Yes, "prairie" is derived from the Old French and the voyageurs were probably the first white men to witness the sea of bison flowing over the Great Plains. Tens of millions of buffalo roamed the interior 500 years ago. The decimation of the buffalo by later white men was beyond the understanding of indigenous Americans. It was a crime against nature, a type of genocide, since the eradication of the buffalo was intended to deprive the Native Americans living on the plains of their source of sustenance.
US Person and other conservationists want to make amends for this crime blighting the history of our country's development. We envision a great park rivaling or even exceeding the size of Yellowstone established on the Great Plains where human population density is now at historic lows. The Grande Prairie National Park, if you will, could cover millions of acres of restored grassland where reestablished herds of bison roam free, subject only to the predation of wolves and even grizzlies. The migrations of the herds could rival those found only on the Serengeti of Africa. Of course this ambitious dream can only be realized with the cooperation of state and federal governments as well as private land owners. That cooperation would require a profound change of public perception of the buffalo as a relic of the past. Wild bison are on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) list of threatened species. Now 93% of the remaining buffalo are livestock and interbreed with cattle. There are only 61 herds of plains bison and 11 herds of woods bison maintained in North American as conservation herds, which are carefully managed for genetic diversity and ecological function. IUCN's 2010 Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines provides a framework for action. Already there are conservation groups in Canada, such as the Canadian Rockies Bison Initiative, seeking to reestablish bison to the eastern slopes of Banff National Park. North America's largest land mammal, known as "Tatanka" to indigenous Americans, could thrive again if given only some of the grand space it once occupied.
[photo:www.uneco.org/return_of_the_bison.html]
