Iowa Released 28 Bison Into a Dying Tallgrass Prairie — What Came Back in 12 Years Was Unreal
Iowa Released 28 Bison Into a Dying Tallgrass Prairie — What Came Back in 12 Years Was Unreal In October 2008, twenty-eight genetically pure bison stepped onto a stretch of Iowa prairie for the first time in 138 years. What happened to that landscape over the next twelve years rewrote the science of prairie restoration. This is the story of Broken Kettle Grasslands, the largest remaining prairie in Iowa, and how a small herd of bison helped bring back an ecosystem that had lost over 99% of itself. By 1870, the last wild bison in Iowa had been shot. By the late 1880s, an estimated population of 60 million bison across North America had been reduced to a few hundred animals. Iowa, once 85% tallgrass prairie, now holds less than 0.1% of its original prairie cover. The tallgrass prairie is classified by the National Park Service as one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth. This video investigates how The Nature Conservancy, beginning with a single land parcel in 1992, spent sixteen years preparing 2,000 acres of restored prairie in the Loess Hills of northwestern Iowa, before sourcing a genetically pure herd from Wind Cave National Park lineage and releasing twenty-eight animals onto the land in the fall of 2008. What followed was a slow, scientifically documented ecological transformation. Plant species richness more than doubled. Bison wallows created microhabitats hosting plant species found nowhere else on the prairie. A single bison dung pat was found to support up to 300 insect species. Grassland birds, including the secretive Henslow's sparrow, began returning. By 2020, the herd had grown from twenty-eight to over 275 animals. We cover the science behind why bison succeed where cattle cannot, the cautious findings of researchers like Dr. Elizabeth Bach, the long-term studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing 103% gains in native plant species richness, and the broader bison restoration movement now supported by federal funding and led in partnership with the InterTribal Buffalo Council. This is the story of how an ecosystem America almost erased began, quietly, to come back. 📚 Sources & Further Reading The Nature Conservancy — Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022) — Reintroducing bison results in long-running increases in grassland diversity Iowa State University — Bison Broaden Biodiversity InterTribal Buffalo Council U.S. Department of the Interior — Bison Restoration Framework 🌾 About The American Wild The American Wild investigates the slow, often invisible work of bringing back the ecosystems North America almost lost. From wolves in Yellowstone to sea otters in Alaska, panthers in the Florida Everglades to bison on the Great Plains, this channel covers the science, the people, and the landscapes behind the most ambitious conservation efforts of our time. New investigations every week. Subscribe to follow the comeback. 🔔 Subscribe for more #TallgrassPrairie #BisonRestoration #IowaWildlife #Conservation #Rewilding #TheAmericanWild #NatureDocumentary #PrairieRestoration #BrokenKettleGrasslands #NatureConservancy #AmericanBison #EcosystemRestoration #WildlifeReintroduction #GreatPlains #PrairieEcosystem
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