Noreen Walsh, director of FWS’s Mountain-Prairie Region, informed FWS employees of the decision in an email late Friday afternoon. National Wildlife Refuge System Chief Cynthia Martinez followed up with a similar email Friday evening.

“In an effort to achieve the best, long-term solution for our many conservation priorities, the specific conservation goals of the National Bison Range, and to support the principles of Indian self-determination there was a discussion today with the CSKT about the potential for the Service to support legislation that would transfer the lands comprising the National Bison Range to be held in trust by the United States for the CSKT,” Walsh wrote her email, which was obtained by the Missoulian.

She cited the inability to reach another annual funding agreement with the tribes that would allow CSKT to jointly participate with FWS in the management and operation of the Bison Range.

Transferring the land to the tribes would end more than a century of Fish and Wildlife Service management of the Bison Range, and remove it from the National Wildlife Refuge System.

It would require the approval of Congress.

“As the original managers of the bison herd on the Flathead Reservation prior to the establishment of the National Bison Range, we look forward to learning more about the opportunities related to U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s proposal of restoring tribal ownership of the Bison Range,” CSKT spokesman Rob McDonald said in a written statement Monday.

“As with all of the tribes’ lands, we are committed to the responsible management of the land in a way that is consistent with tribal values – values we share with all Montanans,” McDonald added. “Our goal has always been a stable, thriving reservation, and we welcome the chance to continue working to achieve that goal for the benefit of the entire community.”

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Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which has strongly opposed any tribal involvement at the Bison Range, warned again Monday that 18 other U.S. national wildlife refuges and 57 national parks could be ceded to other Indian tribes if such a precedent is established.

“Once again, the National Bison Range is a political trading card whose conservation mission is an afterthought,” Jeff Ruch, PEER’s executive director, said.

Jeff King, project leader at the Bison Range, said he had been told to refer questions to Anna Munoz, assistant regional director for external affairs at FWS’s Mountain-Prairie Region headquarters in Colorado.

“All I can say is that we’re at the very beginning of discussions,” Munoz said. “We believe right now is the right time to begin the transition into a trust for a refuge that long ago was carved out of the lands of the Flathead Indian Reservation.”

Munoz confirmed that the Fish and Wildlife Service would “no longer have responsibility” for the Bison Range if the lands were transferred into a trust.

She declined to comment on PEER’s accusations that such a move would leave other public lands open to similar moves, and declined to comment when asked why negotiations for a third annual funding agreement with CSKT had failed.

The first one, in 2005-06, was ended by FWS amid heated accusations and exchanges from both sides. A second agreement returned the tribes to the Bison Range alongside FWS in 2009-10, and the partnership seemed to be working much better. A federal judge pulled the plug on it, essentially because an environmental assessment had not been done.

PEER filed the lawsuit that undid the most recent agreement.

***

On the same day FWS approached the tribes about opening discussions on transferring the wildlife refuge late last week, Walsh and two other agency officials also met with Bison Range employees in Moiese.

“I emphasized that they will all remain valued employees of the Service, regardless of the outcome of these discussions,” Walsh wrote to FWS personnel across the Mountain-Prairie Region.

Walsh noted that Congress would have to approve the transfer “and therefore, at this point, we don’t know if or when such a transfer would occur. Today was our first discussion with the CSKT about the idea.”

In her email, Martinez, the refuge system chief, said, “Anyone who knows the history of the Bison Range knows that our employees have worked and lived with uncertainty regarding the Bison Range for many years now.”

Munoz said seven FWS employees work at the Bison Range, which is sometimes called the crown jewel of the National Wildlife Refuge System – although others, led by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, are often referred to the same way.

Walsh was accompanied to the Moiese refuge Friday by Will Meeks, assistant regional director of refuges, and Mike Blenden, refuge supervisor for Montana, Wyoming and Utah.

“I wanted you all to know why we entered into these discussions,” Walsh noted in her email.

The Bison Range was established within the boundaries of the Flathead Reservation in 1908, “for the express purpose of conserving the American bison during a time when the species was on the verge of extinction,” Walsh said.

“Since then, the Service as well as our federal, state and tribal partners have made great strides in conserving bison and re-establishing herds throughout their historic range,” the email continues.

“Also, while we have desired a meaningful partnership with CSKT at the National Bison Range, a mutually acceptable agreement has been elusive,” Walsh wrote. “Given that we are today in a much better place regarding the future of bison, that we have much work to do on landscape-scale conservation efforts, and that we want to strengthen our partnership with the CSKT, we believe that now is the right time to investigate the possibility of transferring the refuge, which was long ago carved out of tribal lands, into trust for the benefit of the CSKT.”

Walsh added that it “was not an easy decision to come by, nor one that was taken lightly, but in the end, I believe that this is a good path for the Service, the CSKT, and for the conservation of our fish and wildlife resources.”

***

CSKT has been trying to become a part of the operation and management of the Bison Range for 22 years, ever since the 1994 Tribal Self Governance Act enabled the tribes to do so.

Despite PEER’s insistence that previous funding agreements ceded control of the refuge to the tribes, Friday’s email from Walsh signaled the first time FWS has actually considered doing exactly that.

On Monday, PEER disputed Martinez’s claim that transferring the Bison Range to CSKT “does not represent a new direction for the refuge system.”

“Many other tribes have similar legal status covering 18 refuges in eight states, including all of the Alaska refuges,” PEER said.

Those 18 refuges make up 80 percent of the land area in the National Wildlife Refuge System, it said.

“Similarly, 57 National Park Service units in 19 states are similarly situated,” the organization added.

That includes Glacier National Park, next to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

“It appears that the Service is rewarding long-standing intransigence by the CSKT in reaching an agreement which would keep the Bison Range in the National Wildlife Refuge System,” PEER went on, “and in doing so will encourage other tribes to follow the same disengaging playbook.”

McDonald encouraged people with questions or comments about the potential transfer to contact FWS, which approached the tribes with the idea.

"We ... look forward to working with the community to make the Bison Range an even better place for the public to enjoy and learn about the majestic bison," McDonald said in his statement.