For Immediate Release -- July 11, 2001
Montana Department of Livestock violating Montanan's Right to Know
Groups charge state agency is illegally withholding public records
Jim Coefield -- The Ecology Center Inc. news@wildrockies.org
Dan Brister -- Buffalo Field Campaign
dan@wildrockies.org
Darrell Geist -- Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers cmcr@wildrockies.org
Missoula (MT) -- The Montana Department of Livestock is withholding information
from the pubic in violation of Montanan's Constitutional Right-to-Know.
Members of Buffalo Field Campaign, The Ecology Center, Inc. and Cold Mountain, Cold
Rivers say that since early this year their repeated requests for records of Montana
Department of Livestock activities have been denied. The groups are seeking
information on the agency's management activities affecting Yellowstone's native
The Montana Department of Livestock -- in partnership with several federal agencies --
haze, capture and slaughter wild buffalo that roam outside Yellowstone National Park.
Their actions are part of a $45 million dollar 15-year plan to ostensibly control
brucellosis in buffalo. Other wildlife that harbor the disease, like elk, are allowed to roam
free. The Yellowstone buffalo is the only herd left in the U.S. who have continuously
occupied their native range. Since 1984, 3,182 Yellowstone buffalo have been shot or
In a lawsuit filed May, 2001 by Buffalo Field Campaign, The Ecology Center Inc., and
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers the groups detail numerous violations of federal
environmental laws by the Montana Department of Livestock, U.S. Forest Service, U. S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, and National Park Service. The groups say the government's
Yellowstone buffalo management plan is illegally harming bald eagles, trumpeter swans
The Montana Department of Livestock is withholding agency records because they
claim the state's right-to-know law has been "modified" by the federal civil lawsuit
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