Learn American bison facts about recovering bison populations to heal grasslands and help create habitats for other wildlife.
The American bison (Bison bison) is an icon of the American West and was once almost hunted to extinction. Now, it’s struggling to make a slow comeback. This article isn’t about the slaughter, though it’ll touch on the ecological impacts of that carnage. Instead, we’ll look at the recovery and how this recovery is helping to rebalance our natural world.
Why Bison?
Bison have fascinated me since I saw my first one at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. This may seem weird, as I was born and raised in New Hampshire, and, historically, since bison weren’t in this part of the country, they were never part of my Native culture. Despite that, there was some sort of connection, an almost spiritual link, between the bison and me. To the Native people who call the Plains home – the Lakota, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Blackfeet, Crow, Kiowa, and others – the bison was (and still is) part of their culture and lives. So it has become to me.
My search for bison has taken me to North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and even Alaska. I’ve explored and studied the historical range of bison in Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York (yes, there were even bison east of the Mississippi River). The more I’ve dug, the more I’ve learned that no matter where they were found, bison had a dramatic impact on their environment.
These massive herbivores, relics of the ice age, greatly shaped the forests and plains. Their presence immensely added to the diversity of wildlife, from the smallest ground squirrel to the grizzly bear. Can the mighty bison help us cure some of the harms we’ve done to the environment? There’s hope, and evidence, that they can.
How Bison Helped Shape Our World
At the time of European arrival, bison roamed most of North America. By some accounts, an estimated 60 million bison roamed this land. Bison, which both graze (eat low vegetation) and browse (eat higher vegetation), helped keep the forests healthy by browsing the shoots of young trees. One would think this would destroy the forests, but bison kept moving, and their numbers were kept in balance by large predators, such as wolves and, to a lesser extent, Native American hunters who also called this land home. The constantly moving bison provided “roadways” that benefited deer, elk, and other animals. In Kentucky, those bison trails are known as “traces,” and many modern roads in that state are built along those traces.
Away from the forests and out on the plains, the hooves of the moving herds of bison turned the soil, and their dung fertilized it. Seeds carried in that dung and in their shaggy coats reestablished the grassland, providing food and cover for numerous wildlife. Bison cropped the vegetation close to the ground, but, unlike domestic cattle, they kept moving, allowing the native prairie grasses to rejuvenate. These cropped grasslands provided homes for burrowing animals, such as badgers, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and burrowing owls. In turn, these burrowing animals became food for the black-footed ferrets, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, snakes, hawks, and eagles.
In summer, the bison would roll in the dirt, forming wallows that would then fill with water, creating habitat for amphibians and temporary watering holes for other animals. In winter, the bulky bison broke through snow, making trails that other animals, such as deer, could use, as well as uncovering valuable food. This cycle continued year after year until the near destruction of the animal in the 19th century.
After seeing my first bison in North Dakota, I actively sought them out and researched their place in our environment. I traveled to the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) in North Dakota to see their bison program. That was about 20 years ago, and since then, my research has taken me to the Black Hills of South Dakota, the home of the Lakota people and where I learned the most about Tatanka and its role in the health of people and the environment.
Since then, I’ve made multiple trips to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and even to Alaska. I traveled to Montana, where I spoke to ranchers and others and listened to their concerns. While in Yellowstone, I explored on my own and with the help of many knowledgeable people, such as those at the Yellowstone Wolf Tracker.
Bison of the World
When we think of bison, we might normally think of the plains bison, but there are others in the world: wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) in the Canadian Yukon and into Alaska, and wisent bison (Bison bonasus) in Europe. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, of the three, the wood bison is the largest. In Alaska, bison feed on grasses, sedges, and forbs found on gravel bars during the summer months. Bison in Alaska will also feed on silverberries, willow, and birch. I saw my first wood bison in Alaska, and to say they’re impressive is an understatement. There’s been a great deal of work, in both Alaska and western Canada, to bring these animals back.
How Bison Can Help
To understand how the return of free-roaming bison, at least in part of their original range, can help, we need to understand their natural environment. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States has lost 50 million acres of native grassland in the past 10 years. This loss has occurred because of agriculture (large corporate agribusiness farms and ranches), development, and invasive species. All of this has been compounded by climate change.
Grasslands are some of the most species-rich habitats on earth. They’re home to countless mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, plants, and microbes. They provide essential resources to pollinator species and function as corridors for migratory birds. Native grasslands also help store valuable groundwater. One other thing we often overlook is that native grasslands are a critical carbon storage sink because of their deep root systems, unlike the shallow root systems of cultivated grasses. The migrating bison herds kept these grasslands healthy and vibrant and were a major factor in both their ultimate survival and ours.
Today’s Bison Herds
To restore the health of the grasslands and allow all life to thrive, including people, the free-roaming bison herds need to be brought back. Unfortunately, those wide-roaming herds that fed, housed, and clothed Native people are a thing of the past, but we can bring them back, to a point. To do this, we all must work together.
Today’s bison herds are divided into “wild” and “privately owned.” In typical fashion, both are managed as commodities. “Wild” bison are confined to national and state parks, where they’re primarily managed for their tourism value. Sadly, because bison migrate naturally, any that leave those “safe” zones often fall victim to a hunter’s or a rancher’s bullet. However, the populations can also outgrow the resources of the protected lands, resulting in some bison needing to be culled.
The other group of bison lives as owned property on private land, kept behind fences and treated no differently than a herd of cattle. That’s the same as saying that a wolf is just another dog. Many of these domestic bison end up as table fare in fancy restaurants.
Where to Go Next
In his book Return of the Bison, Roger L. Di Silvestro points out the need for bison to be part of the environmental picture. His major point is that we need to change our attitudes toward bison and the environment as a whole.
To successfully restore the environment, we need to stop looking at bison as a commodity and instead see them as a vital part of grassland ecosystems. To do that, bison need safe corridors where they can migrate freely between state, federal, tribal, and privately owned land. American Prairie, a nature reserve in Montana, is working to connect 3.2 million acres for these corridors.
Let’s protect the predators (wolves and bears) that keep the herds in check, and let’s stop plowing under and developing what remains of our native grasslands. The bison and the Earth are depending on us.
Dana Benner has been writing about all aspects of the outdoors, sustainability, self-sufficiency, and Native American history for 35 years. His work appears in Grit, Mother Earth News, Countryside & Small Stock Journal, and numerous others.
Originally published in the June/July 2025 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS and regularly vetted for accuracy.
