Apparently Ranchers Set The Policy

"“Yellowstone elk and other wildlife, also known to carry brucellosis, are allowed to freely exit the park without coming under fire as the buffalo do.” "

So the answer may be obvious? The states benefit by selling licenses to kill elk and other wildlife, so let them sell licenses to kill bison? Then once integrated into their entertainment industry bison overall will be protected via that wonderful mechanism: the market. Migratory animals have challenges when restricted to somewhat arbitrary segments of their habitat.

Given that it looks to that hunters are setting the policy not ranchers especially given that while there's no documented cases of bison to cattle transfer of brucellosis there is for elk to cattle transfer....

If anyone would like to read an in-depth book on the fiasco of state management of wildlife — specifically about Yellowstone Bison, I'll suggest a book before I've finished reading it.

The book is published this year by the Yellowstone Association and you can either purchase the book in print from them here. Or you can download the book in PDF format for free from the Park Service itself.

The full title is: Yellowstone Bison: Conserving an American Icon in Modern Society* (See footnote.)

For samplers, read this review of the book by Todd Wilkinson writing in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. I've read many of Wilkinson's articles and found that he does not shy away from pointing out the hypocrisy in so many wildlife decisions we've seen in the Northern Rockies and Yellowstone Area.

Some excerpts from Wilkinson's review of the book:

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For 30 years Republican and Democratic governors in Montana have tried to force Yellowstone managers to do things against their better judgment. Often they’ve succeeded.

But in “Yellowstone Bison, Conserving an American Icon in Modern Society,” the park, at long last, is pushing back. . . .

Indeed, the top wildlife threat is elk, the authors note, and every single case of brucellosis transmission involving wildlife to cattle has been linked to wapiti.[/ul]
That is where the disgusting alliance among hunters, ranchers, and state wildlife agencies has launched a propaganda campaign against science itself. And the background of that campaign is relevant to the management of other at-risk species such as grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, black-footed ferrets, and so on. State wildlife agencies in this area, dominated by ranchers and hunters, can simply not be trusted with many crucial decisions of wildlife management.

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*White, P. J., Rick L. Wallen, and Dave Hallac. Yellowstone Bison, Conserving an American Icon in Modern Society. Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone Park Foundation, 2015.

"Yellowstone elk and other wildlife, also known to carry brucellosis, are allowed to freely exit the park without coming under fire as the buffalo do."

I've pointed out this hypocrisy for years. There have been no documented cases of bison-cattle brucellosis transmission but countless known cases of elk-cattle transmission. The same elk that ranchers feed with their stock in winter due the reason mentioned above... elk are a money maker for the state and ranchers from hunters. Bison aren't.

My roommate has a cousin who owns 1 1/4 section (800 acres) completely surrounded by Ted Turner's Flying D ranch. He has a several years long contract from 4 out-of-state hunters who pay him $5000 each every elk season. $20,000/year whether or not the hunters actually make a kill and that's just for him and not counting the state's cut for non-resident hunters.

Many visitors to the West and elsewhere may have seen what appeared to be small herds of bison. But over 98% of animals that appear to be bison are actually descendants of experiments to create hybrids of wild bison and domestic cattle.

There are so few bison herds untainted by cattle genetics that the Yellowstone herds are crucial to survival of the species. There may be a half dozen herds (or so) that preserve un-hybridized bison genetics. The largest is the Yellowstone-Teton Parks herds. Next I believe are those in Wind Cave National Park (which originated from Yellowstone stock.) And there are a few much smaller herds scattered across the country.

This does matter because the descendants of hybridization may not be well adapted to the ecosystems in which bison evolved. You can see a few latent characteristics in a Google Image Search. The aberrations include deformed horns, shorter fur (hair), smaller size, color patches etc. We probably don't even know how those aberrations might affect the animals ability to endure in bison's native ecosystems.

It is estimated* that there are only about 7,500 American Bison remaining with un-compromised genetics. So the slaughter of 1000 of those from Yellowstone represents the destruction of around 13% of the species — as it has adapted genetically to this continent's ecosystems.

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*See page xiv of the book I referenced above.