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YELLOWSTONE - With up to twenty buffalo outside of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, we have been running one main all day car patrol and one hiking patrol. The buffalo are mostly bulls foraging in groups of two to six. We received over six inches of fresh snow in the last two days.

The 250 buffalo we saw, about four miles inside the Park on our flyover, could migrate into Montana any day. Our hiking patrol has been making forays along the Madison River into the Park, but we have not located that herd yet.

Shane, our local Department of Livestock agent, hazed three buffalo a couple of miles by himself into Yellowstone Park on Sunday. On Monday morning we saw four gray wolves travelling back into the Park along Duck Creek, less than a quarter mile away from the Duck Creek Capture Facility. We are steadily compiling video footage and documentation of what a fragile environment the West Yellowstone area supports including numerous endangered and threatened species that frequent the area, and how these animals are adversely affected by the carelessness of the Department of Livestock.

One immediate need we have to keep our patrols up and running is for two new radios. Priced at $441 a piece, or $882 for two which includes extra batteries to keep us in the field. Every patrol has a radio so that the we can immediately contact other patrols or home base and communicate what the Department of Livestock is doing and what the best strategy is to keep the buffalo safe. We will probably run at least six patrols this winter, and right now we only have four radios that are operational.

On Thursday, November 30, 200 four DOL vehicles from Helena arrived in addition to the local DOL person. Today, they are actively harassing and hazing the five or six buffalo outside arbitrary Park boundaries. This unnecessary stress to the buffalo at a time when they should be conserving their energy for the winter ahead (and when there are no cattle in the area) is absolutely absurd (and sad). Even their own management document (FEIS) states: "Repeated hazing in early winter may produce weight loss and poor body condition, which decreases the animals ability to endure the remaining winter." (FEIS, Volume I, page 762) This issue must be dealt with now before buffalo health is compromised for this approaching winter. We are talking about a situation that is happening at this very time.

We only have around fifteen volunteers here right now, which is less than a comfortable number to protect the buffalo with. Any immediate help, for however long of a time span would be appreciated and truly needed.

For more info reguarding volunteering go to: Buffalo Field Volunteer.