The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced staffing at the national wildlife refuge would be reduced from 17 full-time-equivalent positions to 6.3, and that the bison herd would be reduced as well.
The move, FWS officials said, brings the Bison Range in line with the fiscal realities that other refuges have been dealing with since flat-line budgets from Congress and the Bush administration began in 2003, and also ushers in a “more holistic” approach to managing the public's national bison herd.
“As recently as 2007, FWS officials went on at length to defend their uncooperative actions as being driven by their desire to keep the National Bison Range ‘crown jewel' in pristine condition,” said Rob McDonald, CSKT spokesman. “It's hard to not think about what could have been - had the FWS been more willing to work alongside tribal workers in the joint management deal.”
An annual funding agreement with the tribes to perform about half the jobs at the Moiese refuge “kept the Bison Range isolated and insulated” from reductions occurring nationwide, according to Dean Rundles, supervisor of national wildlife refuges in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
That agreement was abruptly canceled by the FWS last December. The Department of the Interior, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, quickly moved to re-establish a working relationship with the tribes, but no agreement was in place before Wednesday's cutbacks were announced.
“We weren't vulnerable because the AFA (annual funding agreement) had us obligated,” said Bill West, the assistant manager at the Bison Range who will take over for manager Steve Kallin in June.
Kallin is moving on to manage the National Elk Refuge at Jackson, Wyo.
West said the National Bison Range operated with a similarly small staff when he arrived in 1988, and the public will not notice many changes.
“We might have to reduce some services,” West said. “The day-use area might not be as green or manicured. We might not have the length of hours to serve the public at the visitors center. But they won't notice much change.”
Rundles said the range might move to a drop box and honor system to collect fees during some parts of the day “as a way to reduce staffing needs without reducing public viewing opportunities.”
And there will still be plenty of bison to view, too, both Rundles and West said, but they declined to speculate about how much the herd, which normally numbers between 300 and 400, might be reduced.
For the past century, Rundles said, bison herds at national wildlife refuges have been independently managed, but new science in the past four to five years has paved the way for “meta-population management” that can help keep cattle gene integration in the herds low.
“The National Bison Range bison are the most valuable we have,” Rundles said. “They are disease-free, unlike herds in Yellowstone Park and at the National Elk Refuge, and they have very low cattle gene integration. We do not use the term ‘pure,' but many of the bison at the National Bison Range show no evidence of cattle genes.”
Meta-population management will allow other herds to benefit from the Moiese herd's genetics, he said.
That didn't sit well with the tribes, which started the National Bison Range herd, either.
“The range is a cherished piece of living history and culture for the tribes,” McDonald said. “To see the herd broken up and sent in a dozen different directions is heartbreaking for the tribes. Had the FWS been cooperative in working with the tribes, this drastic reduction may have been avoided and the general public would be served better.”
Rundles said geneticists have told the Fish and Wildlife Service that to conserve the public's bison herd it must be kept at 1,000 to 2,000 animals, and none of the refuges where bison are maintained have the habitat to support that many.
In addition to the National Bison Range, the FWS has bison at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, Fort Niobrara in Nebraska, the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming, Sully's Hill National Game Preserve in North Dakota and the Neal Smith Refuge in Iowa.
Three national parks - Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt and Badlands - also support bison populations.
With meta-population management, “we can move out the worst of the genetic animals and move in better ones from the Bison Range,” Rundles said. “We'll have the same herd, just in different locations.”
The current Bison Range population, he said, “requires a lot of husbandry and stewardship. With potentially fewer animals, it could require less labor and the remaining bison will be able to move more freely over larger areas.”
Ironically, calving season at the Bison Range just began. West said there are 130 cows of breedable age among the about 300 bison at the range, and an average of 90 calves are born each year.
West said the Bison Range will still be hiring temporary or seasonal employees to help over the busy tourist months who are not part of that 6.3 FTE number.
The FWS announcement also said that management responsibility for Swan River and Lost Trail national wildlife refuges, now part of the larger Bison Range Complex, will be transferred to the Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge Complex headquartered in Great Falls.
That will account for three positions, according to Rundles, and with other Bison Range personnel having already transferred during the contentious period where the annual funding agreement was in place, about four people will be affected by Wednesday's announcement.
Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said his group - which fought any tribal involvement at the Bison Range - has seen the rolling reductions in FWS staffing sweep across the nation.
“It's what happens when budgets are frozen as costs rise,” Ruch said. “We've never seen it so bad. Acre for acre, this country is spending 17 cents for every dollar it spends on national parks. If the national parks are the middle class, the Fish and Wildlife Service is on food stamps and the National Wildlife Refuge System is Dumpster diving.”
Ruch wondered if the tribes would still be interested in a joint operating agreement, now that it could mean just three jobs.
“The amount of money may not be worth the trouble or effort,” he said. “Any new joint agreement would be less attractive to the tribes.”
But McDonald said tribal leaders “are still operating under the belief that the Interior Department is working toward its pledge of reinstating a contract to return CSKT workers to the Bison Range.”
“With the 100th anniversary of the National Bison Range coming next year, it's not hard to imagine the general public, including tribal members, will be upset by this move to shrink the Bison Range,” McDonald said.
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