New Home on the Range
Two bison lock horns at Wind River Ranch
Three hundred years ago, the storm and thunder of bison swarmed the pinon-laced hills outside of Las Vegas. The land looked different then. Beaver claimed the Rio Gallinas in numbers much larger than today. The river bent to nature’s whims, snaking around geological dips in the landscape, flooding the plains during spring thaw. The land grew wetter, greener, denser. Prairie dogs dotted the landscape with cavernous burrows, their chewing of native grasses prompting the tender shoots that bison love to explode across the plains.
It’s difficult to imagine how Las Vegas and our surrounding communities used to appear before cattle barons carved the land grants and shifted the balance of natural power, forced thick fence stakes into the red earth in order to keep the neighbors and bison at bay, before fur trappers scented rusting traps with the glands of dead beaver in the hopes of snagging a fat prize.
Dr. Brian Miller, lead biologist at Wind River Ranch, a 5,000 acre ranch near Watrous devoted to ecological restoration, research, and education, understands that the delicate balance of nature has been upset, but can be restored. The ranch is currently owned by the EC Thaw Charitable Trust and is leading a cutting-edge research program of reintroducing keystone species such as bison, prairie dog, and beaver, in addition to rebuilding critical wetlands, with the hope that the native landscape will slowly recover. Dr. Miller, who is widely known for his decade-long work with the conservation of the endangered black-footed ferret, served seven years as a Coordinator of Conservation and Research at the Denver Zoological Foundation.
“We began grazing bison in June 2007 as a result of talks with several tribes about sharing a herd,” explains Dr. Miller. “With enough partners, that herd could be moved from place to place to more closely mimic the historic movements of bison. The Cultural Affairs Office of the Jicarilla Apache wanted to start a herd of bison on their tribal lands, and we are trying to give them a head start by grazing the bison on the Wind River Ranch. We view bison as a significant commitment to restoring grassland health and native species diversity. Indeed, of all the wild ungulates that were nearly pushed to extinction in the late 1800s, only bison have not recovered in the wild.”
43 bison now consider Wind River Ranch home, most of them new acquisitions from the Cultural Affairs Office of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe. The bison have been relocated as part of the efforts of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC), a group which coordinates and assists tribes in returning the buffalo to Indian country. In prehistoric times, millions of the thick-hided muscular animals roamed the continent. No one knows how many bison there were, but the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton estimated their numbers at sixty million when Columbus landed. They were part of the largest community of wild animals the world has ever known. By the late 1800’s, only three hundred specimens remained, and today’s slowly blooming populations are direct descendants of that small herd.
“Bison are an integral part of the prairie grassland,” Dr, Miller says. “The present grassland was formed largely due to the activities of prairie dogs and bison, two highly interactive species. In their absence, grassland health declined, despite the introduction of another large grazer, domestic cattle.”
Wind River’s new bison travel across the grass-laden lands as a herd. They appear to move as one unit, sharing one mind. When a threat - a human, a vehicle - appears, the herd moves together, rising, running, muscular flanks pounding into the crusty earth where indigenous grasses once grew. They face heavy winds as they rest, thick bodies pressed into dry ground, heads erect, steady, giving the bison an air of self-reliance, pride. The new herd members quickly acclimated to the ranch’s older group, learning the pecking order, the places where the sweetest grasses grow. Picuris Pueblo member and ITBC Secretary, Danny Sam, recalls how the reintroduction efforts began with only a bison bull and a cow. He stands with hands in jean pockets, a baseball cap protecting his head from the ferocious wind, his back to the bison corral, a black metal enclosure where the new bison rest until a veterinarian checks their health.
“We started the herd as a sustainable food source for our tribe. A lot of indigenous food has been taken out of our diet,” Sam explains. “The InterTribal Bison Cooperative consists of 57 tribes in 19 states. Nine of those tribes are in New Mexico - the Taos, Jicarilla, Apache, Cochiti, Sandia, San Juan, Picuris, and Tesuque tribes. We trade bulls to keep the gene pool diversified, and we market the meat at the Santa Fe market as well as other locations. It’s a lean meat, very healthy. We keep the bison wild. We don’t want to ‘cattle-ize’ them. Let buffaloes be buffaloes.”
The ITBC hopes to provide free or low-cost bison meat to tribal members, especially those who suffer from diabetes and other health issues for whom the lean unmarbled meat is highly recommended. The cows have a nine and a half month gestation period, producing one offspring per year. The calves - born with red fur - jump to their feet within ten minutes of birth, where they blend in with the local clay.
“All of the bison cows come over and lick the calf,” explains Sam. “Each one has a personality, a name. One of the calves we named ‘Holly’ because she was born near Christmas. People don’t realize that they run faster than a horse. They are less pressure on the ground, too, and spread seed through their woolly coat and dung.”
The wind picks up some afternoons, scattering dust along a deep river canyon dividing the ranch. The bison don’t follow the tick of clock, the whims of any curious visitor. They hide deep in scrub pine where shadow meets shadow. Prairie dogs furiously dig burrows, aerating the soil which sustains the bisons’ grasses.
Danny Sam laughed as a frisky cow pushed another against the corral.
“A whole ecosystem existed that was based on bison along with prairie dogs and natural predators like the wolf. Finally, men are beginning to realize the value of bison and other keystone species once more.” Sam paused to watch the cows challenge each other. “We’re grateful to Dr. Miller and Wind River Ranch for allowing us to preserve our heritage and help our mother earth flourish once again.”
by Birdie Jaworski
reprinted with permission from the Las Vegas Optic
