Yellowstone Prepares Stephens Creek Facility to Accept Bison
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Contact: Al Nash, 307-344-2010 Contact: Stacy Vallie, 307-344-2012
National Park Service Yellowstone National Park ---------------------------------------------------- PARK PREPARES STEPHENS CREEK FACILITY TO ACCEPT BISON Yellowstone National Park is preparing the Interagency bison capture facility at Stephens Creek to temporarily hold bison the Montana Department of Livestock plans to capture outside the park’s western boundary on Friday. A mixed group of approximately 50 bison have left the Cougar Meadows area and crossed the Yellowstone National Park boundary into the West Yellowstone area. The National Park Service will accept bison at the facility near Gardiner, where they will be held, fed, and watered for a short period and then released into the northern section of park. The transport and release strategy resulted from discussions late last week between Yellowstone National Park and the Montana Governor’s Office. It is designed to address the unique circumstance of bison outside the park this late in the season. This adaptive management strategy will be used only this year. The Stephens Creek facility is operated under the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). The IBMP is a cooperative plan designed to conserve a viable, wild bison population while protecting Montana’s brucellosis-free status. The five cooperating agencies operating under the IBMP are the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Montana Department of Livestock, and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This is the seventh year the IBMP has been used to guide brucellosis risk management actions. |
Did You Know?
Prior to the establishment of the National Park Service, the U.S. Army protected Yellowstone between 1886 and 1918. Fort Yellowstone was established at Mammoth Hot Springs for that purpose.