Bison Ranchers Return Thousands of Animals to Native Lands and Witness Rejuvenation of Ecosystem

The Tanka fund, a tribal-led nonprofit, is creating a network of native bison ranchers that are restoring ecosystems on the Great Plains. Everyone involved is well aware of the power of the bison to transform the environment. Just as nations across Europe are reintroducing wood bison to various ecosystems for all the same reasons.

Buffalo are an anchor of the prairie system.
The long-billed curlew uses bison dung as a disguise to hide nests from predators. Deer, pronghorn antelope, and elk all rely on bison to plow through deep snows and uncover the grasses that these smaller animals can’t reach.

The almost-extinct black-footed ferret lived symbiotically with the bison, and with the latter gone, the former followed—nearly.

Everywhere the bison hurls its massive body, life springs in its wake. When bison roll about on the plains, it creates depressions known as wallows. These fill with rainwater and create enormous puddles where amphibians and insects thrive and reproduce. Certain plants evolved to grow in the wet conditions of the wallows which Native Americans harvested for food and medicine.

All life on earth is symbiotic. Everything depends on everything else. That includes us. Generally speaking, humans seemed to have lost track of this.