Bush Adminstration Proposes Second Interagency Group for Bison n the waning days of the Bush administration, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne Tuesday announced a plan to conserve bison, also called buffalo, with a second interagency group. He said the department will work with state, tribal and agricultural interests to promote cooperative conservation in bison management. There are now more than 500,000 plains bison in North America, most privately owned, in herds of less than 1,000 that are fenced within relatively small areas.
"While the days of millions of free-roaming bison are gone," Kempthorne said, "our initiative acknowledges the important role of bison on the landscape, in tribal culture and in our national heritage. We willl work in partnerships to sustain a strong and well-coordinated conservation effort throughout this country, throughout this century." The Department of the Interior now manages almost 7,000 bison in seven national wildlife refuges and five national parks. Kempthorne says he will establish a federal-state interagency working group to coordinate management and science activities related to Interior's bison herds and to carry out cooperative efforts with other parties. The group will include the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Defense, the secretary said....Wow, what a great group of managers. Let's hope the bison can survive them.