Back under tribal control, Bison range offers views of iconic animals

The 19,000-acre Bison Range on the Flathead Indian Reservation has reopened for the season under the management of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, offering visitors the opportunity to see Montana's iconic megafauna in their natural habitat.

As summer approaches, the hulking animals are shedding their winter coats and roaming the grassy hills with reddish-brown calves in tow.

The federal wildlife refuge carved from the center of the reservation more than a century ago was recently returned to tribal trust ownership under bipartisan legislation that Congress passed in December. No longer receiving federal funding, management of the land is being transferred to the tribes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The U.S. Fish Wildlife Service, the tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to some extent, have been working diligently to make sure it's all flowing within the timelines outlined in the act," said Tom McDonald, the fish and wildlife division manager in the CSKT's Natural Resources Department.

Visitors can tour the range, which opened for the season on Mother's Day weekend, on two gravel roads that allow for up-close viewing of bison and other wildlife from the safety of automobiles. The area at the base of the Mission Mountains also is home to black bears, white-tailed and mule deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and many species of birds.

Prairie Drive offers a 14-mile, out-and-back tour along the Alexander Basin and Mission Creek. Red Sleep Mountain Drive, a one-way road, forms a 19-mile loop with Prairie Drive and offers access to a day-use area near the top of the mountain, as well as a short walking trail on a vista lined with yellow balsamroot flowers. The loop features more than 2,000 feet of elevation gain and takes about two hours.

The CSKT has begun creating new signage — dropping the "National" from "National Bison Range" — and renovating the visitor center near the entrance to the range at Moiese, an 80-mile drive south of Kalispell just off U.S. 93. The gate now opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m. each day, with the visitor center opening an hour later.

Access to the range costs $10 per vehicle per day, or $20 for an annual pass. As it was under federal management, CSKT members with tribal identification get in for free. Federal access passes — including the America the Beautiful and Golden Age passes, and free passes for fourth-graders, military veterans and people with disabilities — no longer are accepted. Tribal officials have said all ticket proceeds will go to management of the range.

Cars, trucks and campers shorter than 30 feet are allowed on the roads, and visitors must remain in their vehicles except in specified areas. Longer campers, motorcycles, bicycles and trailers are prohibited. Trailers can be unhooked in the parking lot for the duration of a visit.

President Teddy Roosevelt's administration established the Bison Range in 1908 on land that had been promised to the CSKT under the 1855 Hellgate Treaty. It marked the first time the U.S. government purchased land for the sole purpose of protecting wildlife. But the government did so without the tribes' consent.

"It was a huge taking of land," McDonald said. "Restoration of lands within the reservation boundaries is critical to the fulfillment of that treaty, and the obligations that were set, and promises made."

McDonald noted it was tribe members who first sought to establish a conservation herd of bison on the reservation in the 1870s, as the species was galloping toward extinction due to overhunting, encroachment from humans and livestock and other pressures. Descendants of those bison, which came to be known as the Pablo-Allard herd, are now dispersed across the region; some were even introduced in Yellowstone National Park.

Thirty-four of the 37 bison that were introduced to the Bison Range in 1909 came from the Pablo-Allard herd. Today, the range is home to about 350 of the animals, a number that is largely dependent on efforts to keep out noxious weeds and control populations of other ungulates such as deer and elk, McDonald said.

"The Tribal Council, in revised management plans, may establish or change the boundaries to include more lands than are currently there. And that would allow for the herd to grow in size," he said. "We do hope to grow it, but it depends on the natural conditions of the range and whether we add more acres to it."

While nothing is set in stone yet, McDonald said tribal control also may present opportunities for visitors that were "stifled or restrained" under federal management, such as guided tours, overnight camping and food concessions.

"Things that would improve their experience," he said.

More information about the range can be found at bisonrange.org.