U. S. Department of Interior Recommits to National Bison Conservation Initiative

Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently extended the 2008 federal Bison Conservation Initiative for another 10 years, presumably with renewed vigor. The Initiative is managed by the Department’s Bison Working Group and will coordinate conservation strategies for wild bison, especially across 19 herds on lands of the Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The initiative also calls for shared stewardship of wild bison with states, Native American tribes and non-government organizations.

The activity of the DOI Bison Working Group over the last 12 years has not been entirely clear. Likely, they supported transfer of a few bison among DOI herds to bolster their genetics, and supported the needed expansion of bison habitat and herd size at Badlands National Park. Perhaps their most important product has been a recently released Population Viability Study. It analyzes the genetics of most DOI herds and compares the effects of several proposed management strategies for maintaining and enhancing genetic diversity among and within herds. It is an important guide to future management. The research was supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The DOI announcement includes plans for transferring a few bison from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Refuge to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park herds, and for developing a large Tribal herd of bison on and with the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Of concern, DOI reveals nothing about any commitment of the Sioux Tribe toward management that will limit artificial selection and conserve the diversity and wildness of the herd genome.

Among the DOI Working Group goals are: (1) conserve bison as healthy wildlife; (2) support genetic diversity across DOI herds; (3) cooperate with states, tribes and other stakeholders; (4) establish large, wide-ranging bison herds on large landscapes where bison will shape diverse ecological communities of plants and animals; and (5) restore cultural connections of bison with all people.

DOI goals 3 and 4, above, are especially coincident with goals of the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition. In particular, restoring a large, public, wild bison herd on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge will enhance all five DOI goals, and the federal government has reiterated its desire to work with Montana to this end. 

Jim Bailey