Montana Legislative Services Division - Legal Services Office, Legislative Inquiry into the MT Elk Management In Areas With Brucellosis finding - "Based on a review of the foregoing information, it appears that there is no specific reference in the Montana Code Annotated regarding the Departments's authority to manage elk for purposes of reducing or preventing the transmission of brucellosis between elk and livestock." Dec. 6, 2013 Montana Legislative Services Division, Requested Staff Legal Opinion on the Application of MEPA to the Department of Livestock's Designated Surveillance Area for Brucellosis Official Order - "The DOL is not a state agency that is exempted from MEPA. The DOL Order is an action that is defined under MEPA and the DOL's administrative rules and the DOL Order likely is not exempted or excluded from MEPA review...Based on this unfortunately lengthy but necessary legal analysis, the DOL's Order probably should have been subjected to the MEPA review process" Feb. 25, 2010 Wildlife Biologist Objections

1st FWP wildlife biologist comments against draft Proposed Recommendations. This one is a large list of points and very pertinent, "There are some points here that take us down some very dangerous roads. They are playing interests against one another, and I really have to wonder where the sportsmen’s voice is in all this. We could be paying landowners to fence out elk? Paying for vaccination? All the while reducing elk populations and thusly elk opportunities for sportsmen? I really hope that SOMEONE in our agency stands up to some of the points presented in here, or we may face some major problems in the future." , 2nd wildlife biologist comments. "Are livestock producers and other constituents willing to stand by this when other members of the public , MOGA, etc cry foul on us?" Park County and DSA science and stats below. Please Contact the FWP Director, Deputy Director and FWP Commissioners (below) to protest this APHIS/DOL, political, livestock management out of our Montana Elk Management. According to Montana Department of Livestock's State Veterinarian, Dr. Marty Zaluski's testimony, based on the responsible science, "The chance that any one Montana animal (context was cattle) is brucellosis positive is 0.00024%." Not all cases of brucellosis in cattle and domestic bison in Montana (or the other 2 GYA states), since 2008 (when genetics advanced to determine), have been due to elk. Wildlife Management should be based on current, responsible, ethical science; not special interest groups greed, socialized agriculture, politics and the APHIS brucellosis eradication in our wildlife agenda holding the 3 GYA states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana hostage by forcing them to capitulate to a Brucellosis Management Plan and Memorandum of Understanding, in order to receiven the Brucellosis Class Free Status. This does not have to be an "us against them" situation. We can have a healthy livestock industry and wildlife managed wildlife in Montana, for the benefit of a stronger, prosperous Montana. WILDLIFE are not livestock,

they are just that, WILD LIFE.