![]() Rick Wallen: And elk, deer, pronghorn, all the large animals were of very low abundance after we colonized western United States. Rick used to lead Yellowstone’s bison program before retiring in 2018. Narrator: That’s Rick Wallen back in 2014. Rick Wallen: One hundred or more years ago many wildlife species - most wildlife species - were harvested to sustain the pioneering way of people exploring the west. Narrator: And I’m thinking: how did we get here? Rivers and trout streams running through. I’m used to seeing wild bison out in the big, green valleys of the park. This is my first time up here and I’ll be honest. Narrator: We climb up onto the scaffold that overlooks the facility. You just don’t go anywhere quickly and it’s an awful lot of hard work.Ĭhris Geremia: Let’s go to the original sorting pen, which we call the bullpen And bison conservation is like postholing across that valley. Narrator: But like most stories of bison conservation, Chris says it’s also shot through with complexity and compromise.Ĭhris Geremia: You know, I kind of see it as you're standing in Hayden Valley-which is a huge valley in the middle of the park. We can reconnect Tribes and bison, and hopefully, in the fullness of time, reconnect bison with public lands. That we can move live bison out of Yellowstone. We’re really just trying to show people how you can do it. They want us to find a way to get live bison out. It’s the result of decades of collaboration between a legion of federal, state, and Tribal stakeholders.Ĭhris Geremia: There’s so many people that want us to find another solution to sending bison to slaughter. Narrator: Chris says the story of quarantine is a story of success. Today, Stephens Creek is where migrating bison are captured and either shipped to slaughter or held until they can be transferred outside of the park as part of quarantine. And after a court-mediated settlement, Stephens Creek was built in the late 1990s to manage bison migrating out of the park. Bison are migratory and the states surrounding Yellowstone National Park treat bison differently than other migratory wildlife. Stephens Creek is the epicenter of bison conservation. The ground is threadbare: dead grass and dirt. Weeks before any bison will go to Fort Peck. Narrator: Chris and I are walking around the Stephens Creek facility. ![]() He manages Yellowstone’s bison program.Ĭhris Geremia: Just be careful, sometimes there are rattlesnakes. Narrator: Doctor Chris Geremia is a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park. (music fades out, field sounds fade up: Chris Geremia talking about the biting flies at Stephens Creek )Ĭhris Geremia: Let’s go down to the facility. That rehoming is part of a program called “Quarantine.” The program is one of the only alternatives to shipping wild bison to slaughter. Narrator: Today on Telemetry, we’re talking about the rehoming of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Narrator: These bison are going to a wide prairie on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. (music, then sounds of truck driving away) Narrator: But these bison are not being shipped to slaughter. Because in the state of Montana, there is limited tolerance for wild bison on the landscape. They’re shipped to slaughter facilities to reduce the number of bison migrating outside the park and into the State of Montana. Narrator: Many winters, hundreds of Yellowstone bison are loaded on trailers-trailers just like this one-to be slaughtered. (sounds of bison running past and into the trailer) And this 3-year-old bison-a wild, American plains bison-escapes down a constricted alley in the only direction he can… Narrator: His ID number is quickly logged. (sounds of scientists logging the animal’s I.D. Narrator: Inside the squeeze chute, mechanical walls close in on the animal’s flanks. And then a single bison rushes through a curved passage toward what’s called the “squeeze chute.” Narrator: At the Stephens Creek facility inside Yellowstone National Park, the staff works a system of ropes and pulleys. It’s like there’s this giant, collective inhale. ![]() Weirdly quiet for the number of people here and what’s about to happen. They move into place against the pale sky. Dark figures in puffy jackets are up on a scaffold. Narrator: It’s not yet dawn when someone gives the signal. (Sounds of Stephens Creek Facility fade up)
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