Jane, I have the Executive Summary of the EIS and have gone over the alternatives. There is so much to look at and take it. However it tends to boil down to the fact that Montana does not want to take on any responsibility of managing their cattle herds. They want the Park Service to pay for over 90% in all the alternatives. The alternatives also continue to support the hunting of the bison in various phases. I feel that the US Gov. needs to tell Montana to back off and to take responsibility for their over grazing, putting cattle on Nat'l Forest leases to early in the season, and not taking the cattle off the leases earlier enough in the season. The alternatives do address vaccines for the bison at US taxpayer expense, but they still call for the slaughter of female bison in some cases when there is no real need to do so. It is really hard to address this without having the FEIS in front of me. Shall I bring it to the Dinner? There are several other issues that are being addressed at the same time as the bison issue, which are closely tied together. *One is the issue of Snowmobile use in our parks. The study of snowmobiles in Yellowstone is due to be made public in November. Once the study comes forth we should see the need/and facts/ to end the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. There was a call for ending the snowmobile use in most parks. Herbert Hoover in Iowa, Yellowstone and the Tetons were included. But due to the curent study underway, they are holding off on their final decision in the Greater Yellowstone area. *A second issue is the continuation of the Wolf Restoration in the Northern Rockies. There are calls to de-list the Wolf from the Endangered Species Act. This would be a premature de-listing. However, ranchers and republicans are pushing for this to occur. The US Fish and Wildlife Agency (and possibly Bruce babbitt) is be supporting this effort as well. This all affects the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Then there is also the Grizzly Bear issue and concerns over roads. I have sent in additional comments after the the FEIS came out. I didn't go with any one single alternative. I sent in a modified version very similar to the Greater Yellowstone Coalitions. Here is the Bison Final EIS summary. http://www.nps.gov/planning/yell/bisonfinal/ Here is the Greater Yellowstone Coalition website http://www.greateryellowstone.org/ Here is the GYC lastest newsrelease http://www.greateryellowstone.org/bison_newsrelease.html Hope this answers your question. Rex >Rex -- have you heard anything about this yet? Jane C. > > >GOVERNMENT'S FINAL YELLOWSTONE BISON PLAN IGNORES PUBLIC CONCERNS: >After receiving more than 67,000 comments on its Draft Environmental >Impact Statement, nearly all of which opposed the government's preferred >bison management alternative, the federal government has developed a >modified preferred alternative that fails to provide any significant >protection to Yellowstone's bison. Letters are needed by October 17. -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Rex L. Bavousett Photographer University of Iowa Our old name: University Relations - Publications Our new name: University Communications & Outreach - Publications 100 OPL, Iowa City, IA 52242 http://www.uiowa.edu/~urpubs/ mailto:[log in to unmask] voice: 319 384-0053 fax: 319 384-0055 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]