The return of a missing species can pay huge ecological dividends for a landscape. But sometimes people bring wildlife back for other reasons.
The Kalispel people brought buffalo back to a ranch on their tiny reservation near Usk on the Pend Oreille River in the 1970s. The one-hundred-and-fifty bison live behind fences in a field near the tribal casino in eastern Washington State. They don’t roam very far and they need hay bales to survive the winter. They are lovingly cared for by a small group of tribal members know to everyone as ‘The Buffalo Boys.’
This wildlife return doesn’t fit the classic mold of the stories I told in Tenacious Beasts. But the benefits the herd provides to the community are legion. A recent episode of Chris Morgan’s The Wild Podcast is devoted to the joys these buffalo provide. (Spoiler alert: I’m a writer for the show). Food, family, and memory are just some of the nourishments the buffalo provide, all seasoned by a rich sauce of rib-tickling humor.
Enjoy “The Buffalo Boys” from The Wild Pod.
Christopher J. Preston 