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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Bison, the savior of the prairies, once considered a pest for ranchers, are now as they always have been, are the keystone species for the survival of our prairies. The American Bison
America’s short grass prairies have been on the decline ever since settlers began using the prairies for cattle grazing 150 years ago. The prairies were being killed. The shortgrass prairie makes up 27,413 sq miles of remote land straddling the US/Canadian border to the east of the Rocky Mountains. Crested wheatgrass, a non-native plant seeded by European settlers for their cattle, paints swathes of land yellow in summer, has crowed out native species. But in order to save the prairies Tribes and conservation organizations have recently started bringing the bison back. And scientists studying the returns are discovering that getting the 2,000lb grazer back in its native ecosystem could be the key to the future of the prairie. The bison's biggest advantage, is to support the prairie in holding onto its water. Bison on the shortgrass prairie clearly proves the significance of native grazers for the countryside’s resilience. They may offer the prairie a lifeline as climate change gets worse. After a 5 year study, measuring grass, documenting prairie dogs, measuring everything from vegetation density and species diversity to the habits of grassland birds. Bison do something incredible in this hostile environment. Year-round grazing of bison is good for the landscape. Bison have an ingrained capacity to boost biodiversity. Plains bison co-evolved with the short-grass prairie. In the 12,000 years since the end of the Pleistocene, they have proven themselves to be potent ecosystem engineers. An adult bison eats about 25lbs of grass a day. The grasses adapted to their foraging. Vegetation across the plains uses the nutrients in their dung. Birds pluck their fur from bushes to insulate their nests. Bison also shape the land literally. They roll in the dust and create indentations known as "wallows" that hold water after rainstorms. After the bison move on, insects flourish in these pools and become a feast for birds and small mammals. Pronghorn antelope survive by following their tracks through deep winter snows. Plains bison spent thousands of years developing and sustaining a distinctive grassland ecology from Northern Canada through Montana to Mexico. But more than a century ago, this effect curtly stopped. A few decades of slaughter led bison numbers to plummet from 60 million to barely 800 living wild in the US and Canada by 1889. Market forces and government policy to eradicate the Native people’s main food source to make way for settlers, replaced bison and native people with ranches, white settlement and cattle. For a hundred years, cattle dominated the prairie. While cattle was a high demand for food sources and profits for the nation they were not good for the prairie. But there is hope, Today bison are getting a second chance. Tribal reservations are at the front of their recovery, taking extra bison from Yellowstone National Park and restoring them to treaty lands. American Prairie is also playing a part, buying ranches and returning bison to places where cattle were once king. About 30,000 bison now exist in conservation herds in various parks and protected areas across the country. More than 10 times that number exist on bison farms. Cows don't move or wander like bison, they can’t take the cold like bison either, when it gets cold cattle hunker down by creeks or down behind shrubs while bison meander along no matter the weather, and when its hot, cattle go to the creek bottoms for shade and the cooling water. Bison still meander the grasslands. The cattle’s destruction around creeks is devastating, by eating the trees and shrubs they reduce the amount of available shade. Their eating means less leaf falling to cover the ground and, when the shrubs die, less roots to stabilize the stream banks. The soil around the creeks dries out, the boxelder, cottonwoods, wild rose and snowberry vanish, and the streambanks get taken over by non-native grasses. What was once a cooling refuge for wildlife becomes almost as dismal as the uplands. Bison, by difference, are content to tough it out on the prairie. It's what evolution did. They visit streams and ponds occasionally to drink, but bison evolved to keep moving. Unless the temperatures approach the hundreds, they usually don't bother spending time near creeks. They don't need as much shade. They prefer the grasses on the sunbaked uplands to woody shrubs in the river bottoms. As a consequence, they do very little damage to creeks compared to cows. Rivers and streams cover less than 2% of the prairie, but are very crucial refuges for its wildlife. Research shows intensifications in vegetation and bird diversity on creeks where bison have replaced cattle. There are more deer and elk. Low-density grazing by bison is related with more diversity in woody vegetation heights and more native plant mixture in riparian areas than seasonal grazing by cattle. Well-vegetated creeks are the prairie's lifeblood. They keep the soil moist, the vegetation green, and they provide dispersal corridors for large mammals like mountain lions and black bears. Someday, they may afford safe passage for recovering grizzly bear populations. Replacing cattle with bison has greened up a floodplain nearly 594ft wide. Standing by one of the braids of the creek, the tops of the cattails wave in the breeze, where they were nearly no existent. Another important animal in the creeks are beavers, The abundance of new growth made possible by the bison gave beavers the building material they needed Cottonwood trees. In the years to come, the flooding created by the dams will cause cottonwood seeds buried in the streambanks to sprout, leading to the regrowth of trees. As more shrubs and trees return, more beavers will move in and build more dams, the natural, important, and essential cycle will continue. Ranchers in the areas have realized that in order to have a healthy ranch they need to also save the creeks, so they are sending water to troughs far away from the creeks or keep the cows from moving down there as much and wreaking havoc on the streams. With partnerships with Native Americans, ranchers, and conversationalists we can have both a healthy prairie, and profitable ranches, it’s a win, win for all of us. Tammy
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