Let the bison roam free

I am a longtime Montana resident with family in Augusta, Missoula and Polebridge. We all agree that the iconic bison species should be nurtured and protected and encouraged to roam in as many acres of public or private land as possible.

Montana cattle owners are hysterically protesting these actions on the basis of fear, not science. There is no known, proven transmission of brucelosis between cattle and bison.

Montana has plenty of beef (although less than 2 percent of U.S. beef is raised here), and this small percentage exists at the tremendous cost of the degradation of public lands which were never meant to sustain the intensive grazing required by cattle producers.

Let the bison roam, let the land recover and let grass-rich states provide the beef. We all have plenty of hamburger and steak, enough to clog up 50 percent of the adult arteries in the U.S. population.

Agribusiness isn’t the future of this state; neither is logging or mining. Montana should be famous for its pristine environment, clean water, majestic plains waving with grass (not stubble fields) and dotted with bison, pronghorns and other natural prairie species, wild rivers and mountains full of the complete complement of wildlife.

Why not get 100 percent behind the development of the state in these directions? What Montana needs is not a great past to worship, but a real future to live for.

Carol Edwards

Polebridge