Comment from Knight, Philip

Yellowstone bison are long overdue for protection under the ESA. Bison were down to only 23 wild individuals in 1903 and these were found in Yellowstone. Yellowstone bison may be the only remaining population that is 100% pure bison. Certainly Yellowstone is the only place that has continually had wild bison, making this population special. <br/><br/>These animals face a variety of threats, not the least of which was the killing of 1100 of them by so called hunter this past winter as the bison attempted to leave Yellowstone Park of find forage during an extremely harsh winter. This past winter I traveled frequently (several days a week) through the Gardiner Basin and into and out of Yellowstone. Bison were everywhere and they ate just about every blade of grass off the landscape. Along the Old Gardiner Road were hundreds of gut and bone piles and fetuses left to rot where once there had been wild, free animals. It was a sickening and abhorrent scene. Many of the bison gunned down during this past winter at Beatty Gulch were pregnant, thus two bison died at once and the young never event had a chance to be born. <br/>Other threats they Yellowstone bison face include climate change and resulting severe weather and food uncertainty; severe loss of habitat outside of Yellowstone development and conversion of land; intolerance for the states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho so bison cannot roam freely; death from collisions with vehicles (13 died in one truck accident last winter); and crowding by humans and traffic in Yellowstone and elsewhere. <br/><br/>The Custer Gallatin National Forest in Montana has designated a few areas as bison habitat - the Taylor Fork and the upper Gallatin River - but there are no bison there. The Custer Gallatin refused to list bison as a species of conservation concern in their 2022 forest plan. <br/><br/>Bison are not even classified as wild animals in Montana - they are classified as livestock. This is despite the fact they were probably the most significant and important wildlife species in Montana for thousands of years.<br/><br/>Bison face major intolerance in Montana and other states and any attempt to restore them to places like the CM Russell National Wildlife Refuge are blocked by political interference.<br/><br/>Yellowstone Bison are being quarantined and sent to Indian tribes to raise for slaughter thus being domesticated instead of remaining as a wild animal.<br/><br/>Listing the Yellowstone bison population under the ESA would prevent the massive slaughter that happened this past winter. It would bring a reevaluation of the importance of this animal on the landscape and perhaps help people realize these animals truly are being squeezed out of existence.