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The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) today violated the terms of the Horse Butte Capture Facility Environmental Assessment & the Special Use Permit issued to them by the US Forest Service. The permit regulates buffalo capture and hazing activities on Horse Butte, outside West Yellowstone, MT, and specifically includes provisions to protect endangered bald eagle nesting sites.

Shortly after noon, DOL agents flew a helicopter over Zone One of the Eagle Closure on Horse Butte, within a quarter mile of one of three active bald eagle nests in the immediate area. Two bald eagles circled above Horse Butte as DOL agents and Park Rangers on ATVs (all terrain vehicles) and horses frightened between 55 and 60 pregnant cows and yearlings from the Butte. The Special Use Permit states specifically that "helicopter activities will NOT be permitted in the Horse Butte area."

The entire operation took place within the boundaries of the Gallatin National Forest. According to the Forest Service, verbal approval of the hazing operation was given at a meeting this morning to discuss the details of the EA, the Special Use Permit, and the DOL's Operating Plan. The Forest Service, however, claims no knowledge of the DOL's use of the helicopter. According to the Ecology Center Ecosystem Defense Specialist, Jim Coefield, who brought this violation to the attention of Assistant Ranger Claude Coffin, "He was indifferent. It is very clear that the Forest Service is not monitoring the DOL's compliance with the terms of the Special Use Permit."

In a separate violation of the Special Use Permit, two DOL agents and one Park Service ranger entered the Horse Butte Eagle Closure Area on horseback as they hazed bison from Horse Butte.

In a telephone conversation Coffin told Coefield that he granted the DOL verbal permission to violate the Zone One closure on horseback based on the DOL's assertion that "Buffalo Field Campaign activists pushed bison into the closure area." BFC footage of the incident clearly shows that the buffalo entered the area on their own as they followed the herd being hazed by DOL lower on the Butte. "We didn't push buffalo into the closure," said BFC spokesperson Dan Brister.

"As today's activities clearly illustrate, the Montana Livestock industry is walking all over the laws and regulations our public agencies are mandated to uphold and they are not being held accountable," said BFC volunteer Dieka Gericke.

Together with the Park Service, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Gallatin County Sheriff, and Montana Highway Patrol, the DOL conducted the largest hazing operation of the year. Using helicopters, horses, ATVs, and cracker rounds fired from shotguns, agents hazed approximately sixty buffalo from Horse Butte along the Madison River and back into Yellowstone National Park.

The vast majority of the buffalo hazed this morning were pregnant cows and their yearling calves that had migrated from YNP to Horse Butte, the buffalo's traditional calving ground. Cattle do not return to this area until June 15.

Video and still footage of todays hazing and the eagle violations are available upon request.