is to create the largest nature reserve in the contiguous United States, a refuge for people and wildlife preserved forever as part of America’s heritage.
STAFFCONTRIBUTORS
Becky Lonardo Editor in Chief
Travis Campbell Design Manager
Damien Austin
Katy Beattie
Pedro CalderonDominguez
Amanda Determan
Alison Fox
Paul Kemper
Daniel Kinka, Ph.D.
Robyn Miller
Ellie Oakley
Dusty Rixford
Dan Stevenson
Michael Wainwright
Corrie Williamson
NATIONALBOARD of DIRECTORS
George E. Matelich
Chair
Gib Myers Vice Chair
Keith Anderson
Treasurer
Jay Abbe
Alan Airth
Clyde Aspevig
John Banovich
Jill E. Bough
David A. Coulter
Steven N. Cousins
Alison Fox
Sean Gerrity
EMERITUSBOARD
Stephenie AmbroseTubbs
Ann DeBusk
Bob Greenlee
Liliane A. Haub
Bill Hilf
Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
Tim Kelly
Jacqueline B. Mars
Susan Matelich
Karen Petersen
Mehra
Nancy S. Mueller
Susan Myers
Jeffrey Talpins
Mara Talpins
William H. Lively ,Jeff Miller
Susan O’Connor
Elizabeth Ruml
In memoriam: Erivan Haub
Cover photo of a great blue heron by Dennis Lingohr and inside photo of aurora borealis by Big Sky Nightscapes. Interior photos by Adam Richins, Dennis Lingohr, Gib Myers, Gordon Wiltsie, Light of Blue Photography, Ried Morth, and Smithsonian Institute. Design and layout by Michael Karter of MK Creative.
FROM OUR CEO
Lately, we have been talking a lot about “rewilding.”
Rewilding is a conservation approach aimed at restoring and reconnecting ecosystems to their natural state by reintroducing or protecting key species and allowing natural processes to occur. It is a term that is becoming more popular and is used more often in conservation, but the philosophies have deep roots.
Here at American Prairie, we have been rewilding since day one.
We have spent nearly two decades making progress by studying, trying new things, learning, course correcting, and monitoring impact. Over the course of time, we have never lost sight of the vision to restore and conserve enough land to support a self-sustaining shortgrass prairie ecosystem.
The main objectives of rewilding are to promote biodiversity, enhance ecological resilience, and restore natural balance in degraded or fragmented landscapes. Typically, rewilding strategies involve reintroducing species that were historically present on the landscape. American Prairie prioritizes species like bison and prairie dogs, because they play essential roles in shaping the ecosystem, influencing vegetation growth, and creating habitats for other species. In addition to ecological restoration, we focus on increasing collaboration and community engagement. We are growing our educational programs to enhance public awareness and understanding of the importance of rewilding and conservation.
You will read more about the specifics of the American Prairie Rewilding Plan later in this issue of the Sentinel, and you will hear from the people who are on the ground doing the work. But first, we share with you part of the conversation that I recently had with Kris Tompkins—a leading voice in conservation. She and her late husband, Douglas Tompkins, have protected approximately 15 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, making them among the most successful national parkoriented philanthropists in history. The American Prairie team has followed Kris’s work for years and we look to her for inspiration and best practices. She and I sat down to discuss conservation and what we each have learned through the course of our own work. I left that conversation feeling positively inspired, and I hope you feel the same.
We are on the verge of something big at American Prairie, and I am glad you are here.
Alison Fox, CEO
Alison Fox recently sat down with Kristine McDivitt Tompkins to chat about conservation and rewilding. Kris is the 2023 recipient of the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize, and is the focus of the documentary Wild Life. She is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, an American conservationist, and former CEO of Patagonia, Inc.
a conversation on conservation
WITH Kris Tompkins
Alison Fox As you look back and reflect on 30 years of accomplishments of Tompkins Conservation and now Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, what have been some of your proudest moments?
Kris Tompkins When we started buying large tracts of land, we didn’t understand that eventually we would start turning all of it into national parks—it happened organically. The first few donations to Chile and Argentina were extraordinarily powerful because it was teaching us how to work with myriad of people.
But certainly, rewilding has changed the nature of our work deeply. Seeing jaguars walk into the freedom of a two-million-acre wetlands after being gone for 70 years…that gives the sense of what it really means to be free.
AF That story of the jaguar reminds me of our bison restoration work. When we reintroduce bison to a piece of land where they haven’t been for more than a century, and they jump off the back of that trailer…they belong there. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling.
KT Yes. I think we have a nature of protecting species, but it’s also about forming the model for rewilding. As Lois Crisler said, “Landscape without wildlife is just scenery.” We are not in the scenery business. We are in the business of bringing back fully functioning ecosystems. American Prairie is one of the most important projects that I see, because it is changing the idea of what conservation is in this generation.
AF Thank you, Kris. You have visited American Prairie, and you have visited projects in Africa and in Europe. What are some of the universal truths you’ve seen in these large-scale conservation efforts?
KT First and foremost, regardless of where it is in the world, there is a natural conflict between conservation and production. We learned this the hard way in the early years in Chile. You have to be in it for the long haul—as American Prairie has shown. You have to put in the years and be a good neighbor, and find a way that all of this work is worthy of local and regional communities. They will be the ones who protect the place for the next 100, 150, 200 years.
AF I agree. The tie between ecological resilience and sociological resilience is strong. That is certainly what we have found in our work. Being present in communities, being communicative, showing up, and being a good neighbor. That is how we have found partners like the Aaniiih and Nakoda, who now have black-footed ferret—the most endangered land mammal in North America—bison, and swift fox on their land, which is such a conservation success in our region.
Kris, The New York Times did an incredible profile on you. In it, you mentioned that you deeply worry about climate change. You said, “On a good day, it’s grief. On a bad day, it’s despair.” You also noted that you aren’t throwing in the towel and you are all about relentless forward progress. Tell us what you mean by that. What gives you hope?
“I applaud all of you who are working with American Prairie because this is the high watermark for conservation in North America.”
Kris Tompkins
KT I think if you’re old enough, you realize that there are black swans in this world. Things happen that you hadn’t counted on.
There is a possibility that the outcome of our inability to live within our means may shift in some way. So I keep working for that. I can’t imagine ever deciding, “No, I’m not going to do this anymore because it’s too difficult, too depressing. All is lost.” I think that’s the time to really kick it into gear and push harder. Hone your mind to the things that will have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time. I can’t imagine giving up because of my occasional despair. What do you think? How do you look at this?
AF I am very encouraged by the trends I see – that the warming of the planet and biodiversity loss are increasingly part of the same conversation. Temperate grasslands—where we both work—are the least protected and most threatened biome in the world, yet grasslands sequester a lot of carbon. There is also new research that indicates rewilding helps ecosystems store more carbon.
I think the challenges that our planet faces have hit us in the face the last few years. To see every generation recognize the challenges and to see large-scale conservation efforts put up as one of the solutions is highly encouraging to me.
KT Yes, I really look for things that are encouraging. American Prairie, to me, is the lighthouse in North America. It is. And it’s big, it’s audacious, it’s difficult. It requires working with so many communities, so many species.
I applaud all of you who are working with American Prairie because this is the high watermark for conservation in North America. I’ve been to a lot of conservation projects. When you’re out in front and doing things that haven’t been done before, it elevates all of our work. It emboldens other conservation entities and individuals, because you are out there on the front line taking the initial hits when new strategies are developed.
We were the pros at that through the years. We took every hit possible, yet things change and things evolve. People begin to understand that we can’t do this without everybody pulling on the same oar.
I don’t believe that any life has a throughline except one imposed upon it in hindsight, but there have been two formative experiences in my life that speak to a kind of belief in wildness.
The first was an ecstatic drive through South Dakota to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” as loud as the speakers of my 1998 Toyota Tercel could muster. Windows down at 87 miles per hour, I abandoned a mundane track toward an academic’s life and headed West, with the carefree attitude only a 24-year-old can conjure. I lay awake that night in my small tent, pitched in the heart of Badlands National Park, as a chorus of coyotes yipped and yodeled their approval of my decision.
The second experience was one of quiet, overwhelming insignificance, as I lay alone on a sandbar in the Escalante River. Watching the Milky Way slowly turn through the keyhole of Stevens Arch towering above me, I sank through deep, geologic time, and felt myself one infinitesimal piece of that timeless wild river.
The Northern Great Plains, stretching from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Missouri River’s southbound descent along the 100th Meridian, were one of the wildest landscapes on the planet. As little as 200 years ago, the prairie teemed with bison, elk, pronghorn, prairie dogs, wolves, and grizzly bears, while the skies were filled with raptors, sparrows, and waterfowl. That oncevibrant ecosystem has been drastically transformed. ►
The Journey to Rewild American Prairie
By DANIEL KINKA, Ph.D.
Senior Wildlife Restoration Manager
The Indigenous Peoples and lifeways of the plains were driven onto reservations; bison were hunted to near-extinction followed by the extirpation of wolves, bears, elk, and bighorn sheep; native grasses were replaced by non-native “tame” grasses; and prairie dogs were (and are still) exterminated as pests. As a result, the Northern Great Plains lost much of their ecological integrity, and the species that once called this landscape home were pushed far beyond ecological relevance, and in some cases to the brink of extinction. In a shockingly small amount of time the unparalleled indigenous biodiversity of the Great Plains—a cradle of North America’s human ecology and the first landscape ever dreamt of as a “Nation’s Park”—was very nearly subjugated into a homogenous, domesticated obscurity.
That’s where I found myself in 2018. Fresh out of graduate school and dropped out of a Suburban in the heart of Montana, an hour from a paved road and a stone’s throw from the reintroduced but soon-to-disappear black-footed ferret population at the UL-Bend Wilderness of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. American Prairie had been hard at work putting the pieces of a grassland ecosystem back together for nearly two decades at that point, but I just got there. And after four long field seasons camping with shepherds and observing the interactions of livestock guardian dogs, domestic sheep, and wolves in the idyllic mountain meadows of the Sawtooth, Blue, and Bighorn Mountain ranges, I was having trouble connecting to the lonely prairies. It is a harshly beautiful place, but hardly wild.
Thriving wildlife populations are critical to sustaining the integrity, complexity, and resilience of the ecosystem.
I understood this when I joined American Prairie, but I couldn’t connect with the grasslands or feel any sense of kinship with the place until I saw that vision of a wild prairie with my own eyes. Thankfully, it did not take long. Only a month or two after I started, I was traveling across the Sun Prairie management unit on a snowmobile looking for a GPS collar that had dropped off a bison. I crested a ridge with an expansive view looking out over the Box Elder Creek drainage, and just as I did, I startled a small herd of bison. The bison had heard me coming and were already running full speed along the rim of a small cliff edge just ahead of me. I turned off the engine and watched the backlit animals move effortlessly through two feet of snow, fleeing from the sound of my approach, but also, perhaps, just running because they can. Because bison hooves kneading ice and grass into prairie soil across vast stretches of wild, rolling grasslands propitiates something very old and fundamental. The prairie had just been pleasant scenery for me until that point, but here was a brief glimpse of wildness.
The future American Prairie will be the very portrait of North American wildness. The land will be wild, the animals will be wild, and the experience will be wild. But the critical missing component of this kind of wildness is wildlife. Relative to the current state, there should be a distracting amount of wildlife in every direction. This conspicuousness (and the abundance that underpins it) is crucial to the system. Thriving wildlife populations are critical to sustaining the integrity, complexity, and resilience of the ecosystem.
In recent years, there has been a growing movement to rewild the diminished and degraded corners of the world. The movement seeks to restore the ecological balance of the planet’s degraded biomes by reintroducing and repopulating native species, connecting fragmented habitats, and jumpstarting dormant ecological processes. The goal is to create selfsustaining ecosystems that support resilient socio-ecological communities, production of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and refuges for both people and wildlife. It is in many ways something besides just conservation. Rewilding isn’t about saving or recreating something lost, but instead—by putting back the missing pieces—allowing natural systems to recover a new kind of equilibrium. Biodiverse systems are complex ones, and in complexity we find not just resilience, but a kind of beauty.
The American Prairie team is hard at work rewilding our little corner of the Northern Great Plains. We are not a wildlife agency, which means that we do not have the authority to directly manipulate the wildlife that are held as a public trust for the benefit of all of us. As such, our actions are often indirect and sometimes counterintuitive, but have no less ability to grow the wildlife populations on our properties to a level of ecological significance. In the pages of this Sentinel we are pleased to share with you our Rewilding Model, the philosophy that underpins it, and introduce you to some of our colleagues hard at work making American Prairie a wilder place.
American Prairie’s
Rewilding Model
American Prairie’s vision is to fully restore the shortgrass prairie ecosystem in an identified region of the Northern Great Plains in Montana. As such, the American Prairie Ecosystem will again contain ecologically meaningful populations of all non-extinct, native species present in the reference ecosystem (i.e., the Missouri Plains ecosystem, circa 1800), with management focused on maximizing the integrity, complexity, and resilience of the system.
Realizing our Rewilding Vision
► Assemble a landbase of 5,000 square miles encompassing the 1.1 million acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding private lands that are connected to grazing rights on adjacent federal and state public lands.
► Expand bison herds on American Prairie deeded and leased lands, and facilitate black-tailed prairie dog range expansion, such that each species occupies the largest acreage possible to maximize their role as keystone species and ecosystem engineers.
► Increase “safe acreage” for dispersing wolves and grizzly bears so that these keystone species can naturally reestablish populations in Central Montana.
► Reconstruct stream and wetland habitat with low-tech, process-based solutions (e.g., beaver dam analogues) that allow riparian systems to recover and beavers to recolonize.
► Repair prairie habitat by replanting cropland with native vegetation.
► Restore the keystone effect of wildfire by executing a prescribed fire plan.
► Maximize habitat connectivity and reduce habitat fragmentation by removing or modifying fences, treating and eradicating weeds, and removing junk piles and other unwanted infrastructure.
► Increase social carrying capacity for wildlife through community advocacy, coalition building, community-based conservation, and providing economic incentives for tolerance.
► Balance hunting and other access on American Prairie’s private lands to maximize the ecological role of humans in the ecosystem, without artificially or unnaturally suppressing wildlife populations.
American Prairie is made up of many different habitat types that, together, are an important component of a wild and diverse ecosystem. Not too long ago, I was chatting with Danny Kinka, Senior Wildlife Restoration Manager, about the different habitats that are present in this region of Montana. He said something along these lines:
The region goes by many names. It is part of the North American biome known as the Great Plains, in the ecoregion known as the West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, or more commonly the Northern Great Plains.
This area of the Northern Great Plains is sometimes further split along the Missouri River, with the area north of the river described as the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and the area south of the river described as the Northwestern Great Plains.
The mountains in the region (e.g., Big Snowy, Judith, Moccasin, Bears Paw, Little Rockies) actually constitute their own biome, but are sometimes referred to as the Middle Rockies.
There is also an ecoregional classification that further subdivides things, as well as other completely separate naming systems. For instance, the Montana Institute on Ecosystems divides eastern Montana into two ecosystems; the High Plains to the northeast, and the Upper Missouri to the southwest.
Clear as mud? Thought so.
These classifications can seem confusing and complicated, but they are ultimately just lenses with which we view a mosaic landscape. These lenses help us better understand the region not just in terms of ecology, but also culture, industry, and amenities.
Large place names like Great Plains or American Prairie may disguise the fact that a visit to one part of the region is likely to yield a very different experience than a visit to another part. As such, we can think of American Prairie as a patchwork quilt of different habitats, each with a unique set of ecological variables and visitor opportunities. ►
Ponderosa Woodland
Sagebrush Steppe
WHERE TO FIND
• Sun Prairie
• Mars Vista
• Blue Ridge
• Timber Creek
• 73
• Two Crow
The sagebrush steppe is characterized by vast expanses of rolling hills and wide-open spaces. The terrain is generally rugged, with undulating slopes and occasional rocky outcrops. As the name suggests, the vegetation consists mainly of low-growing sagebrush shrubs (Artemisia spp.), creating a characteristic silvergray hue that blankets the landscape and gives it a strong, distinct scent. The absence of trees and the vastness of the terrain contribute to an expansive and sweeping vista, offering panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.
The sagebrush steppe is home to a unique assemblage of wildlife species that are adapted to the semi-arid conditions of the ecosystem. Some of the notable fauna and flora found in this region include sage grouse, bison, pronghorn, mule deer, coyotes, rabbits, several species of snakes, and Wyoming big sage.
Shortgrass Prairie
WHERE TO FIND
• White Rock
• Dry Fork
• Wild Horse
• Sun Prairie North
• Timber Creek
A type of grassland ecosystem typically found in regions with a semi-arid to arid climate, the shortgrass prairie is characterized by its hardy, drought-tolerant, short-statured grasses. Shortgrass prairie typically features vast expanses of open grasslands with gently rolling terrain. The landscape is relatively flat or slightly undulating, offering sweeping panoramic views that may be interrupted by occasional low hills or mesas, but generally lacks significant topographical features. The horizon often stretches far and wide, creating an expansive and open feel.
On the shortgrass prairie, you can find wildlife species adapted to the unique conditions of the grassland environment. Some of the iconic fauna and flora found in this ecosystem include bison, pronghorn, black-tailed prairie dogs, burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, a number of grassland songbirds, western wheatgrass, blue grama, and a wide-variety of flowering plants that attract a host of charismatic pollinators.
Ponderosa Woodland Missouri Breaks
WHERE TO FIND
• Missouri River Corridor*
• PN
• Cow Island and Cow Creek
The Missouri River Breaks, also known as the Missouri Breaks, or just “the Breaks,” is a scenic and rugged area along the Missouri River. The Breaks offer a stunning landscape characterized by deep canyons, towering cliffs, and expansive badlands. The terrain is rugged and varied, featuring steep, eroded cliffs. The most dramatic features of the area are the breaks themselves, where the river has carved through the underlying sedimentary rocks, exposing unique geological formations. The Breaks offer breathtaking vistas, with panoramic views of the river, canyons, and surrounding grasslands.
The Missouri River Breaks region comprises varied habitat that support a diverse array of wildlife species. Some of the notable fauna and flora found in this area include bighorn sheep, mountain lions, elk, white-tailed deer, beaver, a rich diversity of smaller mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and large cottonwood galleries.
*All properties listed in this article are owned and managed by American Prairie, with the exception of the Missouri River Corridor.
WHERE TO FIND
• Blue Ridge
• 73
• Two Crow
Perhaps more accurately described as ponderosa juniper woodland, it is characterized by the coexistence of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and juniper (Juniperus spp.). A ponderosa woodland typically offers a picturesque and varied landscape. The woodland is composed of scattered small trees, creating an open and airy woodland setting. The terrain is often hilly or gently sloping, with rocky outcrops and occasional canyons. The woodlands may also feature grassy meadows and understory vegetation, contributing to the diverse visual appeal of the ecosystem.
Ponderosa woodland supports wildlife species adapted to its specific ecological conditions. Some notable fauna and flora found in this ecosystem include elk, mule deer, mountain lions, coyotes, ponderosa pines, juniper trees and shrubs, and pasque flowers.
TOWN on the
By DAN STEVENSON Prairie Dog Restoration Manager
Prairie dogs are considered a keystone species, meaning there are a lot of other species that depend on them: insects, raptors, coyotes, and badgers, to name a few. We often say they’re like the chicken nuggets of the prairie because everybody loves to eat them. They also create a mosaic of vegetation on the prairie—unique sites with different grasses and forbs that are really important for species like elk, bison, pronghorn, and sage grouse. Many prairie species have evolved with the prairie dog for thousands of years, so prairie dog range expansion is an important component of American Prairie’s rewilding strategy.
Like the buffalo, prairie dogs have really taken a hit. They’re down to less than two percent of their historical range and, based on those numbers alone, they should be considered a threatened species. Development— interstates and freeways, gas lines and pipelines—gobbles up prairie dog towns. Prairie dogs are also very susceptible to the plague. If infected, thousands of animals could be wiped out in as little as a couple of weeks.
One of the management methods that we use to promote our prairie dog restoration program is plague mitigation. It’s not a silver bullet, by any means, but it is effective!
We have two techniques that we use for plague mitigation where we still have remaining habitat. Each technique uses a mild insecticide that targets fleas, which carry the plague. The fleas can build up an immunity over time, so we switch techniques about every seven to eight years.
The first product we use is called deltamethrin. We apply some around each burrow, then the prairie dogs get it on their fur when they run in or out of the burrow. They’re big on grooming, so that helps spread the treatment throughout the colony. The dust is designed to get on the fur and kill the flea—it won’t affect the prairie dogs if they ingest it.
The other product we use is fipronil bait. It’s a grain treated with another mild insecticide that the prairie dogs eat. We use a four-ounce scoop to measure out that amount and spread it around the entrance of each burrow. We treat about 2,000 acres, getting each burrow—which is tens of thousands of burrows.
American Prairie has been part of a prairie dog working group for many years—there are eleven states throughout the Midwest that are part of this group, and Mexico and Canada are also involved. Other crews that are part of the prairie dog working group are also using these techniques, and they’re all finding the same thing: this is a lot of work! It’s very laborintensive, and the Fipronil is a heavy product compared to the dust. A lot of organizations have switched to four-wheelers, or some other form of mechanization instead of doing it by hand.
American Prairie has a seed drill that we use to disperse the fipronil, and we calibrate it to put out the recommended dispersal rate—four ounces of grain every ten meters. The seed drill can do the work that ten people can do in one day. We’re also considering using an array of four-wheelers with saddlebags that can hold the dust or grain, whatever we’re treating with.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done research, and they’ve determined that 1,500 contiguous acres of prairie dog town is necessary to sustain a black-footed ferret population. The acreage total might comprise several colonies, but they need to be within half a kilometer of each other to be considered contiguous. Our core prairie dog recovery area at Sun Prairie is about 1,800 contiguous acres, so we have crossed the threshold to be able to support black-footed ferrets. We have an additional 2,000 acres of prairie dog colonies on all of our other properties together.
As this important restoration continues, prairie dogs will have a greater impact as ecosystem engineer. This work also provides a foundation that supports and strengthens ongoing efforts to reintroduce the endangered black-footed ferret to the region.
A volunteer applies deltamethrin to a burrow.
NAME
Pedro Calderon-Dominguez
TITLE
Bison Operations Manager
DUTIES
Works with the bison team in the field, leading the implementation of everyday actions to reach American Prairie’s bison restoration goals.
EXPERIENCE
Pedro recently joined American Prairie as the Bison Operations Manager. Pedro has extensive experience managing ranches, and previously managed Mexico’s bison conservation herd in Chihuahua. He is specialized in range and wildlife management and conservation, and is an active member of the low-stress stockmanship and regenerative grazing communities. Growing up in northern Mexico and having worked in the Chihuahuan Desert for more than 20 years, he is hooked on remote wide-open spaces, wildlife, and the culture and life of the range. Pedro and his wife Flora live in the “Rancho la Horquilla Seca” (Dry Fork Unit of American Prairie), about 50 miles south of Malta.
“I’m thrilled and honored to work more with the Tatanka Oyate, our partners in Indigenous communities.”
— PEDRO
Senior Outreach Manager Corrie Williamson recently sat down with Pedro to hear more about his first year living and working on American Prairie.
Pedro, in your first year of work with American Prairie and our bison herd, what has been most exciting, surprising, or rewarding for you?
That is easy…los Cibolos (bison in Comanche) and working full-on in a mission to restore the bison’s dignity and help this magnificent creature to recover and demonstrate its vital role in the Great Plains ecosystem. There is something indescribable about the connection you can develop with bison that turns into an addiction. Once you experience this connection, it runs in your blood and you chase after it.
Another great thing about working here is the friendly and enthusiastic people, and I mean not just the bison team, but all American Prairie staff and our friends and partners. The bison team is fantastic: I like that we have young people working in the field.
What are you most excited about in 2023 when it comes to the bison program?
One is bringing and sharing more knowledge and skills on bison handling and grazing management. Second is hopefully being able to graze more land and allow the bison herds to grow and improve the habitat and population structure. Third is our fall handling; we are going to work the Sun Prairie herd, which is a challenging, big herd, and the landscape is stunning. And finally, I’m thrilled and I’m feeling inspired and honored to work more with the Tatanka Oyate (The Buffalo Nation), our partners in Indigenous communities.
What do you enjoy most about living on the prairie in south Phillips County?
Living in the Northern Great Plains, north of the Missouri River, is fantastic. This story is a snaphot of why I love living here:
One morning this winter, I went to check the Dry Fork bison herd a little before sunrise. On my way, I found out that the mule deer had spent the night in the stand of trees close to my yard, 20 of them. They looked really calm bedding in the snow, next to the trees where eight porcupines decided to spend the winter, along with a flock of sharp-tailed grouse. A bit later, I stopped to scout the drifts by the Beaver Creek crossing, where, while I was feeling the crispy air of the morning, I heard a couple of bald eagles take off from the trees by the creek banks.
I wasn’t the reason why those eagles flew—it was the 120 antelope moving all together by the hills to the west. And to my good fortune, the bison herd was moving west as well, just in the direction where we had set up the facilities and were preparing to handle them. And then, that night, my threelegged red border collie woke me up at 3 am to see the Aurora Borealis. So, it is hard to define what I enjoy most because I just enjoy living here.
WILD SKY UPDATE
By KATY BEATTIE Wild Sky Specialist
American Prairie’s Wild Sky program aims to increase wildlife tolerance and incentivize wildlife-friendly land management practices on private lands in Central Montana.
Private landowners in the region make important land management decisions that impact ecological conditions on both private and public lands. American Prairie recognizes this and works to align with landowners on shared management goals that benefit prairie conservation and provide economic incentives for wildlife tolerance and habitat.
With 16 landowners and more than 70,000 deeded acres enrolled in the program, Wild Sky has doubled in size over the last three years. We attribute the growth to donor support, landowner participation, and implementing changes inspired by what we have learned along the way.
Thanks to our participants, we have been able to strengthen our collaborations and also leverage Wild Sky to make it accessible and impactful for both wildlife and landowners. There are two main ways for landowners to enter into a Wild Sky partnership with American Prairie: Cameras for Conservation and Wildlife-friendly Land agreements.
Cameras for Conservation
The Cameras for Conservation program aims to increase the tolerance for wildlife on private lands by providing direct payments to landowners for specific species captured by trail cameras on their properties.
American Prairie staff work with landowners to deploy trail cameras on areas of their enrolled private property frequented by wildlife. Payments for species range from $25 for each image of a coyote to $500 for a wolf or grizzly bear. In 2022, the Cameras for Conservation program paid more than $28,000 to area landowners. The goal is for landowners to view these species as economic assets, so the program provides a way for landowners to receive “rent” for wildlife that utilize the habitat on their property.
The Cameras for Conservation program is beneficial because it allows landowners to see that coexistence is happening far more often than conflict, and it is often invisible and unmeasured. With cameras on the landscape, we are able to regularly document species that may otherwise go unnoticed. For example, we see properties that have mountain lions year-round with no conflict. The cameras document how humans and wildlife coexist on these properties, and they provide valuable knowledge about species movement that helps to inform management decisions.
The Wildlife-Friendly Lands Program
The Wildlife-Friendly Lands program provides monetary incentives for land management practices that have the most direct impact on wildlife occupancy and abundance on the enrolled land. Landowners can enroll in up to five categories: Herbivore Abundance, Carnivore Compatibility, Landscape Connectivity, Species of Concern, and landowner-specific projects.
This program has allowed us to partner with landowners and provide funding for projects that help meet these goals. For example, we have worked with landowners to convert fences to wildlife-friendly designs, which promote landscape connectivity and allow safe passage of species like pronghorn, deer, and elk across the landscape.
It is inspiring to see the impactful work being done by our neighbors—from pledges to use nonlethal tools like range riders, guardian dogs, and Fox Lights, or fence modifications. These partnerships provide a way for private landowners and American Prairie to work together towards conservation goals that extend beyond property borders and create a space for wildlife, communities, and conservation to thrive.
Wildlife-Friendly Fence
By CORRIE WILLIAMSON Senior Outreach Manager
INTERCONNECTIONS
ACROSS THE PRAIRIE
This spring, representatives from the Indigenous communities of Wind River (Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho), Fort Belknap (Aaniiih and Nakoda), and Rocky Boy (Chippewa Cree), participated in a panel discussion at the American Prairie National Discovery Center about buffalo restoration. At the end of the panel, Jason Baldes, Executive Director of the Wind River Buffalo Initiative, shared a Shoshone story about the origins of fire being a gift from elk to the people.
The story, he said, reminds us that, “As caretakers and stewards, we rely on and have relationships with all these animals, with plants and water and fish around us.” Jason Belcourt, Rocky Boy’s Sustainability Coordinator, who helped return buffalo to the Chippewa Cree in 2021, added, “Everything is related, we’ve got to understand that. The sooner we understand that, the better off we’re all going to be as people.”
That idea of interconnectedness is all around us on the prairie: it’s a story the buffalo enact daily. Similarly, there can be no rewilding in a vacuum; animals don’t see boundaries or property lines, so we must do this work together. While many of our neighbors—from federal land managers to ranchers—embrace goals of increased wildlife and supportive habitat, I want to highlight the work of our neighbors in Indigenous communities. These communities have many thousands of years of knowledge and experience stewarding the wildness of the plains, and continue to lead the way here in Montana.
Despite their forced removal from, and loss of, vast portions of their historic land bases, Indigenous communities steward around 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. As sovereign nations, they are uniquely poised to undertake efforts that are restorative not just ecologically, but culturally. The Aaniiih Nakoda Community at Fort Belknap has been managing buffalo since the 1970s, and now stewards hundreds of animals across two herds on more than 20,000 acres.
At Fort Peck, to our northeast, the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes manage their own herds as well as an extensive facility that receives buffalo from Yellowstone, distributing them to other tribal herds around the country. To our northwest, the Chippewa Cree community at Rocky Boy is growing the buffalo herd they started in 2021, with buffalo from American Prairie and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes. For many people in Indigenous communities, buffalo are not just wildlife, but conveyers of culture; they can represent not just wildlife restoration but the restoration of lifeways, offering opportunities for food sovereignty, economic resiliency, and the sharing of heritage through tourism and education.
Everything is related, we ’ ve got to understand that.
~ Jason Belcourt Rocky Boy’s Sustainability Coordinator
Rewilding among our Indigenous neighbors also reflects other priorities of these communities—such as the empowerment of young people. Beyond buffalo, the Aaniiih and Nakoda at Fort Belknap have reintroduced swift foxes and black-footed ferrets on their lands. Working alongside partners like the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, Fort Belknap brought more than 100 swift foxes to the Reservation between 2020 and 2022. Camera traps, GPS collars, and observations show the foxes are breeding and dispersing (including to American Prairie). Capture, release, and monitoring efforts created educational opportunities, internships, and hands-on experience for students at Aaniiih Nakoda College.
Two swift fox pups born on Fort Belknap in 2021. Since the reintroduction began, at least 20 pups have been born in the area for the first time in over 50 years.
A speaker series, as well as field seminars and ecology courses, have also sprung up from the community’s wildlife restoration work. In the winter of 2022, American Prairie and Aaniiih Nakoda College co-hosted a training on low-stress buffalo handling, with students and staff spending a day in the classroom at the ʔíítaanɔɔnʔí /Tatag’a Buffalo Research and Education Center, and a day in the field working American Prairie buffalo.
To rewild at a truly impactful scale, we have to recognize not just the interconnections of nature, but the interconnections between our efforts and those of our Indigenous neighbors. Our communities must also be in balance with one another, and at American Prairie we strive to think in ways that bridge borders, and to honor one another’s work and priorities. Just before the close of 2022, American Prairie purchased the Wild Horse property, our first land holding directly adjacent to the Aaniiih Nakoda Community at Fort Belknap. As we grow our land and our rewilding efforts, it is an honor to continue to celebrate, collaborate, and work alongside this community, to deepen connections, honor the past and present, and shape a shared future.
Interns collecting photos and scat from camera traps to monitor swift fox populations.
Coming Home to the Prairie
By CORRIE WILLIAMSON Senior Outreach Manager
People have been an important part of this landscape for millennia. Across American Prairie land, there are myriad sites, objects, and areas of cultural value for Indigenous people, as well as areas that reflect the prairie’s more recent ranching heritage. As we increase public access opportunities and work to share this place, we also want to ensure meaningful cultural access for our Indigenous neighbors.
Catcher Cuts the Rope, our friend and neighbor from the Aaniiih Community at Fort Belknap, asked American Prairie to consider providing space for a group of veterans to come together in the spring for a gathering of ceremony, healing, and sharing of culture. “I came home to the Rez after swearing I’d never!” Catcher told us. “I returned because when I was a little boy my grandmother told me that someday the buffalo will return, they’d come back to us and bring with them all the good things that’ve been lost, taken or destroyed. I didn’t believe her . . . but I do now! Our language, ceremonies and old societies are reawakening with Eea Dah Non coming home to the prairie. Everything is coming alive to me again and I want my brothers in arms to experience this wonderful place I call my home.”
Catcher brought together veterans of the 3rd platoon (A Company, 1st battalion, 3rd Marine division) who fought together in Iraq at the Battle of Fallujah in 2004 and stayed connected since. In April, 18 marines and their families traveled from across the country to the Antelope Creek Campground where they raised three tipis—to represent three of their comrades who died in battle—and erected a sweat lodge. The tipi entrances faced east, and the sweat lodge entrance faced south “into the life-bringing spring wind,” Catcher said.
The men participated in ceremony and sweats, with our longtime friend George Horse Capture, Junior, of Aaniiih Nakoda Tours, as their spiritual advisor. They harvested two buffalo from Fort Belknap’s herds, and donated the meat to the community. They also participated in equine therapy at our friends and Wild Sky partners Liz and Toby Werk’s nearby Blue Heaven Ranch. Many other Aaniiih and Nakoda community members supported the event and gathered for a celebration on the last night of the group’s stay.
Antelope Creek, and many, many other locations across the lands American Prairie stewards were “common places for the Aaniiih at one time not so long ago,” Catcher reminded us. As the gathering was wrapping up, I listened to a meadowlark singing from the top of a tipi pole, silhouetted against the open prairie horizon of grass and sage. I thought about how powerful it was to see ceremony taking place there again, representing not a beginning, but a continuation—part of a very ancient and ongoing story of people and the prairie.
DONOR SPOTLIGHT
Linda Beranek PRAIRIE LEGACY SOCIETY
Linda Beranek is a member of Prairie Legacy Society—a committed group of thoughtful, dedicated prairie supporters who have included American Prairie in their estate plans. When asked what inspires her to give, this is what she shared with us.
Whether through estate planning, charitable trusts, or another lasting philanthropic option, Prairie Legacy Society members ensure American Prairie will forever protect the wildness of the prairie. Contact Samantha Beebout to discuss options for including American Prairie in your will or estate plan.
Support a Legacy
Samantha Beebout
Vice President of Philanthropy samantha@americanprairie.org (406) 595-0947
“American Prairie’s mission inspires me because I grew up as a farm girl in central Nebraska. When we are young, I don’t think we always realize what our growing up years will mean to us later in life. I loved being outside, and didn’t truly understand that way of life was not something that might always be sustainable.
After getting my college degree, I worked in Lincoln, Nebraska, for BN Railroad. I got transferred to Texas and was continually watching farm and ranch land disappear. I love that American Prairie is saving a large area of native prairie for future generations!
With all the stresses that kids face these days, I believe that being able to go out into nature can give a child some peace and calm. For them to be able to see the animals that once inhabited the prairie is a wonderful gift! I hope others will take a similar approach. Our world is in such difficulty due to climate change, and I truly believe that places like American Prairie can save the planet.”
We are excited to share with you some recent work created by friends of American Prairie.
Back from the Collapse: American Prairie and the Restoration of Great Plains Wildlife
Curt
Freese
In his new book, founding American Prairie scientist Curt Freese examines the evolutionary history of the Great Plains, the decimation of the region’s wildlife, and American Prairie’s efforts to restore part of this extraordinary place.
Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals & People in America
Dan Flores
In Wild New World, longtime friend of American Prairie Dan Flores explores the deep history of human-wildlife interaction, conflict, and coexistence in North America.
At Home with the Prairie Dog: The Story of a Keystone Species
Dorothy Patent
Dorothy Patent is a longtime friend and supporter of American Prairie. Her new children’s book At Home with the Prairie Dog illuminates how this small keystone species contributes to the health of the prairie ecosystem as a whole.
Wild Life
Jimmy Chin
Jimmy Chin—2022 recipient of the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize—recently released the film Wild Life. The documentary chronicles Kris Tompkins’ work to conserve vast amounts of land in Chile and Argentina. Kris was the 2023 recipient of the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize for outstanding conservation efforts, and her interview with American Prairie CEO Ali Fox can be found on page 3.
We are so thankful to our friends and supporters for your help in accomplishing this mission. When you become a supporter of American Prairie, you are protecting the shortgrass prairie ecosystem now and for future generations.
American Prairie Field School
is a program that engages the youth of our Montana communities to help educate the next generation of stewards of this incredible landscape. In May, we hosted 60 students in our residential program from four schools including Crow Agency, Lewistown, and Hays-Lodgepole. Between September and June, we hosted 450 students in day programming from Lewistown, Hays-Lodgepole, Cut Bank, Roundup, Judith Gap, Mt. Ellis Academy, Cooke City, and Big Sky.
The students learned about the short-grass prairie ecosystem, native plants, keystone species, camera traps, animal tracks, traditional native games, and more. “It is so rewarding to see students at the American Prairie Field School excited to learn about the prairie. If they learn to love the prairie, then they will want to take care of it,” says Dusty Rixford, American Prairie’s Education Coordinator.
KIDS ’ CORNER
KIDS CORNER
A program favorite is the bison skeleton puzzle, where students assume the role of a zoologist and work to reassemble the bones of one of our favorite critters. Rixford remarked, “Everyone is always so surprised to see a full bison skeleton and the kids love jumping right in to put it back together. It’s a great way to show where the neck muscles connect to the spine and how it provides the power for a bison to swing its head to clear snow for winter forage.”
Hmm, where does this go?
Piece together your bison! own
Cut out the pieces and put the bison back together!
