A million bison would save us all

There may finally be a solution to the bison problem.

Or not.

Depends on what you view as a problem.

During a recent meeting in Big Sky, the National Bison Association announced plans to boost the number of bison in North America to 1 million within 10 years.

That’s great news if you think there are too few, and even sort of great news if you think there are already too many.

There are certainly too many in Yellowstone Park and attempts to curtail their numbers are seldom well received.

A lot of folks would also like to see bison allowed to roam beyond the borders of the park. Few of those folks, however, are ranchers, who fear the critters threaten the health of their cattle herds. (Unless, of course, they’re bison ranchers, who like emu ranchers, keep telling us how much better their meat is than beef.)

Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, a million bison would have its benefits.

Today there are only a few hundred thousand bison – in the wild and on ranches -- in North America. Their scarcity makes them special. Get that number up to a million and they’d be a bit more common.

Nobody would care if Yellowstone needed to kill and butcher a few every year. The park could manage its own herd instead of letting the excess spill into Montana, making them our problem.

And the park would be a safer place to visit. If buffalo were just buffalo instead of rare national icons there wouldn’t be such a rush to take pictures of them, especially selfies, which have proven to be very hard on tourists.

There’s a scattering of bison being raised domestically from one end of the country to the other, so few that people still get excited when they see them. Increase that number a bit and the reaction goes from “Wow, look, a buffalo,” to “Oh, it’s just an other buffalo.”

A total of 15 people who thought bison were special were injured in Yellowstone in 2015. The park warns visitors to keep their distance, but the temptation is simply too great for many. An elderly Utah couple, who just couldn’t stay away, was head-butted last month by a bison at Mud Volcano.

I’m sure they thought it was special.

There’s safety in numbers. Here’s hoping a million bison will be enough to save us all.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].