Yellowstone Head: Zinke Forced Me Out As 'Punitive Action' Over Bison Dispute

[DonViejo]

Source: Associated Press




By MATTHEW BROWN | June 7, 2018 2:28 pm

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent said Thursday he’s being forced out as a “punitive action” following disagreements with the Trump administration over how many bison the park can sustain, a longstanding source of conflict between park officials and ranchers in neighboring Montana.

Superintendent Dan Wenk last week announced he intended to retire March 30, 2019, after being offered a transfer he didn’t want to take. Wenk said he was informed this week by National Park Service Acting Director Paul “Dan” Smith that a new superintendent will be in place in August and that Wenk will be gone by then.

“I feel this is a punitive action, but I don’t know for sure,” Wenk told The Associated Press. He wasn’t given a reason and said the only dispute he’s had with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who oversees the park service, was over bison.

Ranchers in neighboring Montana have long sought reductions in Yellowstone’s bison numbers because of worries that they could spread the disease brucellosis to cattle and compete with livestock for grazing space outside the park. Brucellosis causes animals to prematurely abort their young and can be transmitted through birthing material. It also can infect people.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/yellowstone-superintendent-dan-wenk-forced-out

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This fellow will be a major loss to the

Recreational community. If you have ever been to Yellowstone,well you might have had a interaction with this Gentleman.


Secondly,the brucellosis in Bison is a Red Herring . Buffalo hunting permits bring big Bucks,and a couple of the bitchy Ranchers are also Hunting Guides. So be careful what one tells you about this.

First off,all domestic Cattle have to have Brucellosis Shot before going out on BLM Land or any Range Land,Secondly,the usual suspect for Calves being Aborted is,Milk Fever or other Respiratory viral causes.

[maxsolomon]

2. i will never understand why the NPS doesn't inoculate the fucking Bison

like those jackhole ranchers do for their cattle.

year after year, the bison come down off that sky-high plateau to avoid dying, and the welfare ranchers around the park get the feds to cull them like they're the economic backbone of America. they're not. they're hobbyists.

[2naSalit]

3. Because...

THE BISON ARE WILDLIFE NOT LIVESTOCK. Wildlife are wild and not vaccinated, especially in Yellowstone NP. The Montana ranchers want it all, all the grass for cows, all the public land for making money for themselves with their cows and will keep whining and howling because the state legislatures are infested with ranchers and their purchased politicians who make sure they will always be in power. Just look at the two f-wads from Montana helping cheato destroy the country.

The bison were infected with the brucella abortis virus from being fed cow milk at the Buffalo Ranch in the park back about a hundred years ago, otherwise they would be free of it in their herds. And any cattle that might be infected by wildlife are infected from ELK, who have a high dollar lobby because they are hunted. There is no need to manage wildlife, it's we humans who need to check ourselves. We are not gods, we are not rulers of the natural world, though we spend a good amount of our time and energy on doing just that, and failing miserably... we are just in denial about how bad we had trashed this planet.

The management policies regarding wildlife in and around the park are BS. I'm something of a specialist on this topic and you will be hard pressed to find a reporter willing to actually go into the actual facts rather than parrot the rancher agenda. Cattle ranching is, without government intervention through removal of all predators from the public lands for them at our expense, not a profitable venture in the west regardless of what you see on the teevee. And cattle eat the wildlife's food, transfer diseases to them and are becoming endangered due to our ignorance and denial of any facts that might reach our ears.

I know Dan Wenk well enough and I have been a little surprised that he actually said anything but then, he is not one to mince words or bear false witness on any topic. I wish him well, he has tried to right wrongs incurred by W's appointee who preceded him but has been able to make improvements during Obama's admin. The last really good Superintendent of the park was Mike Finley who resigned the same week Darth Cheney went careening through the park like a death plague... tells you something about R administrations.

Sorry, this is an issue that I spent years working on and I will speak up and set the record straight when the opportunity arises.

[bluestarone]

4. I'm feeling the same as you on this issue!!

TY for your posting!!

[maxsolomon]

6. At this point, they and the Elk are managed populations.

If inoculation eliminates the annual slaughter and the incessant whinging of these welfare ranchers, then I'm for it.

We're on the same side here; I'm not sure where you got the impression we're not.

[2naSalit]

7. it was the

suggestion of vaccinating these wild animals when ranchers, who have total management of their animals, should be vaccinating the cattle which they refuse to do it even if someone else pays for it in Montana. Wyoming and Idaho do not have this issue other than the folks who have been gradually swayed by the propaganda. Cattle are already being treated for illnesses so why not brucella if they are so worried about it? The fact is that they are using the brucella argument against wildlife retaining any part of their historic range beyond the park boundaries like cheato makes stupid, vapid arguments that make no sense to the rest ofuis.

In my book, as a wildlife management policy educated person, the idea of vaccinating bison is so foolish and causing further injury to these animals who already suffer from loss of habitat that I just can't agree with that mindset. The ranching and extractive industries need to pull up their grown up panties and see the train rolling down the track they have strapped themselves to. Stop screwing with the wildlife is what needs to happen.

[maxsolomon]

9. I didn't know that the ranchers were refusing vaccinations for their cattle

Where exactly are these Welfare Ranchers? W. Yellowstone? Gardner?

[2naSalit]

10. Some are

but as long as they are Montana livestock industry member (actually only 40 to 60% of them), they support the argument because it isn't so much the biology as it is a problem of localized hegemony.

Yeah, most ranchers refuse to vaccinate their herds and then cry wolf over a problem that doesn't really exist.

[spike jones]

5. Percentage of American beef produced from public rangelands:

less than 3%. We could eliminate all public land grazing and not even miss it, yet grazing destroys millions of acres. http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/fs_grazing_economics.htm

[2naSalit]

8. The link goes to a closed site...

try these...

https://www.westernwatersheds.org/public-lands-ranching/

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/



If your yard ain't big enough for all yer dogs, you probably don't need to have so many dogs... find a new occupation.