LEGAL LIABILITY FEARS
State agency holds off on bison pen
By JOE KOLMAN
Gazette Bozeman Bureau
WEST YELLOWSTONE - Citing legal liability fears stemming from a probable confrontation with protesters, the state Department of Livestock has yet to build a bison corral at Horse Butte that was approved a month ago.

State Veterinarian Dr. Arnold Gertonson said Thursday that the agency is asking the Forest Service, which manages the land where the bison pen would be built, to rewrite the permit so that the state could not be held liable.

Members of the group formerly known as Buffalo Nations have been blocking the Forest Service road leading to the proposed site of the bison pen for more than a month. They have erected five wooden tripods standing 30 feet high. Two of the tripods include platforms where members of the group chain themselves to the structure to make buffalo removal as difficult as possible.

Members of the group, now calling themselves the Buffalo Field Campaign to reflect the "front line" nature of the protest, claimed victory this week for putting a crimp in state plans to build the bison pen.

Bison captured in the pen would be tested for the disease brucellosis, which can cause cattle to abort their young. Those testing negative for exposure to the disease would be released, while those testing positive would be slaughtered. The actions are part of an interagency plan to deal with bison that leave Yellowstone National Park while protecting the "brucellosis-free" status enjoyed by Montana cattle producers.

"Our actions have placed a legal, as well as physical, barrier before the DOL and their plans to waste tax dollars on the capture and slaughter of buffalo on Horse Butte," Dan Brister, a member of the group's advisory council said in a statement.

While officials of the Gallatin National Forest, who are responding to the state's request, could not be reached for comment Thursday, a spokeswoman for the regional office in Missoula said Forest Service officials are apprehensive about taking responsibility for actions surrounding the building and operation of the coral.

"It's the state's project. It's their activity," said Olleke Rappe-Daniels.

In other bison action Thursday, the state hazed four bull bison into a capture facility that sits on private land near Duck Creek, according to the Buffalo Field Campaign. The group also said that Jesse Haag, 17, was arrested while tried to videotape the operation.

Haag is the eighth member of the group arrested this winter for activities related to the protest.