and a crush was born... : )

How Yellowstone Buffalo Calves Are Greeted in Life

I filmed a bunch of these clips too.

Awesome

So a fellow BFCer was out in the mountains today and he came across some mountain goats. The thought came to him, so a buffalo baby is called a calf, and right now they're calving. A mountain goat baby is called a kid, so what are they doing right now?

Looking for some new music?

I found two websites that are awesome resources for metal and classical music. Check 'em out! ;)

www.mapofmetal.com


Underrated Masterpieces: http://kith.org/jimmosk/schwartzAB.html

What's happening to this land?

Every time I come home from a big haze, when buffalo that were once scattered across the landscape are missing, I feel a terrible sense of emptiness. The land seems as though it was raped, robbed of something essential to its being, the void left by the IBMP agents dug deep into the obsidian. Everything looks different, the fields and trees emanating pain. Why is this still happening?

A Small Victory!

Today was a beautiful day for the buffalo. Agents looked in vain for a bull to harrass south of the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake. A mother and calf were found and hazed by the local Department of Livestock Agent, Jim Bridger, but quickly and easily evaded his lone ranger efforts. Then: strike three. While still in the field, our friends back at the cabin radioed out that the helicopter that has been torturing these buffalo was put under a 14 day injunction to cease all hazing operations in the entire Hebgen Basin.

It came as a result of a law suit by the Alliance for Wild Rockies with evidence provided by BFC regarding the bison-hazing helicopter's displacement on grizzly bears, an endangered species. The injunction was passed by a judge who came out of retirement specifically to pass judgement on cases regarding livestock interests. The case made by livestock representatives could not possibly hold water in the face of so much overwhelming evidence of grizzly activity at the same time as helicopter use to haze buffalo. This is the first ever legal victory for the BFC and for the buffalo, and an important one for all plant, animal, and human residents of the Hebgen Basin.

The injunction can be renewed, but hazing operations are expected to be over this season before the end of the injunction. This makes hazing of buffalo off Horse Butte impossible without trespassing because ALL residents on Horse Butte want buffalo on their land. The helicopter is used on the Butte because airspace above private property is not property of the land owner. This will give the lawsuit a chance to pan out in the coming 12 months before next season's haze begins. If the helicopter can be grounded permanently, it could mean the beginning of the end for the hazing, slaughter, and harassment of buffalo.

TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!

Stories from the Field

So, I know I posted that video from the biggest haze so far this year, but there are several stories from the last few weeks I'd like to share. The buffalo have only had four days of rest without harassment in the last 5 weeks.

My friend with the gouged eye, two weeks later

Most of the buffalo that have been hazed have been very pregnant females. It was inevitable that some would be trying to give birth on the day that agents on horseback approach forcing them a dozen miles or more from their ancestral calving ground. On one particular day, a momma was IN LABOR when her family group was hazed 13 miles away from their calving ground near the South Fork of the Madison River. After the first 3 miles, blood started to stream from her vagina. Heartbroken, I asked the agents to separate her from the haze, hoping that mother and foetus would be able to face grizzly bears and wolves alone better than a severely traumatic birthing process. Regardless, because the agents decided to haze this group without consideration of the fact that she was OBVIOUSLY in labor when they began the haze amounts to much more than simple neglect; treatment of wild buffalo is more egregious than that of cows. No, this amounts to a malice that has to be seen to be believed. The very next day, the same mother in labor was reunited with her family group back in the land they had started the day before. Two weeks before, I filmed a buffalo whose eye was gouged out. This particular the day, the poor momma was still in labor, and her family was hazed together with the group that was now home to the buffalo with the gouged eye. Six riders pushed these two very vulnerable buffalo and about 50 others some 16 miles that day, from the South Fork of the Madison to Barnes Hold inside Yellowstone National Park.

Momma, her newborn, and a yearling

 

Just four days ago, during the major hazes committed by dozens of agents on horseback, ATVs, and in a helicopter, about 70 buffalo were pushed east along highway 287, down highway 191, and east about 2 miles into the Park. After 12 miles, a mother and calf were separated from her herd by the agents and she was followed by a yearling. Less than a hour later, she was seen approaching 191, back along the route she was hazed. Solely responsible for herself, her newborn, and a yearling, this young mother had panic in her bones. She ran at top speed up 191, her baby and the yearling severely struggling to match her pace. They crossed the road, and followed 287 back the way she came, looking for her family group and driven by the strong instinct that led her to migrate northwest along Hebgen Lake in the first place. For days, we watched with worry as she and her two young companions evaded predators and wandered the area, until a group of 5 adults also returned along the haze route back to the land they belong with.

Racing up 191, panic-stricken

These are things perpetrated by agencies that we pay for with our tax dollars. In the last ten years, $30 MILLION has been spent on the harassment, capture, experimentation, and slaughter of the last wild, genetically intact herd of buffalo. These organizations are the National Park Service, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Forest Service, USDA's APHIS, and Montana Department of Livestock. The animosity that the hazing agents display towards the buffalo here is the end result of a horrible error in thinking. Human beings have so profoundly lost their connection, dependence, and appreciation of nature and our role on this planet that the life that gives us life is seen calculatedly as a source for profit. The entirety of life is but a nuisance to be tamed or eradicated. From the clear-cutting of old growth trees for timber to the swatting of a fly in your kitchen, from the intoxication of water by fracking to slaughtering coyotes displaced by suburban housing developments, from the Great Pacific Garbage Patches to the hazing of buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park, human beings perpetuate utter destruction on a daily basis. When you realize the immense scope of the destruction we cause and the intricacies of the system that foments this destruction, be prepared to reconcile with a primal hatred for all of humanity including yourself. While humans have all but decimated the world that created them, we must realize that somehow, some way, this planet and some forms of life will long outlive humans. The question is; do we want to continue to exist here? In my opinion, human existence is so threatened that our species will face major devastation within my lifetime. I for one refuse to hold up the crumbling castle of Civilization, and I will do everything in my power to clean up the messes we've made of this planet, all with a profound love for the good potential in humanity.

May 9, 2012 Helicopter Torture

A Beautiful Life Goal: Live Without Money

I just wanted to share this blog from a man who hasn't made or spent any money in ten years. http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-summary-of-why-i-live-moneyless.html

The last two weeks of hazing

Here's some footage of hazes from the last two weeks. Several of the clips are ones I filmed, including the last clip of the buffalo with the gouged eye. This is happening RIGHT NOW. Interaction with agents is getting more course, the buffalo are forced to run faster and faster as days go by, and these pregnant mamas are only getting more pregnant. Several have given birth in the last few days, and calves as young as minutes old are expected to be hazed soon. This week will also see the beginning of the use of helicopter and other more desperate measures to force buffalo off of their migration land and back into the park. Buffalo naturally migrate back to the place from which they were forced within hours, usually overnight. Then the haze begins again the next day. No food, water, or rest for the buffalo and their newborns.

I could rant forever on what's happening here, but this video is less than two minutes long compiled of footage from the last two weeks. PLEASE WATCH IT:

Buffalo Field Campaign: Working to Stop the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter