they are not already. I was sent a copy of the map from their big plan. It showed their plans to extend from the Charlie Russell clear up the Missouri River clear up to our town, as far south as Lewistown and as far north as Big Sandy which covers an area 3 times the size of Yellowstone Park.

Yep-- American Prairie Reserve is a dirty word in this part of the country... This Montana plan is just a start of the overall plan called "the Big Open" which plans to have an open buffalo/wildlife range from the Grasslands National Park in Canada to the Mexican border ... They want to run off all cattle and turn it into a Serengeti of North America..
And with the unlimited funds they are getting in donations from the greeny weenies and bunny huggers they may eventually succeed...

 

[Oldtimer]

Feds identify 10 potential sites for bison relocation

22 hours ago • By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press


10 potential sites

The states and locations identified Monday as potentially suitable for relocated bison were:

--Arizona: Grand Canyon National Park

--Colorado: Baca National Wildlife Refuge, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

--Iowa: Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

--Kansas: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

--Montana: Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, National Bison Range

--Nebraska: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

--North Dakota: Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Sullys Hill National Game Preserve, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

--Oklahoma: Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

--South Dakota: Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park

--Utah: Book Cliffs, Henry Mountains



Federal officials said Monday that 20 parcels of public lands in 10 states could be suitable for bison from Yellowstone National Park, although it's likely to be years before any animals are relocated to the sites.

The locations include areas as diverse as Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park, an Iowa wildlife refuge and a North Dakota national historic site.

They were identified in a long-awaited Department of Interior report that looked at using Yellowstone's bison herds to further the restoration of a species that once ranged most of the continent.

Tens of millions of bison occupied North America before overhunting nearly drove them extinct by the late 19th century.

Yellowstone was one of the last holdouts for the animals in the wild, and had roughly 4,600 bison at last count. During their winter migrations, the animals periodically spill into neighboring Montana, triggering large-scale bison slaughters to prevent the spread of brucellosis.

A pilot bison relocation program in Montana has struggled to overcome opposition from ranchers. They worry both about the disease and the possibility of bison competing with cattle for grazing space.

The pilot program quarantined Yellowstone bison for several years before they could be moved, to protect against disease transmissions. Even so, many within the livestock industry remain wary and most of the animals in the program have not yet been relocated.

Those animals are in control of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which is considering proposals from tribes, government agencies and private groups that want to take the bison.

If the park service were to revive the quarantine program and make it permanent, federal officials said it could be five years to a decade before more animals were relocated.

"If we were to do this, where would you place these bison? This report gives us a head-start on that question," said Jorge Silva-Banuelos, an official with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

That could help relieve population pressures that led to the slaughter of thousands of migrating Yellowstone bison during the last decade, under an agreement between Montana and federal officials.

Conservation groups welcomed Monday's report. But the National Wildlife Federation said it did not include enough collaboration with American Indian tribes interested in getting Yellowstone bison.

Then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar first issued a directive for his agency to come up with a relocation plan for Yellowstone bison in May 2012.

Yellowstone's chief scientist, Dave Hallac, said planning for a bison quarantine program is expected to begin in late summer or early fall. Public input will be part of that process.

"Within a five-year-period there may be the possibility of moving some brucellosis-free bison," Hallac said.


Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... z36EaRskX1

Here is an article in todays paper concerning the proposed idea to have free roaming buffalo across the country again... The highlighted area is the area Iluvherfrds was talking about- and is right out my backdoor... The APR has already bought out several beautiful (and some large) ranch's in that area- and in that way gotten the leases to thousands of acres of public land ...

 

[I luv herfrds]

Hey OT wasn't there a problem outside of Belknap with the tribes bison getting out and getting into a ranchers hay and them refusing to come get them until the rancher started shooting them?
That is the same problem with the APR we are going to face. Since they are also a non-profit the lands they have bought are no longer producing any monies in taxes for the State nor the County they are in also go look at the old map and look at all the natural gas and oil well sites they closed down.

 

[Oldtimer]

Hey OT wasn't there a problem outside of Belknap with the tribes bison getting out and getting into a ranchers hay and them refusing to come get them until the rancher started shooting them?
That is the same problem with the APR we are going to face. Since they are also a non-profit the lands they have bought are no longer producing any monies in taxes for the State nor the County they are in also go look at the old map and look at all the natural gas and oil well sites they closed down.

Yep- they've had quite a bit of problems with them wiping out fences and going wherever they wanted...And with the problem of two forms of law/government (tribal and state) they had a tough time resolving their conflicts... One of the big issues is if buffalo will be treated as wildlife and be under the jurisdiction of fish and game- where if they do any damage its just tough doo doo and no one can be held responsible --OR will they be treated as livestock under the Dept of Livestock and fall under all the trespass and herd laws of livestock...

 

[DLD]

Don't know anything about any of those other sites, but Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge already has a good sized herd of bison. Large enough in fact that an annual production sale is necessary to keep the numbers from outgrowing the range. I believe they try to keep around 650 bison, along with at least that many longhorns and quite a few elk. The refuge is around 60K acres. They try to keep it hidden from the sightseers, but I understand that they do feed them in the winter and sometimes year round when it gets too dry. The production sales are kind of a social event (they have one for the longhorns, too) - most interesting to me is the facilities for handling them...

If the goal there is to import some new blood, it might not be a bad thing, but increasing numbers would be.

I'm not sure about the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. I don't know of any bison there, but I'm not nearly as familiar with it. It's not quite 10K acres