Who Owns the Environment

As a small herd of bison migrates out of Yellowstone National Park on a cold February day, pushed by the heavy snows covering the high country meadows, ranchers who own or lease grazing land in their path shudder. “When we’ve got 30 to 40 [bison] coming through my place at one time, they want to go through the fences, rub on my house, destroy my irrigation pipes,” says one rancher (Brown 2011). Making matters worse, bison can carry brucellosis, a highly infectious bacterial disease, which they can transmit to cattle, causing them to abort their young. If a cattle herd contracts the disease, it is quarantined and cannot be sold in the market.