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Tag: bison

United Property Owners of Montana Files Suit Against FWP on Bison EIS

United Property Owners of Montana has filed suit against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (“FWP”) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief related to violations of MEPA, MAPA, and environmental impact review requirements that occurred during the development and adoption of a recently-released Environmental Impact Statement related to free-roaming bison. “Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks is determined to pursue this reckless free-roaming bison plan despite overwhelming opposition from the Montanans who would be impacted,” said Chuck Denowh, UPOM policy director. “The wild bison EIS released by FWP in January shows their disregard for local input. Someone has got to stand up for the Montanans whose way of life would be devastated by free-roaming bison—which is why...

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MOU Between FWP and Turner Enterprises, Inc.

Over the past several weeks we have had several members inquire as to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding between Turner Enterprises, Inc., Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, and the Montana Department of Livestock regarding the quarantine and relocation of Yellowstone National Park Bison. Click here to view the MOU.

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Oped: FWP should stop free-roaming bison plan

The Montana Department Fish, Wildlife, and Parks is on a strange mission to impose a free-roaming bison herd in Eastern Montana.  It’s puzzling because it’s a plan that few Montanans want, and a large, diverse majority oppose.  Yet, inexplicably, Governor Bullocks’ administration and FWP Director Jeff Hagener seem determined to give us a dose of a bitter medicine we don’t want or need. The opposition to free-roaming couldn’t have been more evident at a recent FWP meeting on the issue in Lewistown.  One after another, ranchers, sportsmen, farmers, local business owners, and others voiced their objections to FWP’s proposal to move bison from Yellowstone National Park to an undisclosed location in Eastern Montana. They spoke loud and clear that free roaming bison would be an economic hardship;...

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Supreme Court’s bison transfer decision a big win for landowners

The Montana Supreme Court recently decided a lawsuit brought by landowner and multiple-use groups, including UPOM, against FWP for their transfer of Yellowstone Park bison to the Fort Peck Indian Tribe.  Our objection wasn’t that the bison were transferred, per se, but that FWP did not follow the law requiring landowner notification and collaborative planning before bison could be transferred.  We ultimately lost the case on the grounds that the legislature did not specify that that law applied to transfers to tribal property, in addition to public and private property. However, we won on a much bigger issue.  In the decision, the Court pointed out that the bison in question were placed in captivity, and therefore no longer fit the definition of “wild bison.” Environmental...

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Oped: Property rights trump ‘public trust doctrine’ in Turner bison dispute

By Professor James L. Huffman In her report on Judge Holly Brown’s dismissal of a challenge to the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks agreement with Ted Turner on the management of Yellowstone Park bison (Bozeman Chronicle, May 12, 2013), the Chronicle article states the following: “Under the public trust doctrine, which applies nationwide, the state has the responsibility to manage and maintain resources like water and land for public use and future generations.” Only in the dreams of the petitioners does that summary of the public trust doctrine have any relation to the law. Even in Montana, where the public trust doctrine was dramatically revised 30 years ago in two Montana Supreme Court cases, the doctrine has never been found to apply to wildlife or beyond the waters of the state. The...

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