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By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - As part of the Biden administration's American the Beautiful initiative, the U.S. Interior Department has invested $5 million in getting buffalo back onto Tribal lands. It is part of a larger program that aims to do even more. Comments from Chamois (SHAM-ee) Andersen, senior field representative for Defenders of Wildlife's Rockies and Plains program. (Additional pronouncer: Haaland, "HOLL-und.")
Mark Moran
September 18, 2023 - The U.S. Interior Department has invested $5 million in reintroducing bison to Native American Tribal lands across the country. Montana's iconic Yellowstone buffalo are playing a big part.
As part of the Biden administration's "America the Beautiful" initiative, the money will support Tribal-led efforts to bolster bison conservation efforts - and to help return bison to their ancestral roots in Indigenous areas across the country.
Chamois Andersen - senior field representative for Defenders of Wildlife's Rockies and Plains program - said the animals being reintroduced contain DNA from the iconic Yellowstone bison, the buffalo that originally roamed the Plains.
"These are the descendants of those animals - really, the wildest of the wild," said Andersen. "These animals tend to have big heads. They can withstand cold winters - selecting a mate, and how they forage in large herds and migrate. So, having this be sort of the source population, Yellowstone bison, for tribes is really helpful."
The Bison Conservation Transfer Program and Defenders of Wildlife have partnered with Yellowstone National Park, Fort Peck Tribes, and InterTribal Buffalo Council on the relocation of 284 bison on Tribal lands in Plains states - but also as far north as Alaska, where pilots flew four bison to relocate in a project known as "Operation Buffalo Wings."
Beyond the ecological and environmental impacts of restoring bison to grasslands and Plains, Andersen said there are important cultural and ceremonial reasons for Indigenous people to have bison reintroduced to tribal lands, too - especially for elders.
"For them to bring back their buffalo on their land and have them utilize these animals as a wildlife resource," said Andersen, "for their ceremony, for their songs, for the elders to provide that oral history. You know, it's been more than a hundred years since our Native nations have had buffalo on the ground."
While the $5 million is critical to the bison reintroduction program, it is part of a larger, $25 million measure introduced by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to do even more. That legislation is pending in Congress.
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PNS - Monday, September 18, 2023 - Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says the House GOP is in a "civil war," Trump questions the validity of American democracy, and the Texas Senate acquits AG Ken Paxton.
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PNS - Monday, September 18, 2023 - NM saw lasting consequences from Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall; Trump had a sharp exchange on Meet the Press when pressed about his response on January 6; Akron is the latest Ohio city to retire medical debt.
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September 15, 2023 - By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Federal officials have ruled against a challenge from farm-equipment makers to prohibit farmers from repairing their own ag machinery. Dealers and product makers claim allowing farmers the right to repair their own emissions systems could violate the federal Clean Air Act – but the Environmental Protection Agency disagrees. Comments from Walter Schweitzer, president, Montana Farmers Union.
Mark Moran
September 15, 2023 - The Environmental Protection Agency has upheld Montana farmers' right to repair their own equipment, and says doing so does not violate the Clean Air Act.
Montana farmers and ranchers joined with the National Farmers Union in writing to the EPA to oppose equipment manufacturers and dealers, who claimed farmers shouldn't be working on the emission-control systems on their high-dollar machinery. The farmers union said the dealers cited the Clean Air Act as justification for limiting the right to repair their own gear.
The EPA has sided with the farmers.
Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer said the last thing a farmer or rancher wants to do is run afoul of the Clean Air Act.
"It's quite frankly the opposite," he said. "What EPA wants and requires is the equipment manufacturers to give the farmers and ranchers, and the equipment owners, the tools so that they can maintain their emissions."
The "right to repair" movement isn't limited to farm machinery. Many states have legislation pending or have taken action on a person's right to have access to the tools they'd need to repair anything from smartphones and wheelchairs to e-tablets and heavy equipment.
Schweitzer added that when it comes to farming in Montana, waiting for an authorized tractor dealer to come to his farm and fix a piece of equipment can mean the difference between harvesting a crop before bad weather hits and losing it.
"Well, that happened to me," he said. "I was haying, had a tractor hooked to my baler, and I had a fuel sensor that was failing, and so it was shutting my tractor down randomly. So, here I am - I've got hay in a windrow ready to bale, rain could wreck it, and I don't have a tractor to bale."
The ruling by the EPA requires dealers to provide necessary software to farmers, allowing them to diagnose and fix their own farm equipment emissions issues. In this case, Schweitzer said, being able to do that would have saved him a $5,000 fuel-sensor repair bill.
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