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The Great Plains spread eastward from the foothills of Wyoming (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

Jason explains that the plants, animals and humans of the American prairie have been evolving together for millennia. Bison were an integral part of the prairie ecosystem: their hooves broke up the soil so seeds could germinate and their wallows – the depressions left when they rolled in the dirt – gathered rain which fed medicinal plants.

The lives of Native Americans were also inextricably tied to the bison. They followed the herds across the plains, relying on the great creatures for food, shelter and tools. They worshipped bison, performing religious ceremonies to promote its abundance and express gratitude for its ultimate sacrifice to them in the hunt.

The U.S. Army recognized this reliance in the late 19th century, when the westward movement of miners and homesteaders led to clashes with the resident Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Arapaho. To defeat the tribes and clear the way for “Manifest Destiny,” the U.S. Army used the following tactic: eliminate the tribes’ main food source.

A herd of wild bison approach the author’s car in Yellowstone National Park (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

NWF has been working for two decades to transfer some of these Yellowstone bison – whose numbers now overwhelm the Park’s capacity – back to their native lands. Our first major victory came last spring when we helped the Fort Peck Tribes move 61 Yellowstone bison to their reservation in northeast Montana. The tribes are thrilled to have these “tatanka” home. The bison and their 21 new calves are enjoying thousands of acres of wild prairie.

Today, NWF is working with Jason and other members of the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes to move a herd of Yellowstone bison to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. A group of bison awaits transfer on a Montana ranch. The land and the tribes are ready to receive them. Standing in the way is a complex web of legal and political hurdles that we are working to overcome.

Late in the day on my visit to Yellowstone, I came upon a lone buffalo walking the center line of the Park’s loop road. I pulled to the shoulder to give him space to pass and he paused long enough to make eye contact. I stared with a sense of wonder and respect. His return gaze was fearless and unconcerned. And at that moment I knew: we are beginning to restore the balance.

A Yellowstone bison wanders along the Park road (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

Yellowstone Bison in the quarantine pasture in Gardiner, Montana – Photo by Ted Wood

Over the past few decades, the tribes have restored six of the seven ungulate species that were historically present on our tribal lands. With today’s resolution, we are taking a huge step to restoring the last of those seven species, the bison. The resolution and an accompanying letter have been delivered to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar requesting that Yellowstone bison, currently being held on Ted Turner’s Green Ranch in Montana, be relocated to Wind River and formally asking for government-to-government consultation to make their request a reality.

Priority landscapes for bison

Yellowstone bison return to Fort Peck Reservation in Montana – Photo by Ted Wood

The Yellowstone bison are among the few in North America with no cattle genes. The Yellowstone area is the only place where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Two centuries ago, there were more than thirty million buffalo roaming North American, but by the turn of the 19th-century, less than one hundred remained. Tribal peoples rounded up some of those bison to save them, and some of those bison became seed animals for the Yellowstone herd. Today’s decision by the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes provides an opportunity for the historical relationship between buffalo and American Indians to come full circle, and is a huge stride toward achieving the return of bison to their Wind River homeland.

Help us get the Yellowstone Bison to Wind River

Please donate to the National Wildlife Federation Tribal Lands Partnerships Program to help get these 140 bison back to tribal lands.

For more information on NWF’s efforts to restore Yellowstone bison to tribal lands, please check out NWF’s Tribal Lands Partnerships webpage.

Shoshone Tribal Bison Representative – Jason Baldes – Photo courtesy Kelly Gorham, Montana State University

Baldes, a sought after speaker, is currently an officer of the Society of American Indian Graduate Students.

And my thanks to Doug for sharing with us once again from his work a glimpse of wildlife most of us don’t get to see.  While tracking a pack of about 50 wolves in Hayden Valley recently, Doug snapped this mesmerizing photo of a remarkable scene: a grizzly bear standing over a fresh bison carcass.

Wolf researcher Doug Smith took this recent photo of a grizzly bear on a bison carcass in Yellowstone. (Photo Doug Smith/NPS)

For more information, read my interview with Doug Smith in National Parks Traveler on his research, or my Eulogy for a Wolf: A Happy Ending for Yellowstone’s 495M on Wildlife Promise.

A bison mother comforts her calf after an exhausting swim across the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by David Bahr.

Happy Mother’s Day!

• Thanks Mom, For the Gift of Nature – How did your mom give you the gift of nature? Share your story and read others’ memories!
• Wildlife Moms Photo Gallery – See more photos of wildlife mothers from the National Wildlife Photo Contest.

This Photo of the Day was donated by a participant in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. See more photos or sign up for the 42nd Annual National Wildlife Photo Contest.

Photo by Beth Pratt

This amazing little bison was welcomed into the world surrounded and protected by 61 members of his extended family.

“They’ve been doing a good job of protecting him,” said the Tribes’ Buffalo Ranch Manager Tote Gray Hawk. “They don’t let him drift too far away.”

A longtime friend of mine and NWF, Jonny Bearcub Stiffarm, who works for Native Energy and is an enrolled Fort Peck Tribal member, was at the bison pasture with her grandkids and was witness to the birth.

Jonny’s grandkids, 12-year-old Jaymee and 7-year-old Joe, were the first to see the newborn bison being licked off and dried by his mom. As Jonny put it to me:

“Oh my god, Alexis, it was so beautiful and amazing. All the buffalo were in a circle protecting this brand new baby who was just wobbling around and nursing on his mom every once in a while. Jaymee and Joseph Stiffarm, Fort Peck tribe members, the first to see the first born bison of the buffalo who came home!”

Watch the Story

This mom and the rest of the herd endured a 500-mile trek from a quarantine facility outside of Yellowstone National Park to the bison pastures at Fort Peck. The tribes, NWF, and other groups have worked for years to relocate wild bison to tribal lands rather than see them sent to slaughter. Now, instead of seeing bison killed we have created a pathway for bison to thrive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Help keep the bison roaming free on tribal lands! Please donate today to help National Wildlife Federation save bison and other wildlife >>

photo credit: Beth Pratt/NWF

Though the bison’s ancestors roamed the continent with saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths, he could not protect himself from expansion and was nearly wiped out in the late 1800s as the nation’s population moved West.

Millions of bison were slaughtered for sport, for their hides, to clear the plains for settlers and their livestock and to control the Plains tribes. Native Americans used the bison for food and clothing, shelter, tools and ceremonial implements – nearly everything to survive physically and spiritually.

Before their near extermination, an estimated 30 million to 60 million bison ranged from Canada to northern Mexico and from the Plains to Eastern forests. By about 1890, roughly 1,000 remained, including two dozen in Yellowstone National Park.

Now the tribes at Fort Peck and Fort Belknap are preparing for the arrival of 65 Yellowstone bison.

The American buffalo, also known as bison, has always held great meaning for American Indian people…buffalo represent their spirit and remind them of how their lives were once lived, free and in harmony with nature.  -the InterTribal Buffalo Council

credit: D. Forehand of Montana

6 Facts about Bison:

1) Bison are North America’s largest land animals. Mature bulls weigh up to 2,000 pounds and mature cows as much as 1,000 pounds.

2) A bison stands 6 – 6.5 feet tall and 10 – 12.5 feet long.

3) A bison’s hump is composed of muscle, supported by long vertebrae. It allows the animal to use its head to plow through snow.

4) Most of the 500,000 or so bison nationwide are raised as livestock on ranches. About 30,000 are managed for conservation in private and public herds.

5) Fossils and accounts from early travelers show that Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the U.S. where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.

6) The Yellowstone herd is one of the few that remains genetically free of cattle genes.

Bison are finally making a comeback, and you can help. Symbolically adopt your own bison!

Yellowstone Bison, credit GVoggesser/NWF

Since the mid-1990s, the National Wildlife Federation has been working to ensure people won’t have to ask that question. We believe restoration to other landscapes is a better management strategy to resolve livestock-wildlife conflicts. We envisioned a future when Yellowstone bison, the last genetically pure, free-roaming, wild bison population in the U.S., could provide animals to establish new herds across the West.

In 1997, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, the first ever conservation agreement between an environmental organization and a tribal organization, to advocate for the return of wild bison to tribal lands. NWF and the tribes shared a common vision – restoring wild bison to their historical habitat and restoring Native peoples’ cultural connections to bison. But the political opposition to the return of the bison seemed insurmountable.

A Victory for Conservation and Tribes

Room to Roam, credit Stephen C. Torbit/NWF

This has been one of the hardest nuts to crack in wildlife conservation history. Many other large mammal species that had depleted in numbers have been restored, but not bison. By restoring bison to tribal lands and other former habitats across the country, we’re also revitalizing a landscape, habitat, and a diversity of wildlife. Simultaneously, we’re helping to re-establish Native peoples’ cultural and historic connections to wildlife and the land.

This is a win-win proposition for the tribes, the state of Montana, and the millions of Americans nationwide who want bison back where they belong. The return of wild bison to tribal lands is a major milestone in efforts to restore an iconic North American species to the landscape and restore an important element of Native American culture.

This spring, we will welcome the bison home.

Bighorn sheep pair on the shoulder of Mt. Everts in Yellowstone

Bighorn sheep rut in Yellowstone

Click here to view the embedded video.

Two bison during the annual rut in Hayden Valley in Yellowstone

A tender moment during the elk rut at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone

Scenes from the Yellowstone Elk Rut

Click here to view the embedded video.

A misguided mating attempt between two Pacific chorus frogs in Yosemite

Pacific chorus frogs at Gaylor Lake in Yosemite

Click here to view the embedded video.

River otter on the Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley share a cutthroat trout

Canada geese pair on the Gardner River at the north entrance of Yellowstone

Two bald eagles in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone

Obama Administration Hits the Accelerator for Responsible Offshore Wind Development

February 2 – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the agency responsible for permitting offshore wind energy, has hit the accelerator in the pursuit of this massive, domestic clean energy source.

In releasing the Final Environmental Assessment for commercial wind leasing and site assessment activities on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, BOEM has effectively cut at least two years off the permitting process for offshore wind off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia. Once an auction process is completed, it is expected that numerous leases will be issued in 2012, allowing critical data to be collected for the development of construction and operations plans for offshore wind projects in these areas.

Tribes Prepare for Homecoming of Wild Bison from Yellowstone

January 31 – People on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeast Montana are preparing a big welcome-home ceremony for a fellow Plains native whose absence for more than a century has left voids in the ecosystem and cultures it helped shape.

Nearly 70 wild bison from Yellowstone National Park, part of the country’s last, free-ranging herd, will be released onto the reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. The release, expected some time in March, will mark the return of the last genetically pure bison to the plains and the reunion of animals and people once seen as inseparable.

Great Lakes–Mississippi River Separation is Possible, Practical and Preventive

January 31 – A much-anticipated study says separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins to prevent the spread of Asian carp and other invasive species is not only possible, but a natural step toward much-needed action to improve Chicago’s water infrastructure.

Great Lakes environmental groups reacting to the study, released today by the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, commended the authors’ factual analysis concluding that separation is possible and that it must include essential upgrades to sewage, flood control and waterborne transportation while preventing the transfer of invasive species.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Associated Press: Colorado pols say stable oil, gas rules needed
• Reuters: Plans to block carp will re-reverse Chicago River
• E&E News: Sweeping energy package reaches House floor
• Bloomberg Businessnews: U.S. Plans to Auction Leases for Offshore Wind Farms in 2012 

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News