Montana starts public hearings on bison relocation

Ranchers and landowners on Wednesday packed the Powell County Community Center, just a few miles from what has become ground zero in the debate over whether there is a place for wild bison on Montana's landscape. If those who spoke in the first of three public hearings on a proposal to relocate Yellowstone National Park bison was any indication, the answer is an emphatic no. Dozens of people from this southwestern Montana community where cattle is king told state wildlife officials they were against the plan. None was in favor of it. "This is not the 1800s. We have ranchers and farmers who need their hay lands, their grain fields, their stock yards protected. And you are putting them in danger," said Powell County resident Bill Mattice. "Stay out of the buffalo business!" Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has proposed temporarily relocating dozens of bison to the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area or three other possible sites across the state. Wildlife officials say the bison are disease-free after spending years in quarantine as part of a U.S. government program. But that hasn't convinced those concerned that the wild animals could transmit disease to their cattle and damage their fields...more