Advocates and wildlife officials are squaring off over the latest hazing of Yellowstone National Park bison, with Park officials defending the use of helicopters and herders to move a herd back into the Park earlier this month.

A herd had wandered into an area of the Gallatin National Forest west of Yellowstone National Park and 800 acres of the nearby Horse Butte peninsula, an area where the landowners have agreed to let bison graze. There are no cattle in either area, though next month stockmen are expected to locate a herd nearby.

Bison don't have much respect for Park boundaries; they tend to go where they want, where they want. When they wander far away from Yellowstone National Park, however, there are consequences. Area stockmen view bison as deadly carriers of brucellosis, a disease potentially transmitted to cattle in a very indirect way; the theory is that bison placenta eaten by cattle will infect a herd, and a herd infected with brucellosis means testing and higher costs for the stockmen. And with an outbreak in the region, the stockmen are skitterish, (Of course, common sense dictates brucellosis is highly unlikely to be transmitted via placenta in this method, and that the more likely carriers of brucellosis are the tens of thousands elk freely moving through the region.)

So if the bison were grazing on areas designated as safe havens, why the hazing? Simply put: the management groups believe, rightly or wrongly, that bison belong in the Park, and the risk of letting them roam freely outweighs any stress caused by hazing. Period.

Still, compared to previous springs, the hazing was a fairly mild incident. No bison were slaughtered this winter, as opposed to 2008, when a drastic culling of the herd -- some 1,600 bison were slaughtered -- led to some rather loud protests from the conservation community. A much-touted management plan to allow 25 brucellosis-free bison onto the Royal Teton Ranch was never implemented because no bison made a move north of the Park.

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That didn't take long: Xanterra Parks & Resorts has fired two of the six workers caught on Webcam defacing Old Faithful Geyser, while one of them was fined $750 by a federal magistrate for defacement of National Park property.

In addition, the 23-year-old man charged with urinating on the national icon was placed on three years of unsupervised probation being off trail in a restricted area, taking a chunk of the geyser shelf and public urination. He was also banned from Yellowstone National Park for two years.

The case against the second employee is stil pending.

As you'll recall, six concessionaire employees were cited by the National Park Service for trespassing on Old Faithful Geyser the evening of May 4 after someone viewing the geyser via webcam informed Park officials about their activities.

The two dismissed by Xanterra were hired as seasonal workers at Old Faithful Inn.

UPDATE: Yes, there are photos. Check them out on the PEER website.

RELATED: Idiots cited for defacing Old Faithful Geyser

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Yellowstone National Park fans are regular visitors to the Old Faithful webcam: it’s a wonderful window to the iconic feature of the Park, a sure way to lift spirits in the depths of winter, a way to whet appetites before a trip and a great reminder of a completed trip.

The Old Faithful webcam now has a new use: law-enforcement tool. Six concessionaire employees were cited by the National Park Service for trespassing on Old Faithful the evening of May 4 after someone viewing the geyser via webcam informed Park officials about their activities.

In addition to being cited for trespassing on a restricted Park area, two were cited for illegally possessing a piece of a Park natural resource, while two were cited for urinating at Old Faithful.

The six will appear in the future before a federal magistrate to answer the charges.

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The U.S. Senate Tuesday passed an amendment allowing the legal holders of loaded guns, rifles and semiautomatic weapons to carry them into Yellowstone National Park as long as state and local law allowed it. The amendment to a bill restricting the rights of credit-card companies passed by a 67-29 margin, attracting 39 Republican votes, 27 Democratic votes and one independent vote.

"If an American citizen has a right to carry a firearm in their state, it makes no sense to treat them like a criminal if they pass through a national park while in possession of a firearm," said sponsor Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) said during debate on the floor on the Senate. He positioned the bill as a way to ensure the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

The move comes less than three months after U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked a move by the Bush Administration to allow loaded handguns in national parks, a rule change enacted during the final days of that administration. However, the Coburn amendment goes far beyond what the Bush administration had proposed and includes rifles and semi-automatic weapons.

Coburn is being a little disingenuous when he argues current law prohibits citizens from carrying arms inside national parks. It does not: it requires the gun owners to unload and store their guns while visiting national parks. That, to many, is not an unreasonable measure.

Indeed, there is no practical use for a loaded semiautomatic weapon in Yellowstone National Park. Absolutely none. There is no reason why a tourist would need a loaded weapon on a nature walk led by a ranger, nor is there a need for a loaded semiautomatic weapon when a visitor is walking toward Morning Glory Pool or Old Faithful Geyser. While we are not gun-control advocates, we are gun-control realists, and on that measure Coburn’s bill fails the smell test.

And we suspect Coburn realizes that as well; he admitted to the Los Angeles Times that he didn’t expect the provision to be in the final version of the credit-card bill once it reaches a House-Senate conference committee. And there are some troubling legalities involved here, as it allows states to set gun policies on national land.

It’s also opposed by a rather large number of groups with a vested interest in Yellowstone National Park, including groups representing park rangers and ranger retirees.

"This amendment is much more radical than the regulation promulgated by the Bush administration," Bryan Faehner, associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group that opposes guns in National Parks, told AP. If the measure becomes law "it would not only put park visitors and wildlife at risk, it would change the character and the peaceful and safe atmosphere in our parks."

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