For immediate Release:
July 30, 2025
Contacts:
Mike Mease
Campaign Coordinator, Buffalo Field Campaign
Justine Sanchez
Media Coordination, Buffalo Field Campaign,
West Yellowstone, MT – BFC Campaign Coordinator, Mike Mease, confirmed yesterday, July 29, 2025, that one of America's last wild bull bison was shot today by the Montana Department of Livestock for simply migrating out of Yellowstone National Park. Montana’s zero tolerance policy for wild Buffalo continues to be deadly for Our National Mammal. As millions of visitors from all over the world come to Yellowstone and marvel at the strength and majesty of bull bison in rut, MT DOL kills one lone bull in their myopic vision of wildlife management. This is one of very few Buffalo that migrate out of Yellowstone during the summer months and this is how they were greeted by one of the managing agencies of the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), i.e. the Montana Department of Livestock, who are not trained wildlife managers.
The current Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) manages for scarcity not abundance and continues to fail wild Buffalo, tribal people, community members and the American people who watch Our National Mammal, America’s public trust, be slaughtered each year. It is apparent this management structure is broken and Buffalo Field Campaign is not seeing anyone offering solutions.
Buffalo Field Campaign offers a simple and constructive solution - engage associated tribes and tribal governments of the Greater Yellowstone decision-making in on-the-ground science-based management of the premier and last remaining continuously wild herds. “It’s astounding to me that blindly continuing the failed status quo management structure of Yellowstone wild Buffalo is the best we can do to preserve and restore our Buffalo,” says Dallas Gudgell, Vice-President of the Buffalo Field Campaign.
Tribal Co-stewardship has proven successful in other federal land and species initiatives. “Rather than continually teetering on the brink of extinction we could allow tribes to bring traditional ideas of managing for abundance.” Gudgell said. He adds, “I’m hopeful that adding the real decision making authority and wisdom of our tribal leaders can stop this persecution cycle of our Buffalo relatives.”
BFC Summer Campaign Coordinator, Ashton Nagasuru, shares, “Buffalo represent the errors of our past, the continued legacy of the present, and the shared future we can create. The slaughter of one of our last wild Buffalo demonstrates how much work remains in our journey to protect these sacred animals. If this is how Our National Mammal is treated by a single, sanctioned special interest, the Montana DOL, it is evidence of the current legacy of our past. Until we can adequately address this, it will continue to affect the present day.”
Buffalo Field Campaign is calling for Tribal Co-stewardship of the Greater Yellowstone Bison.
Buffalo Field Campaign is a nonprofit group based in West Yellowstone, Montana working to protect America’s last wild bison in Yellowstone.
