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Show Wednesday, September 16, 1998 The Park Record A-11 a Writers on the Range r D By Dan Whipple What's a buffalo worth? When Buffalo Bill acquired his nickname, it was not entirely a compliment. Over an 18-month 18-month span beginning in 1867, William F. Cody shot 4,280 bison lor the workers of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. But after jnonths of eating monotonous bison meat, the workers started dreading the return of "Buffalo Bill" from another hunting expedition. expe-dition. "Here comes old Bill with more buffalo," they complained. com-plained. More than 100 years later, the National Park Service has stepped into this pile of tradition with its bison-management plan for Yellowstone National Park, where the nation's last sizable wild herd survives. And, like the legacy of Buffalo Bill, it's hard to know how to feel about a plan that continues the persecution of an animal that symbolizes the wide open spaces of the West while claiming to address a problem that doesn't even exist. The Park Service's Environmental Environ-mental Impact Statement calls for maintaining a herd of about 2,500 animals, considerably fewer than the 4,000 it had a couple of years ago. The justification justifi-cation for the herd reduction, hunting, culling and other activities activi-ties recommended by the plan is that "some bison have brucellosis brucel-losis and may transmit it to cattle cat-tle outside the park boundaries in Montana." , Bison are known to carry brucellosis, a contagious bacterial bacteri-al disease which can cause spontaneous spon-taneous abortions in cattle, usu-. ally in the fifth month of pregnancy. preg-nancy. However there is not a single known instance of free-ranging free-ranging animals infecting cattle, although this has been accomplished accom-plished under experimental conditions con-ditions in confined spaces. An objective observer can only conclude con-clude that the risk of spreading brucellosis falls between extremely low and nonexistent. And the plan is expensive. Under the proposed management manage-ment plan, about $20 million would be lost to the local economy econo-my from "decreased wildlife viewing opportunities," the EIS estimates. No figure is projected for losses to ranchers, perhaps because they would be small relative rel-ative to the lost tourism revenue. rev-enue. Altogether, publicly and privately grazed cattle to the north and west of Yellowstone are estimated at about 2,019 cow-calf pairs, less than four percent of the cattle in adjacent counties. If we allow a generous valuation of $2,500 per pair, the total at-risk population of cattle is worth about $5 million. The EIS notes, however, that if brucellosis did hypothetically spread to the cattle, it might be difficult to contain in a small area, and could cause extensive damage throughout Montana. Cattle contributed about $800 million to Montana's economy in 1995. But let's apply that standard to the bison, too. How much, hypothetically, are 60 million buffalo worth? That's how many bison once ranged North America from northern Canada to Mexico and to Oregon in the west and Massachusetts Mass-achusetts in the east. Spanish explorer Hernan Gallegos described the way the Indians spoke of the buffalo: "Taking up some handfuls of soil, they said the animals were just as numerous numer-ous as grains of sand." But the grains of sand quickly quick-ly slipped through our hands. By 1825, the last eastern bison was killed. And the killing spree spilled West with the settlers. One day in 1863 buffalo hunter James Mead and a small group of men killed so many bison in the Wichita area that they ran out of ammunition and had to cut old bullets out of dead animals. ani-mals. By 1872, 5,000 bison a day were being killed on the plains, for sport, for meat, for the heck of it. The last bison in Kansas was killed in 1879. By 1890, there were only 1,000 wild and captive bison remaining anywhere any-where in the world, including only about 200 in Yellowstone. In 1902, there were more bison in the Bronx Zoo than there were in Yellowstone. The Zoo's William T. Hornaday founded the American Bison Society in 1905. By 1993, bison numbers had recovered to 100,000, 90 percent of which were privately owned. In Yellowstone, modern bison numbers peaked in 1994-95 1994-95 with nearly 4,000 animals. In 1996-97, a harsh winter propelled pro-pelled hundreds of hungry bison into the unfriendly confines of Montana. 1,084 bison were slaughtered or shot in the five months between November 14, 1996, and April 15, 1997. Others died of other causes, bringing the total population down to 2,000 animals by spring 1997. Now Park Service officials say that 2,500 is the optimum number of bison "to minimize migration into Montana." But surely, there is habitat for more bison in the grasslands surrounding sur-rounding Yellowstone, if the cattle cat-tle industry and the agencies who regulate it would loosen their grips. But it will take a more courageous plan from the Park Service and a larger public outcry to accomplish that. I'd like to think that if Buffalo Buffa-lo Bill were around today, he would be raising his voice for the Yellowstone bison. After all, shooting cows is not much of a sport, Dan Whipple lives in Broom-field, Broom-field, Colorado. He is a contributor contribu-tor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News, based in Paonia, Colorado. 1 NISSAN! I "I ) ) lz M-t-AnyAdvJ ITMBMaafir' "" """I I II II ' ft me or Prxe Car For Car .: Public input is sought on abandoned mines project Officials see Five Mile Pass, long a popular spot for off-highway-vehicle enthusiasts, as a natural site for development of a dedicated OHV.recreation area. Unfortunately, Unfortunate-ly, the southeast Tooele County area is dotted with abandoned mines that threaten to turn a pleasant family outing into a deadly tragedy. " ' The Divisjon of , Oil, Gas and Mining's Abandoned Mine Reclamation Recla-mation Program will hold an open house to display abandoned mine mitigation plans for the area on Tuesday, Sept. 15, beginning at 7 p.m. The open house will be held at the Department of Natural Resources Auditorium, 1594 West N. Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. "We're concerned for the safety of those people who venture into this area," explained Mark Mesch, administrator of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. "There have been at least two life-threatening incidents involving OHV enthusiasts enthu-siasts and abandoned mines in the area." , In 1982 a motorcyclist fell into an unseen shaft sustaining a broken leg and other injuries! In 1995 two young men drove their Jeep through an unseen wire fence and plunged 50 feet down a mine shaft. The two were rescued by another party of off-roaders who heard calls for help. The open house will present information on, and propose solutions solu-tions for, abandoned mine hazards in the Five Mile Pass area. For more information, contact Jim Springer (801) 538-5324. E-mail your letter to the editor or guest editorial to: ncnoaker medianewsgroup.com I Hal taaeg JSE1SD.SDSDS3 NEW '98 Extra Cab 4x4 Truck f MSRP -19038 NEW '98 j Pathfinder 4x4 Some Optional Equipment Shown MSRP 26,568 1 fm AJV AAVt THE The Canyons invites you to an Open House UTAH The staff of The Canyons Real Estate Development office will host a series of community open houses to share information and receive comments on the amendment to The Canyons Specially Planned Area. Wednesday, September 23,1998 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM The Yarrow (1 800 Park Avenue, Park City) Representatives from The Canyons planning team will be available to answer your questions. 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