BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN
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Mission Statement
Buffalo Field Campaign's mission is to stop the harassment and slaughter of Yellowstone’s wild buffalo herds; protect the natural habitat of wild, free-roaming buffalo and other native wildlife; and work with all people—especially Indigenous Nations—to honor and protect the sacredness of the wild buffalo.
About This Cause
The buffalo of Yellowstone National Park, a living national treasure, are cruelly harassed and killed by federal and state government agencies on a very regular basis. Buffalo Field Campaign is the longest running direct action campaign in North America and the only real defense these animals have. We serve the herds as defenders, protectors, and advocates. Buffalo Field Campaign is active in the field as well as in the policy arenas, generally seeking to: (a) create year-round protection for buffalo, (b) generate respect for the migration needs of this exploited species, and (c) end the human-induced suffering of these iconic and abused animals. Our hands-on efforts are executed through a carefully planned, multi-pronged strategy to permanently protect buffalo using field patrols, citizen advocacy and outreach, and legislation and litigation. We work to bring a humane, science-based, and ecologically balanced approach to buffalo “management” that respects and protects bison, their habitat, and their fellow species. Frontline Bison Defense Patrols: Depending on weather, BFC conducts daily field patrols in vehicles, boots, skis, and snowshoes, or on mountain bikes—but no matter the weather, we always patrol. Teams monitor key migration corridors and core habitat areas along the Yellowstone boundary year-round, including several months of 24-hour coverage through each cold Yellowstone winter when the buffalo need us most. In addition to documenting and interrupting buffalo abuse, our field patrols have compiled a comprehensive and current collection of scientific data, video footage, and personal experiences with buffalo in their native habitat. Our patrols document every action against the buffalo and inform a wide range of other activities designed to protect them. More than 5,000 volunteers have joined our hands-on frontlines patrols to protect the buffalo, all the while learning about activism, leadership, and direct action; many go on to create or support other organizations. Impact in the field: BFC is a small group, but our effectiveness over the last 17 years is on par with the biggest and best. During the winter of 1996-1997—the year before BFC was established—government agents killed 1,100 bison. In 1997-1998, with BFC patrols and cameras following the government’s every move, agents killed just 11 of these magnificent animals. More recently, in December of 2012, government agencies announced a plan to kill more than 500 buffalo (400 of them female) during the following winter and spring. BFC’s work in the field, in the courts, and in the halls of politics—greatly supported by our grassroots activist network—was able to hold the number of killings below 250. Other field activities: Our volunteers also regularly work to alert passing motorists to the presence of buffalo in and near the highways to reduce accidents and increase public awareness of wildlife migration corridors, and we successfully petitioned the state to lower the speed limit through buffalo migration corridors. Grassroots Activism: BFC leverages the grassroots energy of more than 35,000 supporters to further our mission. We facilitate letter writing and email campaigns by folks supportive of our mission, and use them to help politicians and legislators understand that not all constituents are uninformed and passive. Our supporters are generally very engaged. Each year in the summer, we have volunteers who set up information tables in authorized areas of Yellowstone, as well as in the tourist hubs where visitors flow into and out of the park. We seek to expand public knowledge about this issue, including the buffalo’s ecological importance and the waste of public monies. We also regularly reach out to local landowners, initiating dialog and offering information about property rights violations and frequent illegal trespass activities by the Montana Department of Livestock. While much of the prime buffalo habitat in the Yellowstone ecosystem is public land, there are portions on private land as well. BFC works to identify landowners and residents who welcome bison on their lands, and is establishing a large network of “Bison Safe Zones.” One property on the Horse Butte Peninsula, an 850-acre former cattle ranch, was declared a wild bison sanctuary by the new owners, who then informed the Montana Department of Livestock that they (the government agents) may not enter the property to haze, capture, or slaughter bison. More than 100 landowners in Gardiner and West Yellowstone have joined this alliance and posted BFC’s Bison Safe Zone signs on their properties, thus formally notifying all government agencies that “buffalo management operations” are not permitted there. Legislation and Litigation: Overturning the Harmful Anti-Bison Law MCA 81-2-120: Buffalo Field Campaign is dedicated to removing the Department of Livestock (DOL) from bison management and having wild bison recognized as an essential native species in need of protection. Specifically we seek to invest management authority with Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and empower the agency with a mission to conserve and restore wild buffalo to their native habitat. In order to achieve this goal, we will need to overturn a harmful law that has been on the books in Montana since 1995. We have already begun to write, and we plan on promoting, introducing, and passing a bill for the 2015 MT legislature that strikes the harmful, anti-bison law MCA 81-2-120 from the books and strips the DOL of management authority. We seek to replace this law with one that puts Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks in charge of wild bison with a mandate to protect the bison’s inherent wildness and right to access habitat within the state. The main obstacle to the buffalo’s freedom and meaningful protection—and one of the fundamental problems to our making progress for them--is a law that has been on the books in Montana since 1995. MCA 81-2-120 gives the Montana Department of Livestock and the State Veterinarian czar-like powers over wild bison. It is this law that entrenches livestock authority over America’s only continuously wild population of migratory buffalo, the so-called Yellowstone herds. The law can be read in its entirety here: http://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/81/2/81-2-120.htm MCA 81-2-120 is the primary reason the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) is in place. Montana relied heavily on this state law when it sued the federal government in the mid 1990s. The IBMP was born out of the resulting court ordered settlement between Montana and Yellowstone National Park. The IBMP’s “treat wild bison like livestock” provisions were drawn directly from and mirror those of MCA 81-2-120, including hazing, capturing, slaughtering, quarantining, vaccinating, and shooting wild bison. MCA 81-2-120 is one of the primary reasons the majority of pro-bison lawsuits brought by Buffalo Field Campaign and other conservation organizations have failed, as the courts have relied upon the statute to rule that state law explicitly permits these nefarious management actions against migratory buffalo. MCA 81-2-120 is the reason the decision to permit wild bison year-round access to their habitat has been blocked by the livestock lobby. Because the proposal changes the area of the hunt zone and the number of buffalo to be hunted, it requires approval from the Board of Livestock and the Department of Livestock, something their boosters will not allow. The livestock industry is well represented in the Montana Legislature and has sought to make MCA 81-2-120 even worse. Their lobby has been able to sponsor and introduce 21 anti-bison bills in the last two legislative sessions alone, forcing Buffalo Field Campaign and our allies to expend valuable time and resources to defeat them. In contrast, there has only been a single pro-bison bill introduced during this period. We are currently working to change this as we work on legislation that will give bison the protection and wildlife status that they so desperately need and deserve. The precedent already exists with wild elk, a species that also carries brucellosis and yet is allowed to carry out its natural migration across Yellowstone’s boundaries. Our legislation will protect the bison’s right to migrate and, like the elk, place them under the authority of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, an agency comprised of wildlife biologists rather than livestock inspectors. We are in the process of drafting this legislation in consultation with the Montana tribal legislative caucus, who is interested in carrying pro-bison bills. We have been in close communication with members of the caucus and are very excited to champion a pro-bison bill in the upcoming legislative session. Media, outreach, and advocacy, which together will help to form an informed and engaged citizenry to let lawmakers know that their constituents demand that buffalo be respected as the wild species that they are, will play a huge role in achieving success. We are aware that the Montana legislature is largely controlled by the livestock industry and that it will be extremely difficult to pass legislation to change the status quo of bison management. But recent state and federal polls make abundantly clear that greater than 70% of Montanans and Americans hold a favorable impression of wild, free-roaming buffalo. Should we be unable to change the laws through the legislature we are prepared to tap into and capitalize upon this public sentiment by following up on our 2015 legislative agenda with a ballot initiative taking the issue to Montana voters to earn protection for the bison. Ballot campaigns are major undertakings requiring a tremendous amount of organization, networking, resources, and funding. But if we can get several pro-bison bills introduced and yet nothing passes, we will work to build broad support for a citizen’s initiative to do just that.