In this assignment question number 3 has to be answered! This is a part of a letter that will be combined with others in my group and should be 2 paragraphs. There are more in instructions below. Please if you have any questions please feel free to ask…

Stakeholders are people or organizations involved, interested, or affected by an action or policy. In this activity, we will look at identifying stakeholders related to a biodiversity conservation project or an environmental issue. It is important to be able to identify these stakeholders and examine their positions, values, and interests related to the project of concern. While it may be difficult to reconcile everyone, it is important to bring everyone to the table and into the decision-making process. This discussion and the following assignment will focus on a stakeholder analysis related to a real conservation case study for the Greater Yellowstone Area – Bison and Brucellosis.

The bison (Bison bison) population (American buffalo) has sharply declined in the nineteenth century due to overhunting. By 1902 the bison population was down to only two dozen individuals in the Yellowstone area. Through remarkable conservation efforts by the National Park Service and other agencies, the bison population has fully recovered. This is a wonderful success story of biology conservation, but… with a twist. The bison population is growing rapidly and because this is a migratory species in the winter there are now issues related to their migration on private and state land outside the national park boundaries.

This may mean that bison compete with local livestock for grass and damage properties but, still, this is not the full story! The Greater Yellowstone Area is the only area in the U.S. where brucellosis (bacteria that can cause cows to abort or deliver stillborn calves and can also be transmitted to humans) still infects wild animals (bison and elk) and can be transmitted to cattle.

Thus, by law bison are not allowed to migrate outside the national park like other animals that live in the park (including elk which can also carry brucellosis). A management plan for this recovered species had to be developed and since 2000 there is an Interagency Bison Management Plan which includes several agencies (including five federal and state agencies and three Native American tribes), but there are still other stakeholders to be considered (bison advocacy groups, livestock producers, ranchers, hunters, etc.) as the management plan needs revision and updates to deal with the expanding bison population.

At this time, bison caught outside the Yellowstone National Park are allowed to be killed (the slaughtered animals are sent to the tribal groups). There is an annual culling of the herd instated, but this management plan does not seem to be effective given the rate of bison population increase. Is culling cruel or necessary? What alternatives are there to manage this species? How might different management scenarios impact the stakeholders in the region?

1. Ranchers and private land owners (e.g., Montana Stockgrowers Association

These are more instructions

• each one of you will be writing part of the letter (a couple of paragraphs) that will be assembled together as one letter. You each take on a specific identity ( a member of the stakeholder group that your team is representing), which you identify in your part of the letter. For example, if your group selected native Americans as your stakeholder group, you might introduce your self in your portion of the group letter as Running Bear, Chief of the Nez Perce, etc.