Fifty purebred plains bison charge through an open gate near Eastend, Sask. on Monday.

CLAYDON, Sask. (CP) - History was made on a piece of rolling prairie Monday when half a dozen horseback riders herded 50 bison from a sprawling holding paddock out onto the land they once roamed by the millions.

It's the first time since they were hunted to the brink of extinction 150 years ago that they have set a free foot on the grasslands they once virtually covered.
The shaggy beasts who strolled through the paddock gate were trucked in from Elk Island National Park in Alberta to the Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area south of Swift Current, Sask., last winter.

The area covers 5,300 hectares in the southwest corner of the province and is jointly owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Saskatchewan government.

" They're finally back on the native prairie the way they were a hundred and some years ago," said conservancy spokesman Dwane Morvik.

" In that aspect I guess it's quite significant," said Morvik, who spent the winter feeding and caring for the shaggy ruminants.

More than two dozen ranchers, conservationists and reporters hid behind hay bales so as not to spook the animals as they sauntered to their freedom.

A brilliant blue sky, illuminated by the prairie sun, swept down to the horizon where dark storm clouds were building.

The animals are believed to be only the third herd of pure blood bison in Canada. It's hoped the herd will eventually grow in size to about 300.

The bison release coincides with a plan to raise $200 million nationwide to save 50 of Canada's "natural masterpieces" - ecologically sensitive and rare areas across the country.

The Frenchman River watershed where the bison make their new home is one of those areas. Less than 20 per cent of Saskatchewan's original mixed-grass prairie remains.

" It's history in the making," said a beaming Peter Butala, who used to own the land. "It'll be freedom for them and it brings a little of the past for us."

Lorraine Goodstriker, head interpreter at Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta, said the animals' return to the wild is good news.

" With our people, that was our whole way of survival a long time ago. It was pretty well our walking department store. It was our food, our shelter and our clothing. He was a very sacred animal to us and still is," she said.

Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump is a world-renowned site where up to 50,000 tourists a year step back in time to understand the link between the bison and Canada's First Nations people.

Goodstriker estimates there used to be close to 60 million bison in North America. The animals were almost completely wiped out about a century ago when they were hunted for nothing more than their tongues or their horns.

News of the reintroduction of the bison to the place they once lived is a mixed blessing for the group representing aboriginal people in Saskatchewan.

" The intention is good. It's really wonderful that we are actually trying to put nature where it belongs," said Lawrence Joseph, vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

" But domestic animals forget how to care for themselves when they become domestic and it's unfortunate that we do that to our wildlife," he said. "Even if they're free, I don't believe they can support themselves in the wild.

Joseph is also concerned about how things like chronic-wasting disease could impact the bison herd.

© The Canadian Press 2004
Reprinted with permission from The Leader-Post Executive Editor: Bob Hughes

Bison back on the Plains
Jana G. Pruden
Leader-Post Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Fifty plains bison are to be released into the 13,000 acre grasslands of the Old Man on His Back Conservancy land May 17, after their five-month stay in a 160-acre paddock. They will become only the third known herd of pure-blood bison in the country.
Here's a look back at the Leader-Post's coverage of the arrival of the bison: Friday, Dec. 12.

Bison Roaming Grasslands Again

It's a day Peter Butala has dreamed about for 20 years.

" I used to ride out on the high ridge and think about what it must have been like when there were thousands of bison there, when the land would move with them," said Butala, an Eastend-area rancher.

" I used to think about what it would be like to see them."

On Friday, Butala was living a dream come true.
Just after sunset, a herd of 50 plains bison arrived at the Old Man on His Back Heritage and Conservation Area near Eastend, land which Butala donated to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) so it could be returned to its natural prairie state.

" I never thought we would get here," he admitted. "But it feels good."

The bison are part of a herd that was bought from a Montana ranch in 1906, and has been kept at Alberta's Elk Island National Park ever since. The animals are rare because they are disease-free and genetically pure, and haven't been mixed with cattle.

The animals travelled the 700 kilometres from Elk Island to the Old Man on His Back area in three large trailers accompanied by Butala, representatives of the NCC, a veterinarian and members of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a group that specializes in re-introducing animals into the wild.

The bewildered animals scampered out of three stock trailers pulled by pickup trucks as a gaggle of locals and reporters watched. Wes Olson, senior park warden at Elk Island, travelled with the animals. He said everything went smoothly.

" I've been working with bison for two decades now and this is the first chance I've had to put plains bison back into their original range and it's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment."

The herd will spend the winter in a 160-acre paddock before being fully released into the 13,000-acre range land in the spring. Once released, they will become only the third known herd of pure-blood bison in the country.
In the coming years, both the animals and their impact on the prairie grassland will be studied, and the herd may be used in the formation of other conservation herds as groups like the NCC work to rebuild the Canadian bison population.

" It's never going to be like it was, but it's a start," Butala said, about the conservation effort. "It's a pretty rare thing in this day and age, but it feels pretty good. It's a great thrill."

Aynsley Morris, an NCC worker who made the trip with the group, said it was an exciting day for everyone involved, and that it will be viewed as an historic occasion.

But Butala said the true significance of the creation of the new herd will not be known for years to come.

" This means quite a bit to me, but I think it will mean even more to future generations," he said. "Even 50 or 100 years from now, there will still be some remnants of a lost era."

The arrival of the bison caps off an enormous effort. Crews have spent the past three years fencing the land. The bison have also undergone extensive testing to ensure they are disease-free. It's hoped the herd will eventually grow to 300.
Premier Lorne Calvert said the province was making history Friday.

" The buffalo plays a very important part in the development and history of Saskatchewan," he said. "In some ways it was that buffalo herd that gave life on this prairie."

*With files from Canadian Press
Originally published Dec. 13, 2003
© Leader-Post 2004