Visitors to Badlands National Park could see more roaming bison as early as next summer. Park officials are takingpublic comments on a proposal to expand the bison range in the North Unit of the park by 20,000 acres or more.
Eddie Childers is a wildlife biologist at Badlands National Park. He says bison were first introduced into the park in the 1960s and have since become an icon of the American West. Childers says right now the only way visitors can see buffalo is to go off paved roads. He says the proposed expansion could change this.
“That would allow our visitors, that million people that come through the park every year, to be able to really come up close and personal along the hard top and be able to see them in their native habitat,” says Childers.
Childers thinks the expansion could also increase the number of people that visit the park each year. The public comment period for the North Unit expansion goes through August 27. A separate proposal to expand bison into the South Unit of the park, on the Pine Ridge Reservation is on hold. Officials say buffalo expansion on the South Unit won’t go forward without approval from the Oglala Sioux Tribal people.
Click here to find more information on the proposal and to submit your own comments.