Comment from Hersey, Rene

Hello USFWS,<br/>I support the 3rd alternative.<br/>Bison should be given freedom to migrate to more nutritious grass lands throughout the year, it is essential for their nutritional health.<br/>Beside the fact that Yellowstone and all the herds deserve to be here for their intrinsic value, it is their ability as an umbrella species to return biodiversity to a landscape that has been missing it for over a hundred years. If given the chance to freely migrate via<br/>natural expansion they will rebuild a vast shortgrass prairie in Montana. In fact, some of the land mass of MT still contains virgin prairie. And American Prairie has identified intact grasslands biomes, which are highly endangered, which have never been plowed and used for agriculture. This land would be ideal for the Bison to restore the complex and productive grassland ecosystem the Bison once engineered with their churning hooves, grazing and carcasses. The Bison historically benefitted native animal inhabitants in thousands of ways on open lands in ways forgotten but, we can restore grasslands, birds, river otter, prairie dogs, grizzly bears and wolves along with Bison with the herds we have left if we act now to give the Yellowstone Bison Endangered Species Listing.<br/>One big benefit would be the perpetuation of grasslands. We now know that grasslands are more efficient at carbon sequestration and that means with increased drought and wildfire risk it makes grasslands more reliable carbon sinks than trees. The deep root systems of the grasslands make them more adaptive to climate change and the carbon fixed underground tends to stay in the roots and soil. <br/>Bison are key to this. In a long-term study of Bison and cattle on tall grass in Kansas showed that over 30 years on land grazed by Bison, the richness of native plant species doubled compared with places where cattle grazed, and the presence of Bison made the prairie ecosystem more resilient to drought. Bison graze less intensively across greater distances, Bison also create more forage due to to how they graze. They mow the lawn and mow the lawn and creator more and more productivity. <br/>The governor and his commissioners are blocking the way for Bison survival by blocking American Prairie&#39;s Bison grazing decision, see attached files. Gov Gianforte discards science and nature and sides only with livestock producers, sports hunters and bounty trappers. There will be no carnivores and Bison in Montana if left up to his decisions.<br/>