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DOJ Asks Federal Court To Dismiss Gardiner Woman's Claim For Compensation

Three bison walk through deep snow at Yellowstone National Park.
National Park Service
/
Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Bison migrate out of Yellowstone National Park each winter in search of food at lower elevations.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently asked a federal court to dismiss a Gardiner woman’s claim for half a million dollars in compensation from the winter bison hunt north of Yellowstone National Park. 

In a lawsuit against the U.S. Government, Gardiner resident Bonnie Lynn alleges bison hunting on an area of Forest Service land adjacent to Yellowstone National Park makes her nearby vacation-rental business unviable.

The U.S. Government’s response filed Thursday says Lynn’s claims are barred by the six-year statute of limitation because she bought the property in 2005 when the hunt was already going on.

Lynn’s attorney Jared Pettinato says he doesn’t think that argument is going to hold up because the annual bison hunt has been intensifying in recent years.

“We think this is a situation that changes every year - the issue and operations plan - so we don’t think that their argument is going to have much weight,” Pettinato says. 

Bison migrate out of Yellowstone each winter in search of food at lower elevations. Many of them pass through a bottleneck called Beattie Gulch where hunters wait for their arrival.

Pettinato says it seems like a war zone.

“You can hear the gunshots, and then all the hunters just like mob this little county road that’s very narrow and park all their trucks and their trailers, and it’s hard to get in and out. Some people can’t even pass through the area with their trucks,” Pettinato says. 

Bonnie Lynn claims the “noise, disruption and danger” associated with the hunt have prevented her from being able to rent her two cabins during the winter, lowered her property values and caused her emotional trauma.

Pettinato says his firm will file a response by February 13 and request oral argument. An attorney for the United States Department of Justice could not be reached by the deadline for this story.

A federal judge in Montana denied a separate lawsuit seeking to temporarily stop the hunt in December.