| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 1/31/05 |
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| Once
almost extinct, bison roam freely on the range
Published in the Asbury Park Press 01/31/05
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE |
A
century after the American Bison Society, organized in
1905 when only a few hundred of the animals remained,
began working to save the species from extinction, bison
are an environmental success story. Numbers are up to
about 400,000 across North America, mostly on private
ranches.
Now, a new generation of advocates wants to restore the
prairie habitat that bison once dominated. Some, including
Plains Indians, whose tribes were almost wiped out along
with the bison, also hope to restore a way of life the
animal represented.
"We have to restore the buffalo if we are going to
survive as a culture," says Fred DuBray, executive
director of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, which he
helped start in 1990 with five member tribes. Now 53 tribes
in 18 states manage 15,000 head of bison.
DuBray's tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux of north central
South Dakota, occupies a 2.82-million-acre reservation.
In the late 1990s, the tribal council bought a 21,500-acre
cattle ranch called the VE, which DuBray persuaded the
council to turn over to bison. He argued that bison would
provide the reservation, where Type 2 diabetes is rife,
with low-fat, low-cholesterol protein.
DuBray is even more interested in establishing a vast
prairie park of native plants and animals. Many scientists
agree with DuBray that prairies and bison are linked.
However, replicating historical conditions is hard because
most native prairie is long gone.
Remarkably, when the Cheyenne River Sioux bought the VE
Ranch, it boasted an abundance of hardy native plants
— western wheatgrass, needle and thread, sagewort
— and few of the exotic plants such as leafy spurge
that plague Plains ranches. The tribe took down internal
fences, let the land rest for three years and in 2002
released more than 2,000 bison onto its gently rolling
hills.
Bison are furthering the VE Ranch's restoration. The animals
rub their horns against saplings, stunting tree growth.
They avoid broad-leafed plants, or forbs, which then thrive
in grazed areas. Pronghorn antelopes eat the forbs that
bison leave behind. And bison wallows can hold rainwater
for other wildlife.
Joanna Murray, a wildlife biologist, cautions not to think
of bison as cattle. "Bison just roam freely,"
she says. They spend less time grazing than cattle do
and, she adds, "they're rarely in one spot two days
in a row."
In their quest to restore prairie habitat, the Cheyenne
River Sioux are maintaining colonies of black-tailed prairie
dogs, which cattle ranchers regard as a menace. But more
than 150 grassland species depend on prairie dog "towns."
The burrowing owl makes its home in abandoned burrows.
Rattlesnakes, swift fox, eagles and hawks prey on prairie
dogs, as do black-footed ferrets, the plains' most endangered
species.
Bison often gather around prairie dog towns. "Since
the dogs constantly clip off grasses, there's always new
growth, and it's very nutritious for the bison,"
Murray explains. Young bison grow faster when they graze
in prairie dog towns.
Though the prairie is coming back on the VE Ranch, this
venture remains a risky one. Prices for bison and bison
meat have been unsteady. The park won't earn much revenue
from tourist admissions until a visitors' center is built,
which will take years. And not everyone is pleased.
"On our reservation, it's not Democrats or Republicans,
but traditionalists and progressives," DuBray told
Smithsonian magazine for the February issue.
Progressives, he says, loathe prairie dogs, believe livestock
should be fenced, prefer cattle to bison, and are skeptical
of establishing a tribal park to display prairie restoration.
Traditionalists, on the other hand, feel the exact opposite.
DuBray says traditionalists are looking to the past for
the shape of things to come.
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