Tallgrass Prairie Bison Thrive 30 Years After Reintroduction

It’s been 30 years since bison were reintroduced to the Tallgrass Prairie, a once thriving ecosystem that had been dead for more than 100 years.

Now, the bison population has grown to nearly 2000 and the Tallgrass prairie is prospering with no plans of slowing down.

The bison are all slowly being rounded up before they get a checkup next month. It’s a tedious process but an important one here on the Tallgrass Prairie.

The nearly 2000 bison living on the 25,000 acres of Osage County’s Tallgrass prairie preserve are being herded to smaller and smaller holding pastures before they each get their annual inspections.

These giant grazers keep the Tallgrass prairie thriving.

“Only about four percent of the Tallgrass prairie remains," said Harvey Payne with the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Harvey Payne with the reserve says the last bison was killed in the 1850s in Osage County and without them, the prairie also died.

But 30 years ago, the Nature Conservancy introduced 300 bison back to their native home in Osage County, and now the land flourishes and the population has grown.

The preserve managers also perform controlled burns to mimic the burning from Native American times which helps control the plants so they can re-grow and thrive.

Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said it’s been a wonderful partnership to honor this endangered land.

“We learned more and more about how it takes fire, bison, the way they graze, and it takes a certain amount of climate to create a Tallgrass prairie," Standing Bear said.

Now, the prairie serves as a research hub for students to study hundreds of plants and species.

“We have here the only functioning tallgrass ecosystem there is," said Payne.

“The animals have increased, the size of the units increased as we expanded over the years, and the interest has increased," said preserve manager Tony Brown.

Brown said the hard work pays off in keeping the Tallgrass prairie exactly as it was meant to be.

“This is our little slice of heaven in the world," Brown said.

Those protecting the prairie say this is an ongoing process and one they want to keep improving for generations to come.