Dear HCN,
While the Poppers’ update
on the Buffalo Commons was interesting, it failed to disclose a
disturbing trend in private bison herd management (HCN, 2/2/98).
That trend is the domestication of bison. The bison slaughterhouse
in North Dakota mentioned in the Poppers’ article requires that
bison be grain-fed 120 days prior to slaughter, and criteria used
to grade carcasses are based on fat content, size and age at the
time of slaughter.
The highest prices are paid
for animals producing a large fat carcass at a young age.
Basically, it is the same people doing the same thing but with a
different animal, because they can make more money. The ecological,
cultural and spiritual values of bison have been lost in
market-driven greed. In Montana, native prairie continues to be
converted to cropland partly in response to land idled by the
Conservation Reserve Program.
Ten years after the
introduction of the Buffalo Commons concept, nothing has really
changed. The only glimmer of hope comes from the InterTribal Bison
Cooperative, but putting bison on Indian lands in a meaningful way
has been a slow, difficult process. Ecological restoration of the
Great Plains has hardly begun and it already needs a mid-course
correction.
Craig J.
Knowles
Boulder,
Montana
The writer is a
wildlife consultant with
FaunaWest.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Buffalo Commons is already flawed.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
