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https://americanprairie.org https://americanprairie.org a nonprofit that is buying land to bring back the prairie ecosystem

culturestate 3y ago
Ted Turner (of CNN/Turner Broadcasting/blood feud with George Steinbrenner fame) has also been doing this for decades[1], with bringing back bison as a primary focus. He’s one of the largest private landowners in America with a couple of million acres and tens of thousands of bison. 1. https://www.tedturner.com/turner-ranches/ https://www.tedturner.com/turner-ranches/
- mkoubaa 3y ago
  That's wonderful, thank you for sharing!
- dboreham 3y ago
  Ted's bison look amazing too: like someone blow dries their fur every morning.
boomboomsubban 3y ago
Something about "we need your money to keep northeast Montana empty" seems fishy. I've seen a fair amount of the northern great plains, and they seem to be empty already.
- klyrs 3y ago
  If they weren't empty, you couldn't keep them empty.
  - boomboomsubban 3y ago
    You're right, the semantics of it work out fine. I don't think they need our money to remain empty.
    - mkoubaa 3y ago
      If there's a fence between empty land and empty land that disrupts migration patterns, money is needed to buy a tiny corridor of land so that wildlife can migrate. Unlike programmers, wild animals don't live a sedentary lifestyle.
- svnt 3y ago
  I’m curious why you feel “I’ve driven through there” qualifies you to dismiss the efforts of people working in the open, for very little money, to restore certain classes of ecosystems. “Blind man doesn’t want to pay for printed newspaper.” So don’t. But you could educate yourself and then you could see.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- quantified 3y ago
  Where do you get the need quote from? I missed it on the linked page. Empty and "hospitable to/available to bison" are two different things.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
    Based on the language used, it was obvious to me that the part in quotes was a rhetorical paraphrase. It may not be correct use of quotation marks according to a style guide, but such use of double quotes to highlight a rhetorical paraphrase is in common vernacular use.
- dboreham 3y ago
  Kind of empty looking is not the same as "so empty it's as if humans weren't here".
- cheath 3y ago
  Context: I grew up in this area and have hunted there my whole life. The land is very much so not "empty" -- sure, there aren't condos, but it is owned by people and those people get economic gain from it predominantly through grazing cattle and somewhat agriculture. You could not just release Bison anywhere in this country without extreme uproar from the people who see them as in direct competition with their livelihood. And that's not even mentioning the other complex components of the prairie ecosystem that are being undermined (and in this case, restored). That's why they are buying ranches that are currently utilizing the land for the purpose of cattle grazing and turning them back into wild prairie (and reintroducing bison). My personal opinion is that it's incredibly cool that they're taking a very small piece of the great plains and letting it just be empty in the way that it used to be.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  Seems to me if its land that bison can life on, cows can too. So the non-profit mostly has to buy land from farmers to replace cows with bison.

culturestate 3y ago

Ted Turner (of CNN/Turner Broadcasting/blood feud with George Steinbrenner fame) has also been doing this for decades[1], with bringing back bison as a primary focus. He’s one of the largest private landowners in America with a couple of million acres and tens of thousands of bison. 1. https://www.tedturner.com/turner-ranches/ https://www.tedturner.com/turner-ranches/

mkoubaa 3y ago
That's wonderful, thank you for sharing!
dboreham 3y ago
Ted's bison look amazing too: like someone blow dries their fur every morning.

boomboomsubban 3y ago

Something about "we need your money to keep northeast Montana empty" seems fishy. I've seen a fair amount of the northern great plains, and they seem to be empty already.

klyrs 3y ago
If they weren't empty, you couldn't keep them empty.
- boomboomsubban 3y ago
  You're right, the semantics of it work out fine. I don't think they need our money to remain empty.
  - mkoubaa 3y ago
    If there's a fence between empty land and empty land that disrupts migration patterns, money is needed to buy a tiny corridor of land so that wildlife can migrate. Unlike programmers, wild animals don't live a sedentary lifestyle.
svnt 3y ago
I’m curious why you feel “I’ve driven through there” qualifies you to dismiss the efforts of people working in the open, for very little money, to restore certain classes of ecosystems. “Blind man doesn’t want to pay for printed newspaper.” So don’t. But you could educate yourself and then you could see.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
quantified 3y ago
Where do you get the need quote from? I missed it on the linked page. Empty and "hospitable to/available to bison" are two different things.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- anonymouskimmer 3y ago
  Based on the language used, it was obvious to me that the part in quotes was a rhetorical paraphrase. It may not be correct use of quotation marks according to a style guide, but such use of double quotes to highlight a rhetorical paraphrase is in common vernacular use.
dboreham 3y ago
Kind of empty looking is not the same as "so empty it's as if humans weren't here".
cheath 3y ago
Context: I grew up in this area and have hunted there my whole life. The land is very much so not "empty" -- sure, there aren't condos, but it is owned by people and those people get economic gain from it predominantly through grazing cattle and somewhat agriculture. You could not just release Bison anywhere in this country without extreme uproar from the people who see them as in direct competition with their livelihood. And that's not even mentioning the other complex components of the prairie ecosystem that are being undermined (and in this case, restored). That's why they are buying ranches that are currently utilizing the land for the purpose of cattle grazing and turning them back into wild prairie (and reintroducing bison). My personal opinion is that it's incredibly cool that they're taking a very small piece of the great plains and letting it just be empty in the way that it used to be.
panick21_ 3y ago
Seems to me if its land that bison can life on, cows can too. So the non-profit mostly has to buy land from farmers to replace cows with bison.