HELENA — Yellowstone National Park has released the draft environmental impact statement for managing park bison.
The plan lays out several alternatives for managing bison inside the park while considering what may happen to bison that wander outside of the park’s jurisdiction.
Under the first alternative, the park would continue to manage bison under the existing interagency plan that includes maintaining a population of up to 5,000 animals.
The bison population would be managed through hunting and culling, capture, and the transfer of brucellosis-free bison to tribal nations.
The second alternative includes maintaining a population of up to 6,000 bison and emphasizing tribal treaty hunting and tribal conservation transfers to regulate numbers.
Alternative three would use natural selection, dispersal, and public and tribal harvests in Montana. That could lead to a population of up to 7,000 bison.
In each case, the minimum allowable bison population would be 3,500 animals.
A final decision is expected next year.
People can submit their comments regarding the plan online during the 45-day comment period here.
Yellowstone National Park will host two public meetings during the public comment period. Public meeting details include:
Webinar 1:
- August 28 at 10:30 a.m. MST
- Link: bit.ly/YellowstoneBisonEIS
Webinar 2:
- August 29 at 4 p.m. MST
- Link: bit.ly/YellowstoneBisonEIS2
