Bison Range readies for winter with small staff
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MOEISE — As winter creeps ever closer, activity at the National Bison Range continues to die down — a fact Project Manager Jeff King is especially thankful for this year.
His staff is still short about 13 full-time people as he continues “waiting on decisions high above my level” to determine how and when all the open positions will be filled. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have yet to let King know whether they’ll be hiring new workers for the Range or bringing in people already employed by FWS, and King wasn’t sure when he’d find out what the next step is.
“We’re still doing the best we can with the existing staff we have,” King said.
Six weeks ago, a federal judge threw out an Annual Funding Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who shared management of the Range.
The judge’s ruling said that an environmental procedural rule wasn’t properly addressed in the agreement, and around 16 CSKT workers lost their jobs at the Bison Range as a result of the ruling.
“Some of those would have been laid off anyway for the winter,” King noted.
This time of year, visitation to the Range drops off significantly, and King said he and the staff he does have are mostly writing reports and doing end-of-the-year administrative work.
“There’s not a whole lot we can do outside,” King said. “This is pretty normal.”
On the tribes’ side, spokesman Rob McDonald said Tribal Council is also waiting on CSKT lawyers to determine the best step for the tribes to take in hopes of restoring the managing partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the tribes.
