When will we see bison on the tallgrass prairie landscape and how many will there be?
The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy are formulating a bison management plan that will reintroduce a native grazer to the landscape, while assuring that bison have adequate grazing, water resources, and fencing. Genetically pure bison will be reintroduced to the prairie landscape when the plan is complete and everything in place. The plan will decide the herd size, based on the grazing area available for the health of the animal. The preserve is committed to this project and we ask the public to be patient, because anything worth doing is worth doing well. To hurriedly place bison on the landscape simply to satisfy public interest without fully formulating a plan would be negligent, both to the bison and the resource. Approximating the herd size without a completed bison management plan is impossible. Important decisions must be made first, before bison are reintroduced to the preserve landscape. The resource and the health of the bison lie in the balance.
