Endangered Species Coalition 2015 Top 10 Report Nominating Form
General Information
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Nominating Organizations: Please use this Column to Provide the Requested Information
Organization & Web address
Contact name for species info
Address
Email & phone
Communications staff contact name
Email & phone
Buffalo Field Campaign / http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Daniel Brister, Executive Director
PO Box 224, Arlee, MT 59821
bfc@wildrockies.org/ 406 726-5555
Stephany Seay, Media Coordinator
Bfc-media@wildrockies.org; 406 646-0070
General Species Information
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Common name, genus, and species
Geographic range
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Conservation status
Remaining population size
American buffalo or bison; Bison bison
Historically: throughout much of North America from northern Mexico to northern
Canada and from East Coast to West Coast; Presently limited to parts of Yellowstone
National Park and portions of southwestern Montana.
Unprotected and threatened due to government action
Approximately 4,300
Report Questions
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Do you have high-resolution photos that can
be used in the report?
Will you want printed reports? If so, how
many?
If your species is selected, will you use the
report as a tool to organize around the
species and/or publicize its plight?
Yes, we have many (literally hundreds).
Yes. 3 copies.
We are very excited for the organizing opportunity provided by the ESC report. We will
publicize the bison’s inclusion in press releases, email updates, on our web site, and
through social media.
Public Engagement Questions (Please explain why the species is interesting, why it matters, why decision-makers + the public should care.)0
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Interesting facts about the species
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Additional background information to
complete the species profile in the report
North America once supported twenty for forty million wild bison; by 1902 only 25
individuals survived.
Every winter and spring, the last of the America’s wild bison leave the area known as
Yellowstone National Park for the rich lower-elevation grasses in Montana that support
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
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What are the most important messages that
should be communicated about this species'
decline? Please be sure to indicate your
organization’s lead message that you would
like to be included in the report.
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Is your NGO working to save the species? If
yes, how? (Optional)
their rejuvenation and the birth of their young. When they do, they are met by
government agents using trucks, ATVs, helicopters, horses, and firearms to force the
buffalo to turn around, “hazing” the herds into the snow-covered high country of
Yellowstone and away from the food they need. Buffalo are shot, forced into traps,
loaded into livestock-trailers, and hauled to slaughterhouses. Survivors often face
premature and stillbirths, broken limbs, and a variety other horrific injuries.
These buffalo, a living North American treasure, are cruelly harassed and killed by
federal and state agencies on a 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 and in the policy arenas, 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 frontlines bison defense field patrols,
citizen advocacy and outreach, legislation, and litigation. We work to bring a humane,
science-based, and ecological approach to buffalo “management” that respects and
protects bison, their habitat, and their fellow species.
Once numbering in the tens of millions, there were fewer than 25 wild bison
remaining in the remote interior of Pelican Valley in Yellowstone National Park at the
turn of the 20th Century. The 1894 Lacey Act, the first federal law specifically
safeguarding bison, protected these few survivors from extinction. Yellowstone bison
are the only extant wildlife population of plains bison that retains its genetic integrity
and still freely roams in the United States.
Buffalo Field Campaign’s core mission and singular focus is to protect America's last
continuously wild population of bison. Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers defend the
bison and their native habitat, document every action taken against them, and
empower the public to take action to permanently protect the bison. Buffalo Field
Campaign is dedicated to strengthening the Native American voice in all management
decisions affecting this irreplaceable bison population.
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
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How can individuals help? Please be as
specific as possible.
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Is there anything else that governments or
others could/should/are doing to save the
species?
Individuals can help by signing up for BFC’s Updates from the Field,” through which
we communicate on a weekly basis the most recent actions affecting America’s last
wild herds of free-born bison. Updates contain current “take action” items linking
those who care about wild bison with government actions affecting the herds. Buffalo
Field Campaign supporters are kept up to date on every action affecting the bison and
are able to see, with their own eyes through BFC video footage, what bison
management actually looks like on the ground.
There is a great deal the government should be doing to protect the species. First
and foremost, the US Fish and Wildlife Service should list the species as threatened or
endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
On November 13, 2014 Western Watersheds Project and Buffalo Field Campaign
petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Yellowstone bison under the
Endangered Species Act. Yellowstone bison are found primarily in Yellowstone National
Park and migrate into the jurisdictions of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming where the
wildlife species is forcibly removed or destroyed completely.
Criteria-specific Questions – Please feel free to answer N/A or “see above/below” as appropriate. Please cite any substantiating scientific studies.
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Describe the specific threat(s) to the species.
The petition catalogues the many threats that Yellowstone bison face, including:
extirpation from their range to facilitate livestock grazing, livestock diseases and
disease management practices by the government, overutilization, trapping for
slaughter, hunting, ecological and genomic extinction due to inadequate management,
and climate change.
Yellowstone bison occur in and around Yellowstone Park and are the largest
remnant population of plains bison that ranged across much of North America until it
was nearly eliminated post settlement. Recent science shows that the Yellowstone
bison is the only significant bison population that has not suffered introgression with
domestic cattle genes. Thus, at a minimum the Yellowstone bison represent a distinct
population segment of plains bison; and perforce, may in fact be the only remaining
plains bison population in the United States. Whether the Yellowstone population
represents the only plains bison population remaining in the United States, or
represents a DPS of plains bison, multiple listing criteria apply to the population.
Endangered Species Act protection is necessary to prevent the extinction of the
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
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Why is it in need of greater connectivity?
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Is its geographic range shifting?
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Is there concern around the cyclical/seasonal
life of the species and its interactions within
ecosystems?
Does it have isolated populations?
Is it at risk of low genetic diversity?
How urgent is the need for connectivity?
Indicate if there is an associated political
threat. For instance, is this species being
actively attacked by an industry group or
member of Congress?
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Judge’s Score for Severity and Extent of Threat:
species, and to protect the habitat and the ecosystems upon which Yellowstone bison
depend.
Policies of the National Park Service and National Forest Service, and state
regulatory mechanisms threaten rather than protect the Yellowstone bison and their
habitat. Since 2000, the Park has taken more than 4,000 bison in capture-for-slaughter
operations. The Forest Service issues livestock grazing permits in bison habitat. State
regulatory mechanisms in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming all result in the forced
removal or complete destruction of bison migrating beyond Park borders.
Montana’s intolerance for bison, and the state’s stubborn refusal to allow bison to
access their ecological habitat, have resulted in the severance of the bison from their
winter and spring range, including their calving grounds on the Horse Butte Peninsula
and the Gardiner and Hebgen Basins. Wild bison face a current, imminent, and future
threat and if the current management plan is not replaced with a more humane,
ecologically-based approach, the future of wild bison will be at risk.
Anthropogenic climate change is altering the Yellowstone ecosystem and may result
in a shifting of the bison’s geographic range.
Yes. Bison are not allowed to access winter and spring habitat that happens to exist
on the wrong side of the Yellowstone boundary in Montana.
Yes.
Yes.
Extremely urgent.
Wild bison face an extreme political threat by Montana’s powerful livestock industry.
The Montana legislature, through passage of MCA 81-2-120 in 1995, took
management authority away from the MT Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and
gave it to the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL). DOL agents have no training in
wildlife biology and treat the bison like a “species in need of disease control” under a
livestock management paradigm.
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Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
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Detail information on any social or economic
benefits the species provides—e.g., its value
for recreation or as a subject of scientific
research. (Optional)
Detail the ecological importance of the
species (e.g., is it a keystone species?).
Describe how the species could be
considered an "ambassador" or “flagship”
species to enlist public support for
conservation.
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Yellowstone bison, as America’s only continuously wild population, are incredibly
valuable. People travel from across the country and around the world to view bison in
their native habitat. Montana could benefit in myriad ways—financial, cultural, and
social--by allowing and encouraging restoration of the species within the state.
Wild bison are a keystone species essential to the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Yellowstone
bison are unique, significant, and genetically and behaviorally distinct. For this reason,
the Yellowstone bison population is critical to the overall survival and recovery of the
species. The Yellowstone bison population is comprised of genetically and behaviorally
distinct subpopulations with differing migration patterns. The wild migratory species
uses a significant portion of the geothermal habitats in Yellowstone National Park, an
unusual ecological adaptation unique to Yellowstone bison.
Standing over six feet tall at the hump, weighing more than a ton, and able to run
faster than 30 miles an hour, the American buffalo, or bison, is the continent's largest
land mammal. Native to most of North America and especially abundant on the vast
prairies east of the Rocky Mountains, buffalo once numbered in the tens of millions.
Buffalo are wild and sacred, a living testament to America's rich past and a source
of hope for the future. The buffalo stands at once as a stark reminder of humanity's
destructive power and as a living embodiment of our greatest potential. Nearly
eradicated by the end of the 19th century, 23 wild buffalo survived the slaughter in
the remote interior of Yellowstone National Park, the only place in America where
wild buffalo have always lived. Today, the future of the buffalo is threatened by many
of the same forces that contributed to its near extinction.
Of the 20 to 40 million wild buffalo that once lived in North America, only 4,000
remain. The buffalo living in Yellowstone National Park and Montana are the only
buffalo to continuously occupy their native habitat. Untainted with livestock genes
and unconfined by fences, they are genetically sound and free to follow their
migratory instincts. Buffalo are a keystone species essential to the restoration of the
native grasslands, sagebrush steppes, and prairie ecosystems considered to be some
of the most endangered habitats in the world.
Judge’s Score for Importance of Species
Judge’s Final Score
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies