Park Service calls for bison populations to grow in the West

CASPER (WNE) — The National Park Service is calling for a 20% increase in the bison population.
The service has released its preferred alternative for a new Interagency Bison Management Plan, which comes more than two decades after the inaugural plan and could increase the animal’s population by 1,000, lifting the cap to 6,000 bison after calving.
At the heart of the plan is an effort to reconcile the fact that the animals’ primary protected habitat in Yellowstone is not large enough to accommodate its migratory needs, which are a response to snow conditions, available forage, and population density, similar to other western ungulates.
The 2000 plan originated from concern that bison migrating outside Yellowstone National Park would transmit the bacterial disease brucellosis to cattle and disrupt interstate commerce, and capped the population at 4,800.