Documents detail push to manage Yellowstone bison as cattle

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials said in a 2018 briefing paper that they were ordered by then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to manage the park’s bison “more actively like cattle on a ranch.”

The briefing paper was released under a court order following a lawsuit from the bison advocacy group Buffalo Field Campaign.

The Billings Gazette reports the paper was issued about a month before Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk was removed from his post.

Other documents released include an unpublished scientific paper from three Yellowstone wildlife biologists.

They wrote that the alleged economic threats of letting bison roam more freely were apparently exaggerated to bolster livestock interests.