From Ghosts to Growth
Alyssa Smock | April 2020
The cow nudges her calf as they fall behind the herd. The dark, ominous skies and sharp winds cut through the western prairie, telling the bison an intense thunderstorm is brewing. The herd gathers close, continuing to nuzzle the ground to unveil the snow-covered sand dropseed and little bluestem grasses. The herd won’t have to leave these hills in search of a pond for a while, since the many wallows will surely fill up with precipitation from the incoming storm. Thousands of bison trek the vast lands of Yellowstone National Park, where this particular conservationist herd resides. Though this herd cannot migrate freely within North America as they once did in the past, various bison herds reside anywhere from the arid airs of Northern Mexico to the deep snow cover of Yellowstone, and the riparian meadows of Alaska and Canada.
The longer the herd remains in one spot, the grass and shrubbery disappears so they travel towards more abundant flora. Much of the best grass resides at the edge of the park, where an invisible ending line exists. Many bison cross this line every year and are subsequently slaughtered to ensure population control and for fear of brucellosis, a disease spread to cattle and elk that affects the ability to give birth. The bison never stood a chance. With no fence or barrier, how are the bison to know what is restricted? I guess they’re not supposed to know, to ensure a steady number are slaughtered each year. This restriction of population and migration is just another example of anthropocentric practicesー enforcing the normalized slaughtering to protect farmers and rancher’s cattle. This concept of control and conquest is not new, but rather a small remnant of one of the most tragic acts of exploitation in America known to date.
In the early nineteenth century, it was estimated that there were between thirty and sixty million bison existing in North America alone. By the end of the nineteenth century, only twenty three wild bison were left. This particular biodiversity crisis was initiated by the fault of man and the obsession over development and economy. Though many viewed the destruction of the bison’s population as a justifiable right to the commons, the killing of the bison is not so much a tragedy of the commons as it is a deliberate killing and stealing of a common to enforce assimilation and expand infrastructure through the very land this “common” lived on. The crisis was born within the industrialization, innovation and commodification of natural, wild spaces by European colonizers. In the event of westward expansion and manifest destiny, European settlers encouraged citizens to settle west and farm or mine, though much of this land was already occupied by Native Americans and the natural world. To free up the land, the colonizers depleted the numbers of bison in tribal areas, hoping this would convince natives to move to reservations, where food was promised upon arrival. Most times, the access to this food never came.
Western settlers also saw economic promise in the bison hide trade, as well as bison bones for fertilizer. New tanning methods of bison hides created heightened demand within the market. The only trace of the bison’s existence after the mass depletion was the massive piles of bison skulls that existed along the railroad for pick up and drop off across the states. Like ghosts, these bison disappeared, and the only true sufferers of this haunting, desolate land was the Native American tribes that once maintained mutually beneficial relationships with bison for thousands of years. Their culture, hunting practices, emotional tie to the land, and secure livelihoods were all stripped away, as Eurocentric assimilation was enforced. Very few tribal members survived this event if they didn’t assimilate and fewer were able to maintain their indigenous practices.
Eventually, Theodore Roosevelt and other conservationists vowed to protect the remaining bison, establishing strict environmental policy and preservations in the midwestern area that are still thriving today. While bison numbers are currently stable at around thirty thousand in natural, maintained herds and 300 thousand in captivity or livestock farming, the bison population would fall into decline without the continuous maintenance of human involvement. For this reason, the species is classified as near threatened. There are 68 current ‘wild’ herds and four thousand farms involved. Surely if bison were given more land than just a small piece of the original prairie they once inhabited and the ability to migrate, their species would regain the strength and survivability they once obtained.
As the storm weakens, some bison drink from the wallows while others scratch their now damp sides against nearby trees to prevent horse flies from biting them. This rubbing action is actually one way bison are environmentally helpful, preventing trees from invading the western prairie. Bison’s contributions to the prairie are vast, including widening the biodiversity of prairie tallgrass by nuzzling their snouts into the ground, wallowing, and rubbing on trees. By supporting health, resilience, and biodiversity of their landscape, bison are a keynote species.
Unfortunately, however, they have become potentially destructive to these western grasslands as their populations continue to rise. While scientists have speculated this effect, it is difficult to assess the bison’s current effect since the 68 million hectares of free-roaming prairie that once existed prior to the nineteenth century is now reduced to only five percent due to cultivation and agriculture that swept through the west. Though the species' numbers are stable and growing, this species is often not accustomed to natural selection and harsh elements anymore, only facing predators and extreme climates in certain areas. When the bison species almost died out, conservationists bred bison with cattle to save the species. This created many slight genetic variants of bison. Scientists are now trying to deplete the cattle genes within bison to ensure strong genetics to fight common diseases. This science is also used to determine which bison to auction off or slaughter when the time of the year comes to maintain population control. Only the purest and genetically superior bison are to remain in the “wild” environmentally protected and maintained herds to restore the species.
As day falls and the sun sets over the neighboring hill, the golden tallgrass glistens in the sunset, giving promise of the next day’s meal. The herd slows, accepting its current field as an adequate settlement for the night. While the towering six-foot bulls patrol around the herd before laying on the outskirts with a watchful eye, the thousand pound cows inspect the calves, as if tucking them into bed before the darkness of night sets in. So large and powerful yet so peaceful, the bison settle in as the crickets chirp them into a deep slumber, existing within the darkness until the early bird’s song wakes them at the edge of sunlight. America’s national animal, the bison, was almost made extinct by anthropocentrism but it prevailed, growing with unbridled force and stamina. Bison’s continuous resilience is unending, reclaiming the land they roamed at the beginning of time. Though the early Anthropocene greatly damaged the bison of North America, the species will go on, surely outliving their biggest threat to date: us.
Sources
Andrew C Isenberg. 2003. “American Bison: A Natural History . Organisms and Environments, Volume 6. By Dale F Lott ; Foreword by Harry W Greene . Berkeley (California): University of California Press . $29.95. Xvi + 229 p + 32 Pl; Ill.; Index. ISBN: 0–520–23338–7. 2002 .” The Quarterly Review of Biology 78 (2): 242. doi:10.1086/377993.
Beschta, Robert L., William J. Ripple, J. Boone Kauffman, and Luke E. Painter. 2020. “Bison Limit Ecosystem Recovery in Northern Yellowstone.” Food Webs 23 (June). doi:10.1016/j.fooweb.2020.e00142.
Eisenberg, Cristina. 2019. “Saving the American Bison: How an Iconic Keystone Species Is Shaping Modern Wildlife Conservation.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 100 (4): N.PAG. doi:10.1002/bes2.1584.
Erickson, Bruce, and Andrew Baldwin. 2020. “Anthropocene Futures: Linking Colonialism and Environmentalism in an Age of Crisis.” Environment & Planning D: Society & Space 38 (1): 111. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy006.nclive.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=141602353&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Grayson, Donald K. 2006. “Holocene Bison in the Great Basin, Western USA.” Holocene 16 (6): 913–25. doi:10.1191/0959683606hol982fa.
Hill, Peter J. 2014. “Are All Commons Tragedies? The Case of Bison in the Nineteenth Century.” Independent Review 18 (4): 485–502. doi:http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/.
Knapp, Alan K., John M. Blair, John M. Briggs, Scott L. Collins, David C. Hartnett, Loretta C. Johnson, and E. Gene Towne. 1999. “The Keystone Role of Bison in North American Tallgrass Prairie.” BioScience 49 (1): 39. doi:10.2307/1313492.
Martin, Jeff M., Rachel A. Martin, and Jim I. Mead. 2017. “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Bison of the Colorado Plateau.” Southwestern Naturalist 62 (1): 14–28. doi:10.1894/0038-4909-62.1.14.
Nesheim, David A. 2012. “Profit, Preservation, and Shifting Definitions of Bison in America.” Environmental History 17 (3): 547–77. doi:10.1093/envhis/ems048.
Rostlund, Erhard. 1960. “The Geographic Range of the Historic Bison in the Southeast.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 50 (4): 395–407. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1960.tb00357.x
Taylor, M. Scott. 2011. “Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison.” American Economic Review 101 (7): 3162–95. doi:http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/.
Wahlmeier, Amanda. 2019. “On the Trail of the North American Buffalo.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 59 (1): 75. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy006.nclive.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=140298510&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Alyssa Smock | April 2020
The cow nudges her calf as they fall behind the herd. The dark, ominous skies and sharp winds cut through the western prairie, telling the bison an intense thunderstorm is brewing. The herd gathers close, continuing to nuzzle the ground to unveil the snow-covered sand dropseed and little bluestem grasses. The herd won’t have to leave these hills in search of a pond for a while, since the many wallows will surely fill up with precipitation from the incoming storm. Thousands of bison trek the vast lands of Yellowstone National Park, where this particular conservationist herd resides. Though this herd cannot migrate freely within North America as they once did in the past, various bison herds reside anywhere from the arid airs of Northern Mexico to the deep snow cover of Yellowstone, and the riparian meadows of Alaska and Canada.
The longer the herd remains in one spot, the grass and shrubbery disappears so they travel towards more abundant flora. Much of the best grass resides at the edge of the park, where an invisible ending line exists. Many bison cross this line every year and are subsequently slaughtered to ensure population control and for fear of brucellosis, a disease spread to cattle and elk that affects the ability to give birth. The bison never stood a chance. With no fence or barrier, how are the bison to know what is restricted? I guess they’re not supposed to know, to ensure a steady number are slaughtered each year. This restriction of population and migration is just another example of anthropocentric practicesー enforcing the normalized slaughtering to protect farmers and rancher’s cattle. This concept of control and conquest is not new, but rather a small remnant of one of the most tragic acts of exploitation in America known to date.
In the early nineteenth century, it was estimated that there were between thirty and sixty million bison existing in North America alone. By the end of the nineteenth century, only twenty three wild bison were left. This particular biodiversity crisis was initiated by the fault of man and the obsession over development and economy. Though many viewed the destruction of the bison’s population as a justifiable right to the commons, the killing of the bison is not so much a tragedy of the commons as it is a deliberate killing and stealing of a common to enforce assimilation and expand infrastructure through the very land this “common” lived on. The crisis was born within the industrialization, innovation and commodification of natural, wild spaces by European colonizers. In the event of westward expansion and manifest destiny, European settlers encouraged citizens to settle west and farm or mine, though much of this land was already occupied by Native Americans and the natural world. To free up the land, the colonizers depleted the numbers of bison in tribal areas, hoping this would convince natives to move to reservations, where food was promised upon arrival. Most times, the access to this food never came.
Western settlers also saw economic promise in the bison hide trade, as well as bison bones for fertilizer. New tanning methods of bison hides created heightened demand within the market. The only trace of the bison’s existence after the mass depletion was the massive piles of bison skulls that existed along the railroad for pick up and drop off across the states. Like ghosts, these bison disappeared, and the only true sufferers of this haunting, desolate land was the Native American tribes that once maintained mutually beneficial relationships with bison for thousands of years. Their culture, hunting practices, emotional tie to the land, and secure livelihoods were all stripped away, as Eurocentric assimilation was enforced. Very few tribal members survived this event if they didn’t assimilate and fewer were able to maintain their indigenous practices.
Eventually, Theodore Roosevelt and other conservationists vowed to protect the remaining bison, establishing strict environmental policy and preservations in the midwestern area that are still thriving today. While bison numbers are currently stable at around thirty thousand in natural, maintained herds and 300 thousand in captivity or livestock farming, the bison population would fall into decline without the continuous maintenance of human involvement. For this reason, the species is classified as near threatened. There are 68 current ‘wild’ herds and four thousand farms involved. Surely if bison were given more land than just a small piece of the original prairie they once inhabited and the ability to migrate, their species would regain the strength and survivability they once obtained.
As the storm weakens, some bison drink from the wallows while others scratch their now damp sides against nearby trees to prevent horse flies from biting them. This rubbing action is actually one way bison are environmentally helpful, preventing trees from invading the western prairie. Bison’s contributions to the prairie are vast, including widening the biodiversity of prairie tallgrass by nuzzling their snouts into the ground, wallowing, and rubbing on trees. By supporting health, resilience, and biodiversity of their landscape, bison are a keynote species.
Unfortunately, however, they have become potentially destructive to these western grasslands as their populations continue to rise. While scientists have speculated this effect, it is difficult to assess the bison’s current effect since the 68 million hectares of free-roaming prairie that once existed prior to the nineteenth century is now reduced to only five percent due to cultivation and agriculture that swept through the west. Though the species' numbers are stable and growing, this species is often not accustomed to natural selection and harsh elements anymore, only facing predators and extreme climates in certain areas. When the bison species almost died out, conservationists bred bison with cattle to save the species. This created many slight genetic variants of bison. Scientists are now trying to deplete the cattle genes within bison to ensure strong genetics to fight common diseases. This science is also used to determine which bison to auction off or slaughter when the time of the year comes to maintain population control. Only the purest and genetically superior bison are to remain in the “wild” environmentally protected and maintained herds to restore the species.
As day falls and the sun sets over the neighboring hill, the golden tallgrass glistens in the sunset, giving promise of the next day’s meal. The herd slows, accepting its current field as an adequate settlement for the night. While the towering six-foot bulls patrol around the herd before laying on the outskirts with a watchful eye, the thousand pound cows inspect the calves, as if tucking them into bed before the darkness of night sets in. So large and powerful yet so peaceful, the bison settle in as the crickets chirp them into a deep slumber, existing within the darkness until the early bird’s song wakes them at the edge of sunlight. America’s national animal, the bison, was almost made extinct by anthropocentrism but it prevailed, growing with unbridled force and stamina. Bison’s continuous resilience is unending, reclaiming the land they roamed at the beginning of time. Though the early Anthropocene greatly damaged the bison of North America, the species will go on, surely outliving their biggest threat to date: us.
Sources
Andrew C Isenberg. 2003. “American Bison: A Natural History . Organisms and Environments, Volume 6. By Dale F Lott ; Foreword by Harry W Greene . Berkeley (California): University of California Press . $29.95. Xvi + 229 p + 32 Pl; Ill.; Index. ISBN: 0–520–23338–7. 2002 .” The Quarterly Review of Biology 78 (2): 242. doi:10.1086/377993.
Beschta, Robert L., William J. Ripple, J. Boone Kauffman, and Luke E. Painter. 2020. “Bison Limit Ecosystem Recovery in Northern Yellowstone.” Food Webs 23 (June). doi:10.1016/j.fooweb.2020.e00142.
Eisenberg, Cristina. 2019. “Saving the American Bison: How an Iconic Keystone Species Is Shaping Modern Wildlife Conservation.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 100 (4): N.PAG. doi:10.1002/bes2.1584.
Erickson, Bruce, and Andrew Baldwin. 2020. “Anthropocene Futures: Linking Colonialism and Environmentalism in an Age of Crisis.” Environment & Planning D: Society & Space 38 (1): 111. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy006.nclive.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=141602353&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Grayson, Donald K. 2006. “Holocene Bison in the Great Basin, Western USA.” Holocene 16 (6): 913–25. doi:10.1191/0959683606hol982fa.
Hill, Peter J. 2014. “Are All Commons Tragedies? The Case of Bison in the Nineteenth Century.” Independent Review 18 (4): 485–502. doi:http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/.
Knapp, Alan K., John M. Blair, John M. Briggs, Scott L. Collins, David C. Hartnett, Loretta C. Johnson, and E. Gene Towne. 1999. “The Keystone Role of Bison in North American Tallgrass Prairie.” BioScience 49 (1): 39. doi:10.2307/1313492.
Martin, Jeff M., Rachel A. Martin, and Jim I. Mead. 2017. “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Bison of the Colorado Plateau.” Southwestern Naturalist 62 (1): 14–28. doi:10.1894/0038-4909-62.1.14.
Nesheim, David A. 2012. “Profit, Preservation, and Shifting Definitions of Bison in America.” Environmental History 17 (3): 547–77. doi:10.1093/envhis/ems048.
Rostlund, Erhard. 1960. “The Geographic Range of the Historic Bison in the Southeast.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 50 (4): 395–407. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1960.tb00357.x
Taylor, M. Scott. 2011. “Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison.” American Economic Review 101 (7): 3162–95. doi:http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/.
Wahlmeier, Amanda. 2019. “On the Trail of the North American Buffalo.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 59 (1): 75. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy006.nclive.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=140298510&site=eds-live&scope=site.