Working to protect habitat and conserve wildlife.

The Antelope Basin is a critical wildlife habitat and corridor for elk, mule deer, moose, antelope, bighorn sheep, bison, sage grouse, large carnivores and other wildlife that migrate to and from Yellowstone National Park. The 48,000 acre Antelope Basin also provides headwaters habitat for beaver, arctic grayling and westslope cutthroat trout. Unfortunately, imperiled Forest Service Management Indicator Species for cold water fisheries and sagebrush-grass plant communities find their habitats severely degraded and fragmented by domestic livestock. The headwaters streams that flow from the Antelope Basin fill a change of lakes eventually contributing to the world renown Madison River to the east and the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the Red Rock River to the west.

The foothills sagebrush type of the Antelope Basin provides a narrow connection between the Centennial Valley and the Madison Valley. The foothill sagebrush type is unique to southwest Montana and contains many sensitive plant communities and species. Principle wildlife forage species include bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, big sagebrush, aspen and a diversity of flowering forbs, other grasses, shrubs and half-shrubs. The distinguishing feature is the sagebrush covered foothills, which are surrounded by coniferous and deciduous forests. It could be easily argued that the Forest Service owns no finer piece of fish and wildlife habitat in the United States. This area is quite simply an International Treasure.

Incredibly, subsidized livestock production on public lands takes precedence here over native fish and wildlife. Wild bison are denied access to historic habitat on public land, and are being ruthlessly and relentlessly slaughtered by Department of Livestock at the Yellowstone National Park boundary as they enter Montana. Bighorn sheep have been extirpated from the Antelope Basin as well, likely due to competition with domestic livestock and diseases passed to them from domestic sheep. Native grayling, cutthroat trout and beaver are all but extinct in the streams that flow from the Basin.

Antelope, mule deer, elk and moose calves and fawns are forced to negotiate over a hundred miles of barbed wire fence that criss-cross this critical migration corridor that forms the bulk of their spring, summer and fall range. Over 100 livestock watering tanks dot the landscape on almost a grid-like pattern that is connected by 44 miles of buried pipeline. The soil and vegetation around each stock tank for about a ½ mile radius is “sacrificed” every year domestic cattle graze the area. Fences, stock tanks, and salting grounds designed to accommodate thousands of domestic cattle each year severely fragment this otherwise pristine landscape.

The Gallatin Wildlife Association has a different vision for these public lands. We are nominating the area as part of a special habitat management area for Greater Yellowstone Elk and Bison herds, that will eventually include a habitat based public hunting season for wild bison. We also envision reintroducing wild bighorn sheep to the area, knowing that someday these magnificent “monarchs of the mountains” will provide a renewed challenge for hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, Greater Yellowstone elk and bison both have brucellosis, a disease they likely received from dairy cows during the early establishment of Yellowstone National Park. The fear of brucellosis transmission to domestic cattle has government officials calling for the eradication of brucellosis from native wildlife herds throughout the Greater Yellowstone Region. Although a nice sounding goal, its achievement is problematic if not physically impossible. However, intensive and invasive state and federal government actions are being contemplated at this moment. If adopted, these activities will significantly disrupt the wild nature of elk and wild bison herds in Yellowstone Park and the surrounding Region.

A much more reasonable and achievable approach to disease management in the area is to merely cease the government’s subsidized livestock program on Forest Service public lands in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Domestic cows and calves are shipped annually to the Antelope Basin to grazing allotments that are often controlled by out of state or out of region absentee public land permittees. Ironically, many of the private land owners in the immediate vicinity of Antelope Basin don’t even own any livestock and generally are very tolerant if not welcoming to elk and other wildlife on their properties. We believe, given the chance, they will welcome wild bison as well. The opportunity for a new day for wild bison conservation lies on the immediate horizon. Join us.

The elk and bison of the Greater Yellowstone Area could use your support. Please consider joining the Gallatin Wildlife Association or making a contribution by sending a check to:

Gallatin Wildlife Association
P.O. Box 5276
Bozeman, MT 59718

If you have any questions about this or other issues the Gallatin Wildlife Association is involved in, you can contact our president by email at glhockett@mcn.net or by phone at (406)-586-1729. We appreciate your interest in the protection of fish and wildlife habitat in Montana. The Gallatin Wildlife Association will continue to protect habitat so hunting and fishing opportunities can be restored and conserved.