Nez Perce Conservation Biologist James Holt on Protecting the Last Wild Bison
We spoke with James Holt, Nez Perce conservation biologist and executive director of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a grassroots organization of environmentalists and activists using litigation and direct action techniques to protect the last wild bison herd on Turtle Island (North America). The year before the Buffalo Field Campaign was founded in 1997, government agents rounded up and slaughtered nearly 1,100 buffalo. The next winter, the cull was held to eleven. Since then, the organization has continued to hold slaughters below quota and shined a critical light on the collusion between federal land agencies and industry advocates seeking to confine the buffalo within Yellowstone National Park in order to use the surrounding public lands for cattle grazing. Director Holt and the Buffalo Field Campaign’s network of staff, volunteers, and donors believe that the bison deserve federal protection and the right to roam free like other wildlife species.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
RIFT Magazine: Alright so let's just start with a brief overview of what the Buffalo Field Campaign does, some of its history and recent developments and how you came to be involved in this work.
JH: Sure thing, so the Buffalo Field Campaign was started in 1997 to monitor the operations of governing Yellowstone buffalo, our only continuously wild herd of buffalo in the lower 48 states. The management called for an annual slaughter of the buffalo. We believe this is a mismanaged priority and that as our national mammal, they deserve the honor to roam freely and be treated as a wildlife species.
So we go into the field to monitor the hazing operations they conduct annually every winter to push the buffalo into the Yellowstone National Park. We institute social media and publicity campaigns drawing attention to these mismanaged priorities, hoping to garner public support, calling for change. We utilize the court room when we feel like there's an injustice or a breach of protocol by federal agencies that oversee the management of Yellowstone buffalo. And we also go into the legislative halls as well, seeking support from legislators that call for change of the acts that create the policy for Yellowstone bison governance. All of this is creating the necessary change to place bison as a species of priority, our national mammal, a keystone species, to heal the landscape there, to build resilience against climate change. There are so many things that are involved in prioritizing bison as wildlife, so that's the focus of the Buffalo Field Campaign.
Recently we won a Freedom of Information Act complaint [lawsuit] against the National Park Service that uncovered communications of them considering managing bison as domestic cattle. That's a travesty. That's a gross mismanagement and breach of authority in our estimation, so we need to provide that information to the people and let them know that we have federal agencies being driven by special interests, mismanaging a national icon. So we do that in all these various ways.
RIFT: Great, thanks for that recap. So tell us about the political lobbies that advocate for the buffalo culls and the arguments they use to justify them. What parts of the story do they leave out?
JH: So this whole management structure was initiated in its current form by the cattle industry, the beef cattlemen located along the border of Yellowstone National Park. It was really about forage competition for those public lands. They initiated this court case under the guise of brucellosis, this disease that causes abortions in pregnant cows. Domestic cattle, over 100 years ago, gave that disease to the bison of Yellowstone and it's since been eradicated in cattle populations.
The basis of the suit is a falsehood. There's never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle, like there has been with the elk population, of which there are tens of thousands of elk. So we show the inadequacies of their arguments and that it’s really all boiled down to competition for forage and the use of those public lands and domestic cattle being prioritized over buffalo.
RIFT: So does brucellosis still affect the buffalo today?
JH: Yes it does, actually. So the cow [female] buffalo usually abort their first year. And after that, they develop an immunity, so they carry their calves to full-term. So it’s a first term event, as it were, maybe a second. But after that, as the cows mature, they become immune to it and they carry the calves to full term. It no longer impedes the population growth as we see by the annual slaughter.
RIFT: Interesting. So I wanted to ask you about some sort of in-between alternatives that certain groups have raised. In 2010, media and land baron Ted Turner controversially took in 88 bison that government agencies said they would otherwise cull onto his private range in exchange for keeping calves for their genetics. (For context, Turner has a buffalo burger business.) Similarly, the Nature Conservancy privately manages several herds of bison, culling the population to a maximum number of individuals on an annual basis and selling the rest to restaurants and supermarkets. In your opinion, are these approaches helping to bring back the buffalo? Are privatization and conservation compatible goals? Is it even possible to own a buffalo?
JH: Those are all great questions. So a huge part of existing Yellowstone buffalo management is under the auspices of what's called the Interagency Bison Management Plan. The management agency within that structure is called the Intertribal Buffalo Council. That organization itself consists of 70 tribes throughout the United States, or Turtle Island, including Alaska. They have a program called the Fort Peck program, in which they go through this lengthy quarantine process for buffalo that are captured annually. This year, they're not going to have any quarantine operations because all the acres are full. But in any given year, they will quarantine buffalo that have tested negative for brucellosis and they’ll keep them for 5 years. They’ll transfer to the Fort Peck Program north of Yellowstone National Park and from there, the Intertribal Buffalo Council disseminates them to its member tribes. So that's actually an existing mechanism within the Interagency Buffalo Management Plan.
At this time, I don’t know of any other organizations that are a part of those relocation efforts that use a management “action”, as it were, to minimize the buffalo population in Yellowstone. I’ve heard recently — and this is to the objection of the Intertribal Buffalo Council — about non-profit organizations and other folks wanting to be considered to receive Yellowstone buffalo for conservation projects. I haven't heard anything about Ted Turner, but I have heard about the not-for-profit organizations asking to include their lands in the Buffalo relocations as well. So is it happening now? No, but could it happen in the future? Yes. I know the Intertribal Buffalo Council is asking for solidified funding for its Fort Peck Program as well as the National Park Service asking to increase that practice.
The Buffalo Field Campaign, we're of the mindset that the ecosystem itself should be full. There's a lot that needs to happen outside of Yellowstone National Park's boundaries, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem can accommodate thousands more buffalo and the ecosystem there is missing that keystone species. You can go down the list of how buffalo support greater ecosystem and the services they provide. So that inspires the more militant type of bloc that’s taking direct action out there, that sees all these existing forces really pulling that buffalo. As one of my staff members is fond of saying – Buffalo are powerful. They create a lot of energy around them. So we're seeing that now in the face of the slaughter, there are a lot of organizations that want something more.
RIFT: Yeah go ahead and go into some of those ways that buffalo function as a keystone species in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
JH: Sure, you know, one of the more visible ways is through the magpie and there's another bird, the nutcracker, and other species of birds that live off the back of bison. They live off the bugs that are in their fur and we’re seeing that as more bison populate the land, those bird populations become more stable and stronger as well. The unique way that bison walk, the formation of their hooves — they till the land, unlike cattle. When cattle walk, they have a different impression on the ground itself. The buffalo hoof tills the soil, it works seeds into the ground. The grass can be more plentiful. The way they feed on the grasses – they create a multi-story approach, so grasses become fuller, more healthy, with more vitality.
So those are just critical components right there. Obviously, more grasses will see more other species that rely on bison, like the prairie dog, and those that are endangered species. So we can see easily how they would have immediate effects by helping other endangered species or just creating more habitat.
RIFT: I imagine when those bird populations are healthier, they help to spread seeds as well. Very cool. So there are rumors that the Biden administration may nominate New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland to Secretary of Interior, putting the department under Indigenous leadership for the first time in history. Are there powers the DOI can invoke to protect the Yellowstone bison? What would you ask of a Secretary Haaland or any new interior secretary on their behalf?
JH: Well, I mean obviously the Department of Interior, that's where the National Park Service is housed. So they could realistically begin to utilize science as a greater piece of the management plan. So I would ask that they would pivot away from this historic stance, begin to really speak for the wildlife as a species, rather than as a political entity. In so doing, I would ask her to form a more close relationship with the Secretary of Agriculture, where the United States Forest Service is and really ask the Forest Service, which I think is key to the holistic management of Yellowstone buffalo and to allow habitat beyond the park boundary.
So obviously, the Secretary of Agriculture, I believe that’s Vilsack, the nominee right now. He don't have that track record, so we'd be a little nervous and we’d need a strong Secretary of Interior to have that relationship, bring those resource agencies together on those on-the-ground conflicts around landscapes of which those species know no boundaries.
You know the local elk populations, as I mentioned, tens of thousands of them, many of them have brucellosis. They don't have those boundaries. They migrate in and out of the park – up to the North, out to the West. That same principle goes for the mountain goats, the bighorn sheep, the mule deer, the moose…I could go on. All of these ungulate species are afforded the right to live and go where they please, as wildlife species should be. All except for the buffalo. So they could do more, have a strong Secretary of Interior to bring that realization to other federal land managers.
RIFT: Despite grim circumstances for wildlife all over our continent, next year the Yurok nation will begin reintroducing the California condor to the redwood forests; in 2023, gray wolves will be reintroduced to the western slope of the Rockies; the pronghorn are being brought back to the Colville Nation; the Klamath river dams are set to be demolished… Do you think it's possible we're seeing the beginning of a political movement for rewilding the United States and what could that mean for the buffalo?
JH: Oh, yes. You know, being an individual that has of a wide array of background throughout the Northwest in different resource management paradigms, I've gotten to see the reintroduction of coho salmon where I go into ceremony and I utilize this very small stream, five feet wide and that water, a month ago, was just teeming with coho, wild steelhead, a few chinook. I’ve watched my Nez Perce tribe also do some preliminary research along the Hell’s Canyon State River, Idaho. There’s suitable condor habitat and I think other agencies will be spearheading their reintroduction there. We see that same tie of our species of spring chinook salmon that provide for the lives of the southern orca populations, and how they can be restored through healthy salmon runs. So yeah, I definitely agree.
You know recently, in the last few days, the current administration said that it’s seeking to repeal and weaken environmental regulations and protections, over 100 of them. You know the songbirds were the most recent deregulations. We've lost billions of birds! So in the face of all this ongoing destruction, these business forces are working hard. But I heard that just this morning, when I got to listen in on this call of an intertribal consortia talk about what they’re doing for buffalo and how it truly is across Turtle Island – how they’re looking at different habitats, that connectivity, that ability to expand…
You know, considering the scheme of 30 percent protection by 2030, now that's a bold step and tribes, along with the nonprofit organizations across this country, just the citizenry themselves, who are interested in the future that we leave for our children and our unborn generations, all of them are getting behind that effort and this is a great opportunity and I hope the Biden administration considers that. I've heard they considered 25 percent by 2025. All this is conjecture at this point, but I hope that strong protections can be implemented, not just taking back what this current administration is done, but going further.
I think we must go further. We can’t settle back into existing paradigms. I think we've all seen with not just the economy, but with how our resources have rebounded when the quarantine began. I remember the waters of Venice, Italy, how they showed this stark contrast of water quality over a few days under the initial quarantine conditions there. We saw that same thing throughout the world, that immediate and strong action can make a difference. We have the power at our fingertips to enact the needed things, to make the necessary changes, to speak for the species that need to be spoken for. The more people that do it, the better and stronger we’ll be.
RIFT: That's awesome, thank you so much. I just have one last question for you, Director Holt, and that is the Buffalo Field Campaign is gearing up for another cold Yellowstone winter with fewer volunteers than usual due to the pandemic — what challenges does your crew face over the coming months and how can readers and listeners get involved and support the mission?
JH: Yes. You know, we have this feeling that the winter’s really gonna pick up and when there's a lot of snow on the ground, you know, buffalo move. We’re seeing an anomaly this year where bison are moving without the cold and the snow that we usually see during these transit herd movements, so we do have buffalo out in the West right now on lands that are buffalo-safe. They're acting in a certain way that tells us there is a potential for a bigger migration out. When there’s a bigger migration out, we need more people on the ground.
This year, we know that COVID is an issue and since social distancing protocol dictate that we brought on only a few volunteers, we’ve even requested from those few volunteers that they be able to stay the whole field season. You know, there were so many people that were looking forward to coming to camp and helping us during this time, we looked forward to seeing so many people, it's hard on everybody. So we’ll miss the faces, we’ll miss the relationships, and we’ll miss the support on the ground. That definitely makes it tougher for us, running into gaps when we initiate operations in the Gardiner area when things pick up and we’re feeling that will happen soon, so we'll be thinned out and the donations that come in through our website, those are the wind under our wings. So people can go to our website and go to our action opportunities and support us by taking action.
Right now, as I mentioned, the East Paradise Valley cattle allotments are being considered for reopening. We’d like those to stay closed and have the Forest Service list the bison as a species of conservation concern and open up the habitat to them. So get a hold of the Forest Service and ask them to make their necessary changes. People can contact their own legislators asking them to look into the management of Yellowstone buffalo and look at ways to elevate the priority of buffalo as wildlife to be able to roam as they intend.
So I appreciate that question. You know there are so many different ways to catalyze change and action that Buffalo Field Campaign supports and it begins with the individual, taking that individual commitment to each other, to themselves, or to the future of mother Earth, this shared land that we have. To get involved, you know there could be an issue in your backyard. There could be a stream, there could be an ecosystem, there could be habitat that needs a voice. Be that voice. Go expand with those few people, that’s where it begins. We build up to these national levels and it takes us all at all levels to do this thing together.
