The Grass REALLY is Greener on the Other Side-The Difference between Green Grass & Green Backs.

The Dome Mountain Wildlife Refuge and other areas North of Yankee-Jim Canyon in Paradise Valley, Montana offer abundant food supply for migrating wildlife of Yellowstone.

The Bison Controversy Continues in Our Backyard… 

Most of us who live in Montana have figured out that common sense-simple solutions save more time and money rather than over-complicating things.  However, everyone’s different. 

Yellowstone Bison have been government tested as Brucellosis Free and clearly marked with gps collars and chips.

There’s a herd of tested Brucellosis-free bison roaming just south of Dome Mountain Ranch.  They’re easy to spot, they’ve all got big yellow collars and the ladies even have chips in their vaginas.    

Current attempts to herd these 20 or so bison into an old cattle lease with no food on it has worked out just about as well as the idea of putting shock collars on wolves to teach them the difference between domestic sheep and wildlife. 

Since these bison are managed like livestock, maybe the Royal Teton Ranch is worried about getting paid the full sum of $3 million dollars for 2500 acres of snow covered, over-grazed dirt in one of those “use it or lose it” livestock leases.

Now, there’s word of “feeding” these bison.   It will be interesting to find out where the hay bales come from and how much they’ll cost. I’m pretty sure YNP could buy some from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Who knows, maybe the RTR has some on stock.  Talk about government kickbacks. 

Every night these Bison swim the Yellowstone River near the “Game Check Station” just south of Yankee Jim Canyon just past the “Animals on Roadway” sign.  These Bison are then herded back across the river to their “lease”-again and again and again, and again. 

A group of Yellowstone Bison contemplate their identity and their fate as they attempt to follow a 15,000 year old migration trail.

If you’ve visited Paradise Valley, Montana over the last 500 years, you know about the “w”.  The Native American’s called it “snow eater”, us locals use a number of censored slang terms.  This is one of the only places around that the jet stream actually touches the ground. 

 These reliable winds expose natural nutrient-rich prairie grasses that once sustained nearly 20,000 plus elk and other migratory wildlife from Yellowstone National Park. This is how they continue to survive the brutal winters. This is what the Bison want.

Most of the low lying river bottoms from Gardiner to Yankee Jim are covered in 2 feet of snow. Areas like Dome Mountain Ranch and the Dome Mountain Wildlife Refuge area not to mention the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness once had herds of wild and free-roaming Bison.  The Bison have figured out what comes naturally, maybe the problem is they just don’t know the difference between green grass and green backs-or do they? 

Thank you all for your continued support in helping the last genetically pure wild bison in the United States roam free.  The fight is far from over.  Please visit my friends at the Gallatin Wildlife Association.

“See You on the Mountain”

Jim “JB” Klyap, Outfitter and Local Radical.

Dome Mountain Ranch/ 800-313-4868