Bison reintroduced into Illinois for the first time in over 100 years

[Panich52]

Daily Kos
Bison reintroduced into Illinois for the first time in over 100 years

This past October, Wild Bison were reintroduced onto the prairies, east of the Mississippi. It was the first time these prairies have seen the American Bison since the 1830s.

... 20 animals will be released from the corral to gradually roam much of the 3,500-acre Nachusa Grasslands — the key part of an ambitious prairie restoration 95 miles west of Chicago.

The Nachusa land is owned by The Nature Conservancy who have been buying up land in Northern Illinois since 1986. Their hope has been to reconstitute at least a small part of Illinois' prairies. Illinois, while known as "The Prairie State," hasn't had much in the way of prairies for many decades now. The amount of prairie lost due to westward expansion is pretty staggering:

Nearly 60 percent of the state, about 22 million acres, once was prairie, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources reports. Over the centuries, farms consumed much of it, leaving only 2,500 acres of prairie in Illinois today, the DNR states.

More
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/05/1368789/-Bison-reintroduced-into-Illinois-for-the-first-time-in-over-100-years?detail=email

[djean111]

1. Many many years ago, we went to see the bison at the Wildlife Prairie Park,

in the Peoria, Illinois area.

Those animals are waaaay bigger than I expected, and the huge chain-link fence was badly bowed out in some places, where a buffalo had charged.

One thing I remember from Illinois - buffalo calves are downright adorable, some farmers like keeping them as pets, and every year, it seems to me, a farmer would be killed by his no-longer-a-baby buffalo.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Yay Nature Conservancy ! nt

[NickB79]

3. They use a herd of bison near our house to maintain a tallgrass prairie

http://www.belwin.org/events/41/

The Belwin Conservancy hosts a herd of bison on our preserve every summer. While they are here, they reside on a 150-acre restored tallgrass prairie located at our preserve in Afton, Minnesota. The bison add a richness and excitement to the prairie that we sorely miss whenever they leave for the winter. That's why we're so eager to celebrate their return and we hope that you can join us!

150 acres isn't nearly enough to overwinter an entire herd, so they remove them in the fall, but it's still a magnificent sight to see!

[mopinko]

4. there are bison at fermi lab.

not saying this isnt a great thing, just saying it is not the first.
there are also farmers raising bison and beefalo here.