Massive National Park Budget Cuts? Layoffs? Litigation from Every Side? A Year of Almost Zero Migration? Nothing Keeps the Park from “Getting” Their Buffalo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2025
Contact:
Stephany Seay, Roam Free Nation, roamfreenation@gmail.com
GARDINER, MT: Yellowstone National Park captured over one hundred wild buffalo yesterday at the Stephens Creek Capture Facility inside the Park in Gardiner Montana. The buffalo were lured into the trap with hay, and then five agents on horseback came around and closed the gate.
The Park first captured a group of 59 buffalo – pregnant moms, yearlings, and juveniles. The agents on horseback immediately pushed those buffalo to another pen, spread more hay in the outer pen, and opened the gate again to trap another group.
This winter has seen almost zero migration from the northern end of the park in Gardiner. When the bison finally began to migrate over the last two days, Yellowstone promptly arranged capture operations. A leaked memo sent by bison biologist Chris Geremia to the treaty hunting tribes announced that capture operations would begin on Monday the 3rd. He made the excuse to the tribes that, “Capturing some mixed groups may help attract additional bison to the area, potentially supporting harvest opportunities…”
But that’s all it is – an excuse. Yellowstone, currently being sued by the State of Montana for not killing enough buffalo, and by environmental groups for killing too many buffalo, continues to bend the knee to the livestock industry and Montana’s bully of a governor.
The buffalo lured into the trap face two likely fates – shipment to slaughter by the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, or confinement to the quarantine program leading to a life of domestication and fences, never again to be wild.
“People are fooled by the government into thinking that quarantine will eliminate slaughter, which it doesn’t,” said Stephany Seay, co-founder of Roam Free Nation, a Montana-based wildlife and wild lands advocacy group. “Quarantine is a domestication program based on a livestock paradigm, removing wild bison from their wild homelands, tearing apart their families, and ensuring they will never roam free again.”
“When the National Parks are suffering massive budget cuts and staffing layoffs, the fact that Yellowstone prioritized participation in this anti-wildlife livestock initiative is truly shameful,” said Roam Free Nation board member Cindy Rosin. “‘What did you do last week?’ – these Yellowstone employees removed over a hundred wild buffalo from the wild…”
The Yellowstone buffalo (bison) populations are the last continuously wild, migratory buffalo who have existed on the landscape since prehistoric times.
Roam Free Nation is a Montana-based wild buffalo, wildlife, and wild lands advocacy group who speaks from and represents the perspective of wild nature. Their representatives have over fifty years of combined experience in the field monitoring wild bison migration, documenting actions against them, and advocating on their behalf. Learn more at www.RoamFreeNation.org.