Bison Range: Formal draft funding agreement released

The heavily-negotiated draft Annual Funding Agreement was officially released Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The agreement allows the tribes to perform specific responsibilities and duties at the National Bison Range Complex, and maintains U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ownership of all refuge lands and buildings, as well as top managerial control by the Service.

The physical area covered by the draft AFA includes the National Bison Range, Ninepipe and Pablo National Wildlife Refuges, and all waterfowl production areas in the National Bison Range Complex.

Duties to be performed by the tribes include five general areas:

1. Management: Manage all CSKT employees, including performance assessments and payroll functions, and oversee compliance with the operational standards.

2. Maintenance: Provide routine maintenance and repair services such as caring for horses, cleaning the National Bison Range visitor center and other offices and restrooms, picking up litter in the parking lot and along roads, herding Bison by horseback to different grazing locations, removing snow and mowing lawns.

3. Visitor Center: Provide Visitor Center services such as staffing, collecting money for purchases, and assisting the refuge manager with planning environmental and educational workshops, assisting with website maintenance, maintain the environmental education library and assisting with grant applications, conduct first aid and CPR classes.

4. Biological: Assist with the biological functions such as waterfowl counts, bird banding, vegetation monitoring, mapping and evasive plant control. Also help with the genetic monitoring associated with the Bison Roundup.

5. Fire control: Control prescribed fires and suppress wildland fires, research and write a report on the historical role of fire on the Bison Range for use in a Comprehensive Conservation Plan, and assist in training firefighters.

Federal employees whose job position will be affected by the AFA will be given options such as continued employment with the Fish and Wildlife Service with an assignment to the CSKT, CSKT employment and CSKT benefits, or reassignment to another duty station.

If a Federal employee rejects the options or cannot be reassigned, the Fish and Wildlife Service will perform a reduction in force.

If approved, the AFA will be in effect Oct. 1, 2004 (or the effective date of the AFA) through Sept. 30, 2005.

The complete draft AFA can be downloaded at the following website:

mountain-prairie.fws.gov/cskt-fws-negotiation/F-FY2005FWS-CSKTDraftAFA.pdf