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“MANAGEMENT POLICIES CURRENTLY IN PRACTICE AT YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E708 on April 17, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MANAGEMENT POLICIES CURRENTLY IN PRACTICE AT YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
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HON. JAMES V. HANSEN
of utah
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 17, 1997
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to draw my colleague's attention to an article on the management policies currently in practice at Yellowstone National Park written by Montana Representative Rick Hill. Rick invites us to give some serious reflection about the role and condition of Yellowstone and its future stewardship. Recent testimony in the Parks Subcommittee indicates that the park is badly overgrazed. The impact of this mismanagement goes way beyond the overpopulation of bison to impact the entire Yellowstone system. My friends our colleague has sounded the alarm, and I would ask you to take a few moments to read this article to gain a better appreciation of the current state of Yellowstone and the substantial problem we must address. I submit the article for the Record.
Opinion by Congressman Rick Hill
(February 28, 1997)
This week Congress received more bad news about our beloved Yellowstone Park: It's being ravaged by misguided environmental policies. In testimony before the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Dr. Charles Kay, discussed his research that indicates many of the native plants and animals in the park are being wiped out.
How can this happen you ask in an area as carefully monitored and managed as a national park? According to Kay, it is those very management practices that have led to the near disappearance of willow, beavers, berry shrubs, and mule deer. Most alarming of all, is that even grizzly habitat, which we are spending millions of dollars to expand in other areas of Montana, is being allowed to dwindle within the park. According to one study, there is now 100 times more stream bank erosion on Yellowstone's denuded streams than on the same willow-lined streams outside the park.
It would seem only logical that the park service would reassess the natural management program it has used over the last 30 years, especially given the disastrous results of the
``let-it-burn'' policy. However, we now are seeing the ``let-em-starve'' version of that same misguided thinking applied to the animal population of the park.
In questioning Park Director Roger Kennedy, during the House hearing, the committee was told that this policy dates back 30 years and that no one has made a conscious decision how the bison will be managed. It is clear from the park director's testimony and meetings with Secretary Babbitt that the Department of the Interior and the Park Service do not consider their current management policy as a failure. Nor do they have any immediate plans to change the policy despite testimony that called it foolish and misguided.
While Secretary Babbit continues to engage in finger pointing, he is overseeing the systematic destruction of our nation's oldest national park. In a letter to Governor Racicot, Secretaries Babbitt and Glickman suggest three steps to reach a solution. The first of these is an expansion of the range for the bison. However, all parties agree that this is not much more than a temporary band-aid. What do we do when the bison have overgrazed the new range? Perhaps the secretary sees all of Montana as the eventual range of the bison? Their second proposal is that we control the size of the herd. We all agree the size needs to be controlled, but again there is no willingness on the part of the Department of the Interior to take the actions necessary to control herd size. In a meeting with Montana's delegation Babbit refused to commit to any action that would result in a reduced herd size. Their third step is to eliminate Brucellosis. Once again there is total agreement on the need to eliminate this most serious disease. However, Babbitt flatly refuses to discuss even testing for the disease or a systematic vaccination program. It is hard to see how Brucellosis can be eliminated without either testing or vaccination.
No one is advocating the wholesale slaughter of bison. However, we cannot ignore the fact that over population which leads to overgrazing is killing Yellowstone Park. For the Department of the Interior to insist that nothing can be done to control the size of the herd is irresponsible. Bison herds at Moiese, Montana, have been successfully managed for years, as was the herd we are discussing in Yellowstone Park up until the change to hands-off management.
What every Montanan knows and now many Americans also realize from sensationalized news reports, is that Bison are dying. Overlooked by most of these reports is the cause of this ``slaughter.'' Until we turn the discussion to the underlying cause of this problem, we will repeat this same tragedy every few years. Our goal must be a complete reassessment of management policy for Yellowstone Park. Montanans and Congress need to prevail upon the National Park service and the Secretary of the Interior to take action immediately in order to stop this from happening again.
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