Millions of wild bison roamed through the western half of North America before they became nearly extinct from excessive hunting and other human intervention. By the 1890s, the entire bison population had shrunk to only about 1,000 animals. Shortly after, efforts began to preserve and expand the bison population, and today there are several hundred thousand of them across the continent.
Bison are a key ecological species, and like wolves and beavers, they radically shape the environment around them. Their grazing promotes plant regrowth and diversification, while the trampling of their hooves helps work seeds into the soil and breaks up hard crusts, improving water infiltration during rare desert rains.
Much of the lands they once inhabited is now used by cattle ranchers to graze hundreds of thousands of cattle across North America. These ranchers see all other species of animals as competition for resources for their precious money-making cattle, so millions of acres of what used to be vibrant prairie are now a duocrop of grass and cattle which has led to vast desertification, massive loss of biodiversity and even extinction.
If we could end people's addiction to eating beef, our planet would be so very much healthier.
Our source for this meme is Yucatán Magazine
Bison are a key ecological species, and like wolves and beavers, they radically shape the environment around them. Their grazing promotes plant regrowth and diversification, while the trampling of their hooves helps work seeds into the soil and breaks up hard crusts, improving water infiltration during rare desert rains.
Much of the lands they once inhabited is now used by cattle ranchers to graze hundreds of thousands of cattle across North America. These ranchers see all other species of animals as competition for resources for their precious money-making cattle, so millions of acres of what used to be vibrant prairie are now a duocrop of grass and cattle which has led to vast desertification, massive loss of biodiversity and even extinction.
If we could end people's addiction to eating beef, our planet would be so very much healthier.
Our source for this meme is Yucatán Magazine
Meme, Bison, Repopulation, Rehabilitation, Bioversity, Coahuilan Desert, Mexico, South Dakota