The Great American Bison Herd, Now held Captive in Northern Mexico, gathers at the Border to Sing, “Don’t Fence Me In”
In William DeBuys recent book, “A Great Aridness”, he discusses biological diversity at El Uno Ecological Reserve, located within the Greater Janos Grasslands,
in Chihuahua, Mexico. Although his primary focus is on scrubland
encroachment and related stress on black-tailed prairie dog
populations, he also touches upon the American Bison herd now located
there.
In 2009, twenty-three bison
from Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota arrived at Janos to start a
breeding herd within northern Mexico. Unlike ninety-five percent of
the bison in North America, the Wind Cave bison herd is genetically
pure, containing no cattle genes. Unlike cattle, which stay and feed to
the root, bison eat and roam, leaving some of the plant intact. Their
heavy step breaks up the soil and helps grass seeds grow.
In 2009, National Park Traveler, Bob Janiskee
wrote, “The trans-border herd referenced here lives north of the Janos
grasslands and migrates seasonally into Hidalgo County, New Mexico.
This is actually a bit of a problem, since the wild bison is a protected
animal in Mexico, where it is considered endangered. It is not
protected in the U.S., where it is seen as a grazer, competing with
livestock”.
On May 11, 2011, the Nature Conservancy
staff at El Uno Ecological Reserve rejoiced with the birth of a female
bison calf. It was the first calf conceived locally since 2009, when
the Conservancy and a Mexican national working group initiated the Bison
Reintroduction Project.
From Canada to Mexico, grasslands are relatively similar. There are only
a few differences, such as the temperature in summer, the amount of
snow in winter, and their native vegetation. That is why the bison herd
in El Uno, coming from South Dakota has been able to adapt well to the
grasslands at the Janos Biosphere Reserve.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine,
“Archeological records and historical accounts from Mexico document
that the historic range of the bison included northern Mexico and parts
of Southern New Mexico. The Janos-Hidalgo bison herd, one of the few
free-ranging bison herds in North America, has moved between Chihuahua,
Mexico, and New Mexico, since at least the 1920s. The cross-border
bison herd in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands and scrublands
demonstrates that the species can persist in desert landscapes”.
Author William DeBuys had inspired me to look deeper into both the
promise and the plight of the Janos Valley bison herd. While writing, I
could hear the scratchy, obnoxious sound of cable news in the
background. As I arose to turn off the TV, I heard that the U.S. Senate
had reached a “compromise” on the 2013 Senate Immigration Bill.
The
compromise was one that only a group of isolated, Washington Beltway
politicians could concoct. The new compromise includes seven hundred
miles of impenetrable border fencing and twenty thousand new border
patrol agents. If all of the proposed agents were to arrive at the
border simultaneously, there would be one border patrol agent standing
every 250 feet, all along its seven hundred mile length.
Apparently, there is no federal money to protect grasslands and
biodiversity along the U.S. Mexican Border. Instead, all the money will
go to a vast “Maginot Line” of border defenses, to include fixed
camera towers and mobile surveillance systems. This "standing army"
would protect the U.S. against a feared “third wave of illegal aliens”.
I can see the fence manufacturers, construction contractors and
military equipment manufacturers salivating over their anticipated
contracts. Who needs the hassle of foreign wars when we can have a
fully militarized border right here at home?
Soon
enough, if conservatives win and conservationists lose, the Janos
Valley bison herd will become a casualty of the 2013 Senate Immigration
Bill. In order to live, the herd must travel north and south across
the Chihuahuan Desert, including parts of Mexico and Southern New
Mexico.
While a cross-border consortium of governmental and non-governmental
agencies works tirelessly to restore and enhance the desert
environment, our federal government plans the largest environmental
destruction project in U.S. history. If even a few of those Senators
would visit the desert, they could foresee see the consequences of
their actions.
Desertification, including the encroachment of scrub-lands and the creation of dust bowls
and sand-prairies is a problem facing most of the United States. Wall
building and heavy vehicle traffic in our fragile deserts may indeed
stop a few border crossings. In their zeal to “seal the border”,
Congress may well destroy the desert bionetwork. The unintended consequences of their actions may render the border area unlivable for humans, prairie dogs and the American Bison.
The Mexican-American War ended in 1848. One hundred sixty-five years
later is a poor time to spend $30 billion of our tax dollars to fight
an ecological war against a fragile desert environment. Our Senate seems to say, “Give me a home where the buffalo roam, but at any cost, prevent ‘them’ from crossing the Mexican border”.
By James McGillis at 05:01 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link
