Buffalo Field Campaign Yellowstone Bison Update from the Field June 17, 2010 ------------------------------ ------------------------------ * Update from the Field * THEY'RE HERE! Wild Bison 2011 Calendars! * Last Words * Kill Tally * Useful Links ------------------------------ * Update from the Field It's been wet, cool and relatively quiet in the land of the last wild buffalo. Since we last wrote, buffalo have been given a much-needed reprieve from the relentless hazing they suffered for nearly two months straight. The majority of wild buffalo are now inside Yellowstone's boundaries, and so is Buffalo Field Campaign. Our summer outreach season began this week with dedicated volunteers braving the snow and rain to talk to park visitors about how the Park, the Montana Department of Livestock and collaborating agencies hurt America's last wild bison population. BFC is looking for summer volunteers to help with our summer outreach program, so if you've ever wanted to spend time inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and help tell the buffalo's story, please contact us at [email protected] If you can't make it to Yellowstone country but still want to help spread the word in your community, please contact us about receiving multiple copies of this years' newsletter, which you can hand out to friends, place in coffee shops, and otherwise distribute. Every year there is at least one new volunteer that was drawn to BFC because they picked up a newsletter - so it really does make a difference. The newsletter will be mailed out shortly, so if you have moved or changed addresses recently, or if you'd like to be added to our mailing list, please send your updated contact info to [email protected] so you're sure to get yours and more if you can spread them around your community! While visitors to Yellowstone National Park are enjoying the company of wild buffalo and other unparalleled splendors Yellowstone country has to offer, the Park itself is planning to further cave to livestock interests and jeopardize the wild integrity of buffalo. Yellowstone has released an enormous Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that unfortunately could open the way for the Park to shoot wild bison with a livestock brucellosis vaccine. Vaccinating wild buffalo is an ill-conceived and wasteful plan which continues to jeopardize the wild integrity of bison by mismanaging them like livestock. The plan puts wild buffalo in unacceptable harm and must not be allowed. BFC has been carefully reading through the DEIS, and we will soon give your our informed feedback to help you formulate your own comments, which are being accepted through July 26, 2010. If you don't want to wait, you can submit your comments via the Park Service's web form http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=111&projectID=10736&documentId=34079. You can find BFC's general information about why vaccinating wild buffalo is wrong here: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/science/vaccinationprogram.html. You can always email us at [email protected] with questions you may have. Otherwise, stay tuned for a Special Alert from Buffalo Field Campaign coming soon to your inbox! Thank you for being with us for the buffalo! ROAM FREE! ------------------------------ * THEY'RE HERE! Wild Bison 2011 Calendars! Order yours today! https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=554&t=&store_item_KEY=2899 After many long months of soliciting photos, basking in the glory if the images you have shared with us, and having the difficult job of choosing the finalists for this years' calendar, it has happened: your encouragement and photo submissions helped BFC create the first-ever calendar dedicated to the majesty of the wild buffalo of Yellowstone! Wild Bison 2011 calendars are already going very fast, so please get yours today: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=554&t=&store_item_KEY=2899 This unique calendar was created, in part, by you. All of the photos in the calendar were taken by Buffalo Field Campaign supporters and volunteers. The calendar is decorated with incredible artwork, poetry, quotes, interesting facts about buffalo, and powerful, endearing images that are sure to escalate your current love-affair with buffalo, or enchant people meeting them for the first time. Wild Bison 2011 is a total celebration of North America's largest land mammal. Buffalo Field Campaign would like to thank each and every one of you who sent us photos and gave us the inspiration to do this project. It has been an incredible journey to see the buffalo through your eyes, through your images. And it has been a blessedly positive project, this celebration of wild buffalo. Too often the dark images of harm caused to the buffalo entraps us in our work to protect them, so we took great pleasure in the many hours looking through your positive photos of our shaggy friends in all their aspects. So far it has been more successful than we could have imagined, and we fully intend to carry on every year. So, get the Wild Bison 2011 calendars today for yourself, friends and family. If you know of businesses that might have interest in selling them, please contact Mike at [email protected] Lastly, if you're planning trips to Yellowstone this year, think about taking high-resolution, large-megapixel photos that you can submit for next year's calendar. If you already have some you'd like to submit for the next calendar, please send them to Stephany at [email protected] We are working on creating an easy web-based repository where you can upload photos throughout the year, so just keep this in mind if you have or will be visiting Yellowstone and the last wild buffalo. BFC's heartfelt and deepest thanks to you all for making Wild Bison 2011 Calendars a wish come true. Thanks go to Russ Fishback for igniting the spark to get this project going! Special thanks to Roger and Jim at Art & Images Resources in Missoula, Montana, for their design expertise, love for the buffalo, and for taking on the calendar's publication. Many thanks also to BFC's Mike Mease and Dan Brister for their endless dedication to the buffalo and for taking the chance on producing Wild Bison 2011!! ------------------------------ * Last Words Staying Power Many wish us gone; But we go on - we go on- Love is the answer. ~ By Iris, buffalo lover and BFC supporter. Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to [email protected] Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you'll see them here! ------------------------------ * Kill Tally AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S. 2009-2010 Total: 6 2009-2010 Slaughter: 0 2009-2010 Hunt: 4 2009-2010 Quarantine: 0 2009-2010 Shot by Agents: 2* 2009-2010 Highway Mortality: 0 *Two bulls that were drugged by APHIS on 5/4/10 were shot by DOL later that evening. 2008-2009 Total: 22 2007-2008 Total: 1,631 Total Since 2000: 3,708* *includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality ----------------------------- Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 406-646-0070 [email protected] http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org BFC is the only group working in the field every day in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S. KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3647 Join Buffalo Field Campaign -- It's Free! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/signUp.jsp?key=3378 Tell-a-Friend: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=3835 Take Action! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26453 Unsubscribe http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/7926/p/salsa/supporter/unsubscribe/public/?unsubscribe_page_KEY=42 --