STEPHANY SEAY 406-646-0070 Media & Outreach, Buffalo Field Campaign, West Yellowstone, MT (bfc-media@wildrockies.org) www.buffalofieldcampaign.org One hundred and ninety-nine of America's last wild buffalo have been killed in the hunt. This marks the largest number of wild buffalo killed by hunters since it was reinstated in 2005. The wild buffalo of the Greater Yellowstone region are the last continuously wild population left in America. Fewer than 3,700 exist, and because of politically-driven mismanagement schemes that block them from accessing available habitat, they are ecologically extinct throughout their native range. Near Gardiner, all of the bulls that had been wintering in the Eagle Creek area of Gallatin National Forest - the main area for hunting buffalo north of Yellowstone - have been killed by hunters. Now there is nothing left but their ghosts. For the first time this winter, since the buffalo began to migrate and the buffalo hunt began, patrols have found these migration areas empty of buffalo. Just the way Montana's cattle interests want it.

Five hundred and twenty five wild buffalo remain in captivity inside Yellowstone National Park's Stephens Creek buffalo trap. One would-be buffalo mother has recently lost her calf, likely due to the stress of confinement and the intake of unnatural feed. The Park says they have no plans to ship any of the buffalo to slaughter, nor any plans to capture more. Our attorneys with the Montana office of Western Watersheds Project are pressing forward with an appeal to our emergency injunction, legal action that - along with your many calls and letters to Montana and Yellowstone - has helped keep these buffalo alive. These efforts seek not only to prevent slaughter, but release them from the trap. Yellowstone officials also say they are still trying to interpret the meaning of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's executive order which halted the Park's plans to transport wild bison to slaughter through Montana. Yellowstone's Superintendent Dan Wenk is scheduled to meet with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on March 8th.

PHIL LANE of the Dakota/Chickasaw Nations www.fwii.net FOUR WORLDS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE gathered listeners from across the nation for a radio talking circle on the Gulf Plague that is spreading across the Gulf Region.

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