After Nearly 200 Years, Bison Return In Prairie Restoration

The four minute audio story is a tour of the Kankakee Sands by land manager, Ted Anchor, as he walks reporter Nick Janzen through the conservation efforts in Indiana. 

The last bison in Indiana was killed in the 1830s in French Lick. But in October 2016, the Nature Conservancy released 23 from a herd in South Dakota onto Kankakee Sands. Many of those cows are currently having calves – nine have been born so far.

The bison are here, near Morocco, Indiana, because The Nature Conservancy is restoring nearly 7,000 acres of short grass prairie at Kankakee Sands. Prior to European settlement, prairie dominated the Great Plains. The ecosystem stretched from the Rocky Mountains east, past the Mississippi River, into western Indiana.

Short grass prairie has to be cultivated, like a garden. The grasses, if left unchecked, can grow over six feet tall because Indiana gets so much rain. So to keep the prairie short, The Nature Conservancy is using North America’s largest lawnmowers: bison.

They’re the national mammal and one features on Indiana’s state seal, hopping a felled tree. Bison used to number over 60 million in the United States, but they dwindled to just 1,000.

Through ranching and restoration, though, the bison population has risen to over 500,000.