Originally published in the Jackson Hole News&Guide on
By Jim Stanford
Critics question her grasp of Yellowstone science.
The U.S. House of Representatives rejected an amendment Thursday that would have stripped federal funding for the slaughter of Yellowstone bison, after Rep. Barbara Cubin urged colleagues to vote against the measure.
Cubin, R-Wyo., said the proposed amendment put forth by two Eastern lawmakers would have hampered collaborative efforts to manage bison in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Cubin said bison “reduction” is needed because there are too many of the animals in Yellowstone National Park.
“I do think it is ironic that these Easterners … offer amendments about a very serious issue of which they have very little knowledge,” Cubin said.
But during the floor debate, Cubin was put on the spot and struggled to answer a question concerning the disease brucellosis, which she cited as a justification for killing bison. Bison carry the disease, which causes pregnant cattle to abort, but there has never been a documented transmission from bison to cattle.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., asked Cubin why bison and cattle have commingled in Grand Teton National Park for decades without any brucellosis outbreaks.
“Does the gentlewoman have evidence that I misspoke, that there have been problems in the last four decades between the buffalo and the cattle in the Grand Teton National Park?” Blumenauer asked.
Cubin responded, “Actually I cannot answer that specifically for Grand Teton National Park, but I can say that the fact is there is evidence now that brucellosis was spread from elk to cattle.”
Because elk can transmit the disease, some representatives questioned why the Park Service allows more than 30,000 elk to roam freely in Yellowstone.
“Why is there no program to slaughter elk?” asked Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who sponsored the bison amendment.
Hinchey’s amendment, co-sponsored by Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., would have placed a one-year moratorium on funding for National Park Service programs related to the killing of Yellowstone bison.
In winter, when heavy snow forces bison out of the park in search of forage, the Park Service hazes the animals back inside park boundaries, tests them for brucellosis and ships those that test positive to slaughter. The park spends $1.2 million annually on the program.
The Park Service and Montana Department of Livestock have killed 2,786 bison since 1994, according to the activist group Buffalo Field Campaign. The agencies are protecting about 450 cattle, which are brought by truck to graze on lands outside the park each summer, after bison have left the area.
Hinchey and Bass sought to attach the amendment to a $19.5 billion bill financing the Interior Department and other programs for 2005. The House voted 215-202 to defeat the amendment.
Cubin figured prominently in the debate. The often combative lawmaker said the bison amendment was “feel-good legislation” not rooted in science. She said supporters get their information from “radical environmentalist journals.”
But Dan Brister of Buffalo Field Campaign questioned Cubin’s grasp of the issues. “A lot of her remarks are not really grounded in science or the facts,” Brister said in an interview Monday.
Cubin’s assertion that there are too many bison in Yellowstone is “just not true,” Brister said.
Rep. Bass called the park slaughter program an “absurd” waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., called it a “shameful, disgraceful policy.”
Cubin suggested that supporters offer their advice to the Buffalo Bills pro football team. “Maybe then they could beat the Denver Broncos,” she said.
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