Bringing the Bison Home

Before the 19th century, the American Bison, also mistakenly known as Buffalo, dominated the United States. They roamed in the high millions co-existing with the Native Americans. Bison were known to be spiritual creatures and represent the roots of North America. 
As European settlers drove the Native Americans out of their homes, they did the same to the bison. As they were nearly driven to extinction, bison were put on a high conservation alert and put into captivity. As their  population numbers grew, so did the human population of the Great Plains. Bison prairies had been invaded and destroyed restricting their reintroduction.  Today, bison still only exist in wildlife preserves.


Today, the Great Plains are suffering depopulation. Statistics rate only 6 people per square mile due to hard economic times because of landscape and extreme weather conditions. With the opportunity of population-free land, what should be done with the historic Great Plains? Two eastern geographers from Rutgers University, Frank and Deborah Poppler proposed a reintroduction of the bison known as the Buffalo Commons. The Great Plains homeland would be restored back to its rightful owners, bison and wild flowers.