Decade sees big progress in bison recovery
Efforts to bring bison back to the landscape across Canada, the United States and Mexico have made great strides in the past decade, officials say.
The American Bison Society, which is meeting for its annual conference in Banff, issued a report card Tuesday highlighting the milestones in bison conservation.
“We’re at this 10-year benchmark,” said Keith Aune, director of the bison program with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the American Bison Society. “At 10 years, we’ve moved farther and faster than I would have imagined.
“People have taken to the task, bison are starting to find new landscapes and we’re seeing communities and societies and cultures rally around its recovery, and that’s a huge step.”
In May, the bison was adopted as the national mammal of the U.S.
Bison reintroduction has happened in Alaska in the far north, the plan to bring bison back to Banff National Park is moving forward, several reservations and parks in the U.S. have now established herds, and Mexico has started to reintroduce bison.
The effort has also included the historic Northern Tribes Buffalo Treaty signed by First Nations on both sides of the Canada-United States border.
Leroy Little Bear, an elder with the Blood reserve or Kainai First Nation in southern Alberta, said the treaty aims to bring bison — historically known as buffalo by First Nations — back both physically and as a symbol of their culture.
“Our youth are not really being inculcated in our culture because the buffalo is not there anymore,” he said. “So much of our culture is tied to the buffalo, whether it be ceremonies, songs, stories and so on.
“We would like to bring the buffalo back so that our youth will be able to start making the connection to that buffalo again, and therefore a connection to their language and culture.”
Since the treaty was signed with four Canadian and four American tribes in 2014, the Stoney Nakoda, Samson Cree and 10 Saskatchewan First Nations have also joined it.
Little Bear said he’s pleased at the progress being made in bison conservation.
“This particular conference is talking about the social and cultural dimensions of that very special mammal, the bison,” he said. “That’s what our First Nations people can really bring forth and bring forward — that social and cultural dimension.”
Conservationist and author Harvey Locke said the efforts to restore bison have historical significance.
“One of the things that’s truly exciting is that we’ve saved bison from extinction,” he said. “Restoring the animal to the landscape as an ecological process is the holy grail for bison conservation in the 21st century.
“This is our elephant, our rhinoceros — this is our big grazer that should be on the landscape.”
Locke, co-founder of Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, added that it’s special the meeting on American bison is being held in Banff, with the reintroduction of a small herd of wild bison coming to the national park in early 2017.
“We can do it and we’re going to do it in Banff park,” he said. “It’s terribly exciting and it’s one of the great things that’s happening in global conservation right now.”
The conference runs at the Banff Centre until Wednesday, but there are several other public events in Banff and Calgary on Thursday.
They include a REDx talk on the Buffalo Treaty from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Buffalo Nations Museum in Banff; a Buffalo Treaty ceremony from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Whyte Museum in Banff; and a bison panel discussion, hosted by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mamdan Opera Centre in Calgary.