Bison: In the Field

Defenders of Wildlife is: working with Indian tribes to restore and increase bison herds on tribal lands; working to restore and increase bison herds on public lands across the Great Plains; and working to prevent the unnecessary slaughter of Yellowstone's bison, America's largest and most important wild bison herd.

Restoring and Increasing Bison Herds on Tribal Lands

Many Indian tribes across the Great Plains and beyond are doing an incredible job – with few financial resources – of restoring bison to tribal lands. Defenders is thrilled to help with these exciting efforts.

The Fort Belknap Reservation bison herd was started in 1974 with 35 bison. Defenders of Wildlife provided funds to add more over the years and purchased supplemental feed during times of drought. Meanwhile, the bison pasture increased from 1,900 acres to 15,000. Knowing that bison and prairie dogs have a long history of mutually beneficial co-existence, tribal authorities granted prairie dogs on the pastures protection from shooting and poisoning, a rare reprieve out West.

In 2001, Defenders purchased bison from the Fort Belknap tribal bison herd to start a new bison herd at nearby Fort Peck Reservation in eastern Montana. Robbie Magnan, Director of Fort Peck Fish and Game, has successfully managed the new herd. Needing more room to grow, Defenders helped buy the grazing lease for an additional 4,500 acres, expanding the tribe’s bison refuge to 10,000 acres which will allow the herd to expand to 250 animals.

Individual tribal members at Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, are cooperating on a community bison restoration project, called the Knife Chief Community Buffalo Project. In 2007 Defenders helped pay for grazing leases to allow the bison pasture to expand from 1,200 acres to 3,000 acres. This will allow the herd to expand.

All told, tribal reservations now have more bison than all federal parks and refuges.

Restoring Bison Herds on Public Lands

Only a few National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges have wild bison herds. Defenders is helping restore bison to more areas on public lands.

A recent success began with the return of 16 wild bison to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in early 2007. Absent for over 100 years, their return was embraced by politicians, local citizens, Native American representatives and federal employees. Prior to the bison’s return, more than 1,000 Defenders members across Colorado sent comments in support of this plan, helping the Refuge gain the public support it needed to restore the bison.

Defenders of Wildlife is working to return wild bison to other public lands as well. Specifically, we hope to see wild bison in the 1 million acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, and we are working with our members in northeast Colorado to encourage the return of wild bison to a 40,000-acre area of open space land, owned by the city of Fort Collins and Larimer County.

Increasing Existing Bison Herds on Public Lands

A truly wild bison herd needs room to roam. Our current protected areas in the Great Plains are just too small to accommodate wild bison. Defenders is working to help expand key protected areas so that wild bison can be wild bison. Specifically, we are helping support land acquisitions to expand Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks to allow larger bison herds in those two important bison Parks.

Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota contains a very important wild bison herd, but the Park is not big enough to maintain a large herd. An adjoining property is for sale – the Casey property; if added to the Park, this would increase the Park by 20 percent and allow a significant increase in bison. Defenders is educating members of Congress of the importance of acquiring this ranch.

Badlands National Park also contains an important bison herd, but the Park needs to grow to allow more bison to roam. One landowner on the edge of the Park wants to sell to the Park specifically to allow more bison. A new management plan for the Park proposed a boundary expansion to include this property. Now Congress must act. Defenders is working with this landowner and the Park to make it happen.