<
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wind-river-buffalo_n_65774f87e4b0881b7918130a>
"WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION — On a sunny August day, Jason Baldes drove a
mud-caked quad with a drink holder overflowing with matted buffalo fur toward
the wild herd he has overseen since 2016. The day before, the Eastern Shoshone
had killed one of the bulls, and the smell of warm blood and fresh meat still
hung in the air. As we bounced over dirt clods, we passed the esophagus and
pair of lungs that Baldes had left as a gift to the coyotes.
Every harvest from the growing herd marks a major victory for the Eastern
Shoshone, whose untranslated name, Gweechoondeka, literally means “buffalo
eaters.” But this one was special. For the first time in 139 years, the annual
sun dance ceremony, a multiday ritual, would include buffalo meat — a key
ingredient that had gone missing since European settlers all but wiped the
animals off the map in the late 19th century.
“You can’t have a sun dance without buffalo,” Baldes said. “You can’t use a
cow.”
The buffalo appeared as we approached an interior fence nearing the western end
of the property. Their patchy summer coats, shed almost to the skin to keep
them from baking under the summer sun, gave them a half-naked look. A few bulls
grunted, gurgled and chased one another in light sprints — signs that breeding
season had arrived. Most either lay bedded in the pasture or ambled along
feeding.
The field, speckled with yellow-flowering pineapple weed, wasn’t an ideal
feeding spot for bison, who prefer grass. But for millennia the spaded hooves,
concentrated grazing and wallowing of wild buffalo had shaped the ecosystem of
the high plains. Baldes wanted to see whether simply setting the animals loose
on the field would limit the invasives that had flourished over years of
fallowing before seeding it with something else.
“Buffalo are ecologically extinct,” Baldes said. “But they’re a keystone
species — ecosystem engineers. They’re the best land managers if you allow them
to do it.”"
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-on-marriage-equality-in-thailand-conservation-in-romania-and-reforestation-in-the-mediterranean/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
