Finding the Common Ground:
BBHC Symposium on Yellowstone, Bison Seeks Solutions to Controversy

by Sharon Schroeder
Former Director of Education
Buffalo Bill Historical Center

In response to the ongoing controversy over management of the Yellowstone National Park bison herd, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, in conjunction with its exhibit "Where the Buffalo Roam in Yellowstone Park," gathered a number of experts for a public symposium. The symposium, "Where the Buffalo Roam: Finding the Common Ground", was the first of an ongoing series of symposia planned to explore important issues of the contemporary West.

Few issues in the West have historically evoked stronger emotions from the American people than the controversies surrounding bison. The great monarch of the plains is a symbol for many Americans of all that is wild and free. An outcry of public protest against the bison's near extermination in the latter part of the 19th century resulted in a conservation movement to preserve the species. In Yellowstone National Park, the result was a thriving population of more than 4,000 bison by 1994.

However, that number took a dramatic drop this past winter (1999 - 2000). Nearly half the bison population died as a result of severe weather and a complex set of management issues, including fears that nearby states could lose their brucellosis-free status if infected bison occupied the same lands as domestic cattle. This brucellosis-free status allows states to freely market their cattle to other states, without expensive testing.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center's symposium attempted to identify the problems, seek common ground and propose solutions. The participants represented a wide range of interests, including ranchers, conservationists, tribal leaders, scientists, public policy makers, historians and concerned citizens. Dr. Ron Brunner, of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, absorbed the proceedings and offered a concluding analysis.

According to Brunner, common ground exists, with one important qualification. The committee of government agencies charged with resolving the brucellosis issue does not represent common ground because participants negotiate with one another across agency boundaries. This means that non-official citizens' interests are not represented. The work of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a citizens' conservation group, has come closest to finding common ground, in Brunner's view. In 1991, the GYC developed a proposal for resolution of the bison brucellosis problem. Bringing together citizens representing a variety of interests, the GYC's recommendations included:

• Maintaining a wild, self-sustaining herd with minimal human intervention;
• Allowing bison to migrate to public lands outside the park;
• Maintaining separation of bison and cattle;
• Removing bison from private lands in the event of threat;
• Allowing ethical hunting practices.

Why wasn't this proposal recognized by policy makers? In Brunner's analysis, "the decision-making process is broken."

Signs of a breakdown are all around us, he noted. First and foremost are lawsuits, an obvious sign of failure. Lawsuits on the bison issue outnumber lawsuits on any other issue in the Yellowstone region. This leads to courts making policy decisions they were never designed to make. Delays or bottlenecks in the decision-making process are another sign of breakdown. The issue is fraught with irony as well. Dr. Robert Keiter, a symposium participant and professor at the University of Utah's College of Law, repeated remarks he made five years ago: "The Greater Yellowstone bison-brucellosis controversy abounds in paradox . . . The Park Service, which is charged with preserving wildlife as part of our natural heritage, has proposed killing its bison to protect cattle located outside the park."

The GYC was not the only citizens' group to see its recommendations ignored. Fred DuBray, founder of the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative, expressed frustration that his organization had also developed solutions, to no avail. "There is a lot of common ground," said DuBray. "There is basic understanding among citizens, but still nothing happens. You have to look deeper to find where the problems are."

In conclusion, Brunner noted that a set of shared assumptions must govern society's response to the issue. In order to get along as personalities and communities, we have to have shared assumptions that go well beyond science in matters of faith and moral commitment. In essence, we are asking, "How do we want to live?"

Brunner pointed out that we have at least two models on the table. One goes back at least as far as the book of Genesis, that humans have license to dominate the world and populate it as they see fit. An extension of that model is represented by the livestock industry, and one of the big questions is whether the bison are going to be folded into that model. An alternative idea — one that also has ancient cultural origins, is that we are part of nature and interdependent with it. In closing, Brunner observed, "If we abuse unduly the environment in which we live, we can't live either." He suggested that our culture will be better off if interdependence has the chance to flourish.

"In the end, what is going to matter is not so much the science or the politics, but how we decide we want to live," he said.

A bull bison wades a stream in Yellowstone National Park. With spring and summer comes renewal, as golden calves are born and the herds feast on the lush grasses. (Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park)

By late summer, the grass in Yellowstone's Hayden Valley has started to brown, and bison herds have begun the fattening process to withstand the ravages of winter. (Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park)

Yellowstone bison congregate on a plowed highway in Yellowstone National Park, presenting a contrast between modern visitor infrastructure and an animal with ancient origins. Bison are attracted to plowed roadways because they provide an easier way of traveling through the deep snows of winter. (Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park)