蒙大拿州美国草原野牛群清点达1016头：首次突破1000头
美国蒙大拿州中北部——非营利组织「美国草原」在年度幼崽清点中记录到1016头野牛，这是该野牛群数量首次突破1000头，相关消息10月31日见报。
该组织的保护区总面积达60万3657英亩，其中16万7070英亩为自有土地，43万6587英亩为租用的公共土地，因此公共放牧地的准入对其生态恢复工作至关重要。野牛历史上曾以千万头计遍布大草原，如今的数量仅为工业化前规模的约1%。
野牛群突破千头的同时，其联邦放牧配额的准入仍处法律争议之中：土地管理局此前取消了该组织在三处联邦配额放牧野牛的许可，并下令将野牛群迁出，理由是法律将公共放牧地保留给商业食品与纤维生产。联邦法官9月4日初步认定该组织的法律解释很可能正确，暂缓执行迁出令，但这一裁定并未最终解决争议。蒙大拿州将参与该项目的野牛归类为牲畜而非野生动物。
放牧许可之争的结果，将决定这项结合野牛群养护与草原恢复的工作能否在有争议的联邦配额上继续进行。
来源：The Cooldown 10月31日报道。
American Prairie Bison Herd Tops 1,000 for the First Time at 1,016
MONTANA — American Prairie, a nonprofit seeking to establish the nation's most extensive wild-prairie landscape, recorded 1,016 bison during its annual calf count, the first time the herd has crossed the 1,000-bison threshold, according to reporting on October 31.
The organization's reserve covers 603,657 acres in Montana, including 167,070 acres it owns and 436,587 acres of public land it leases, so access to public grazing land is central to its restoration work. Bison historically numbered in the tens of millions across the prairie; the population today may be as little as about 1% of its preindustrial size.
The milestone comes as the herd's access to three federal grazing allotments remains in legal dispute. The Bureau of Land Management canceled the nonprofit's permits to graze bison and ordered it to remove the herd, arguing that the law reserves public grazing land for commercial food and fiber production. A federal judge found the organization's interpretation of the law very likely correct and, on September 4, paused the removal requirement, though the decision does not resolve the dispute. Montana classifies the bison involved in the project as livestock, not wildlife.
Source: The Cooldown, October 31 report.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：美洲野牛（资料图）。来源：Wikimedia Commons（Khoshhat，CC BY-SA 4.0）
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
