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 Today, remnants of the bison, or buffalo, herds still roam the
grasslands and river valleys of Yellowstone, a huge park that covers
parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The park lands, in which hunting is illegal, once made up a key
segment of the Idaho tribe's traditional hunting grounds, and some
Nez Perce leaders say they should again be able to hunt buffalo
inside the park.
"Before there was a park, there was a tribe," Nez Perce Chairman
Silas Whitman said. "Some of our members already feel we have the
right to hunt in the park, but it hasn't been exercised because we
feel it would be remiss in going forward that way."
After asserting hunting rights tied to historic treaties in recent
years, the Nez Perce and three other tribes already hunt those bison
that follow ancient migration routes outside the park and into
Montana in search of winter range.
The Nez Perce have not yet formally requested hunting rights inside
the park. Such a request would require extensive federal review,
major changes to Yellowstone policies, and congressional action to
modify a founding law that banned hunting or killing of buffalo and
other wildlife there.
The prospect of hunting any of the 4,000 buffalo within Yellowstone
boundaries is strongly opposed by animal advocates, who decry an
existing culling program that allows hundreds of bison to be hunted
and shipped to slaughter annually.
"Yellowstone is against any proposal to hunt in the park," said
David Hallac, chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, the
park's science and research branch.
BISON MANAGEMENT CONTROVERSY
Whitman said the tribe would not force the issue by violating any of
the park's regulations but may seek to broach the topic with the
U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the national park system,
or perhaps lobby Congress "to request those changes be made".
Management of Yellowstone bison has stirred controversy for decades.
Killing of animals that wander into Montana in winter in search of
food aims to keep in check a herd population whose size is
determined by social tolerance rather than the ecosystem's carrying
capacity, Yellowstone officials said.
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The culling is also designed to ease the worries of Montana ranchers
who fear bison will transmit the cattle disease brucellosis, which
can cause animals to miscarry, to cows that graze near the park.
That could put into jeopardy Montana's brucellosis-free status,
which allows ranchers to ship livestock across state lines without
testing.
Marty Zaluski, Montana state veterinarian and member of a state,
federal and tribal team that manages bison in and around
Yellowstone, is a proponent of hunting in the park and told Reuters
in February it needed to be "looked at more seriously as a possible
solution".
He said it would bring the herd closer to a population target of
3,000 to 3,500 and lessen the public outcry tied to slaughter of
wayward buffalo.
But Yellowstone's Hallac contends that hunting in the park, which
draws 3 million visitors a year because of tourist attractions such
as the Old Faithful geyser and the bison, would further complicate
matters.
"Even a proposal to hunt in the park causes more problems than the
dilemma it intends to solve," he said. "These are America's wildlife
and a crucial part of our national heritage. To propose to hunt in a
place established specifically to prevent animals from being hunted
is bizarre."
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Galloway)
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