I was at the zoo a few weeks ago, and I read one of the signs near the bison exhibit. The sign described, and lamented, the decline of the bison, talking about how there used to be herds numbering in the millions that used to roam across the prairies of the Midwest, but now, there are small herds restricted to a few, isolated areas. I must admit, it would have been an awesome sight to have seen a massive herd of bison traveling across the prairie, and in a sense that such as sight can not be seen today, I am sorry for the decline of the bison.
On the other hand, I am glad that there are no longer huge herds of bison dominating the Midwest. Imagine what our country would be like if the middle of the country was a prairie dominated by a flowing tide of living bison. Would the vast fields of corn, wheat, soy, and other crops that are grown in the Midwest exist if farmers had to worry about a herd of bison migrating across their lands and trampling their crops underfoot (to say nothing of consuming the crops)? What about ranchers, who would have to worry about herds of bison being able to wreck their fences by shear power of numbers? What would travel across the Midwest be like if a solid wall of bison flesh moving across the highway could stop traffic dead in its tracks? It is not that I have no concern whatsoever for bison, but we as human are able to utilize the Midwest for our own benefit and advancement, and I consider the quality of human life enabled by the utilization of the former prairies of the Midwest a greater boon than the loss of herds of bison that number in the millions.
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I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on Charles C. Mann's book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus." I read it while I was curled up with morning sickness, so I don't remember it in great detail, but I do recall him mentioning a theory that the great herds of bison were a result of human landscaping (or some more technical term for that).
ReplyDeleteI looked up "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" and glanced through it. I read a chapter in there dealing with passanger pigeons and bison. From what I understood, the author was saying that the population of these two species was kept in check by the Indians, and when the Indian population was decimated by European diseases, passanger pigeons and bison populations were able to grow out of control. It is an interesting idea, and if true, I think it would highlight that vast herds of bison are not a natural phenomena, and therefore the loss of these vast herds would not be an ecological disaster.
ReplyDeleteThat was my impression as well. Thank you for looking into that! The whole book was intriguing, although definitely not in my general sphere of knowledge.
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