Minnesota DNR celebrates evolving bison conservation herd

The Minnesota DNR recognized National Bison Day on Nov. 7 by celebrating the continued growth of the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd and recent donations that are helping establish and expand other herds in Minnesota and beyond.

This fall, the DNR donated 23 yearling bison to three different outside organizations with conservation herds.

The DNR maintains a herd of 115-145 bison between two state parks: Minneopa in Blue Earth County and Blue Mounds in Rock County. The MBCH also currently includes bison at the Minnesota Zoological Garden and Dakota County’s Spring Lake Park Reserve Bison Prairie.

“Partners coordinate management of genetics and disease, and all bison among partner sites are managed as one genetic population,” said Molly Tranel Nelson, DNR resource manager. “After a decade of testing and carefully managing genetics, today we have a herd that has excellent genetic diversity similar to that found in federal conservation herds. It’s the strategy of not ‘putting all our eggs in one basket.’ In this case, it’s not putting all our bison in one prairie.”

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The MBCH started between the DNR and Minnesota Zoo in 2012 with an agreement to conserve prairie wildlife and an agreement to work together to preserve the population and genetics of wild plains bison. The animal has a rich and storied history on the prairies and plains of the Midwest, including significant ties to Native American people.

Bison populations dwindled after people purposely killed tens of millions during the late 1800s – a near extinction. All American plains bison living today come from approximately 100 survivors. There are currently around 370,000 bison in North America, most of them raised as part of the livestock-to-table industry. Only about 31,000 are in conservation herds.

One of this year’s recipients of bison from the DNR, Millburn Tallgrass Prairie in Missouri, has big goals. The nonprofit has acquired about 2,300 contiguous acres of tallgrass prairie, as it aims to help restore natural landscapes. Bison are a major part of the equation.

“I was kind of half joking when I said, ‘The thing missing here is the ecosystem engineer from a long time ago,’” Millburn Tallgrass Prairie President Adam Millburn said of his nonprofit’s recent addition of bison. “We want to put things the way they were.”

Overall, the partners of the MBCH hope to see the herd, currently at 150 bison across all sites, grow to 500 bison, while also providing educational opportunities for visitors and researchers. This initiative is just one small piece of the larger effort to re-establish this majestic animal across the North American landscape.

Learn more about the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd on the DNR webpage. Learn more about Millburn Tallgrass Prairie at millburntallgrassprairie.org.