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Bison protesters' blockade dismantled By JOE KOLMAN Gazette Bozeman Bureau WEST YELLOWSTONE - The Department of Livestock finally made its move Thursday. Nearly two months after receiving permission to build a bison corral near Horse Butte, agency officials, along with about 20 law enforcement officers, dismantled a 150-foot-long blockade erected in January by members of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group opposed to the capture and slaughter of bison that leave nearby leave Yellowstone National Park. Two protesters were arrested Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Donald Fontenot, 35, of Portland, Ore., was arrested at 10 a.m. near the base of five, 30-foot-tall tripods the group built in the road leading to the site of the planned capture facility. At 3 p.m., 22-year-old Summer Nelson, of Missoula, was removed from a platform in one of the tripods with the use of a cherry picker and arrested. Members of the group had been blocking the road into the planned corral site since Jan. 25. Law officers from the Department of Livestock, the Montana Highway Patrol, the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks participated in the action. The state received permission in January from the Forest Service to build the corral on public land, but officials say they were leery of proceeding because of possible legal liability stemming from a confrontation with protesters. They asked Forest Service officials to rewrite the permit, absolving them of liability for any confrontation. Some tweaking was done to the permit, according to Rich Inman of the Gallatin National Forest, but the Department of Livestock is still liable for any of its actions in building the corral. Buffalo Field Campaign spokeswoman Sue Nackoney said that while members expected a confrontation over the blockade, they had thought it possible that the liability issue might keep the state from building the corral. Livestock officials in Helena were unavailable for comment Thursday. Ironically, they were at the Capitol testifying at a legislative hearing on a bill that would take bison management duties away from the department. The capture facility is part of an interim management plan for Yellowstone bison that leave the park. The animals may be hazed back into Yellowstone, shot or captured. If captured, those bison testing negative for exposure to the disease brucellosis are released. Those testing positive for the disease that causes animals to abort their young are shipped to slaughter. The Department of Livestock maintains that while there is any risk of transmitting the disease to cattle, the bison must be aggressively managed. The state's ranchers have spent millions of dollars over the years ridding their herds of the disease. Environmental groups and some federal agencies disagree with the state's position and say that since there are no cattle in the area until summer, bison should be allowed to roam free on public land. Jon Catton, a spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition conservation group, said Thursday's action flies in the face of efforts by federal agencies to reduce the number of bison killed. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which regulates the cattle industry, has relaxed its definition of bison at risk to transmit brucellosis. The Forest Service recently amended grazing permits in the area to prohibit the return of cattle there until at least 30 days after the bison have left. "It's seen as audaciousness on the part of the state of Montana," Catton said.
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