From AP via The Seattle Times:
The only federal wildlife refuge set aside to protect bison will be managed by the Interior Department and Indian tribes in an unusual partnership that conservationists fear could lead to more development of public lands.
Under an agreement signed yesterday, the department and the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council will split budget and management duties for Montana’s 19,000-acre National Bison Range, which is within the tribal homeland on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Training is to be provided to the tribes, which must consult a federal manager with Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service before waiving regulations on the range. The deal takes effect in three months if Congress does not object.
The deal, negotiated over the past two years, is only the second of its kind under a 1994 law that lets tribes with a cultural, geographic or historic link to a federal refuge apply to run it.