‘For the buffalo, baby.’ Volunteers carve tunnels in snow to help migrating bison
After a particularly tough winter, Yellowstone’s cherished central bison herd will soon begin its perilous trek back to calving grounds in the Horse Butte Peninsula.
So a group of passionate volunteers are carving tunnels through the park’s dense, deep snow to make the herd’s journey safer, the group said in a March 14 news release.
“This is for the buffalo, baby,” Mike Mease says in a YouTube video showing off the hard work of the Buffalo Field Campaign. “We gotta keep them off this dangerous highway as best we can and send them down to where they go have their babies.”
Mease, the co-founder and longtime coordinator for Buffalo Field Campaign, and the rest of his crew were inspired to take action after 13 bison were killed in a crash with a semitruck on Highway 191 in December. McClatchy News previously reported on the crash.
“I couldn’t stand the idea of any more pregnant mama bison being killed on the road this year as they attempt to reach their calving grounds to replenish their depleted herd,” he said in the news release.
In the video, he stands in a chasm he dug through a massive snow berm that’s nearly as tall as he is.
With “the amount of snow we have this year, you can see these canals we dug up for ’em to get up on the north bluffs and head out to where they need to go,” Mease said.
Part of the problem is the herd’s migration coincides with park staff plowing densely packed winter snow from the roads to get the park ready for springtime tourism.
That piles “giant berms” of snow surrounding Highway 191 that’s tough for the bison to move through. They end up using the walled highway to search for roads that would take them to Horse Butte, the release said.
“If you build it, they will come,” wildlife biologist Jackson Doyel said in the release. “If you don’t, they’ll use the roads as trails.”
Montana’s Department of Transportation agreed to partner with Buffalo Field Campaign to build wildlife corridors along the Madison River, the herd’s preferred migration route. The bridges would help bison cross the highway safely and quickly, the release said.
But it will be a few years before the transportation department can get secure funding and plans for the bridges and start constructing them. In the meantime, that’s where Mease’s team comes in.
The transportation department “punched holes through the berms” so Mease and his six-person crew could burrow tunnels leading from the highway to the Madison River, photos show.
“I know their migratory paths, I’ve lived here 26 years watching every move they make,” Mease told McClatchy News in an interview. “We knew we were going to have an emergency this winter and figured we’d give them a hand.”
The group is also seeking volunteers to monitor the herd’s migration to Horse Butte, the release said. Volunteers’ food and housing are covered by the program — and they’d “get to see baby bison brought into the world.”
Horse Butte is about 10 miles northwest of West Yellowstone.
This story was originally published March 17, 2023 at 4:37 PM with the headline "‘For the buffalo, baby.’ Volunteers carve tunnels in snow to help migrating bison."
