{"title":"Technical Note on Bison Conservation and Bison Ranching in Canada","authors":"Melissa H. Heppner , Andrea Olive","doi":"10.1016/j.rama.2024.01.012","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This technical note asks what role Canadian Bison ranchers play in conserving North American Bison. Bison are keystone species in grassland ecosystems and pose numerous ecological benefits as wild animals. Unfortunately, most wild Bison have been eradicated through the process of colonization. Today, over 90% of Bison exist in commercial production rather than for conservation; however, the Canadian Bison Association—an organization committed to protecting the industry—wishes to blur the line between the two. Conversations with a few members of the CBA suggest that ranching may support the numerical recovery of Bison but may not support ecological recovery. Although there have been calls for cross-jurisdictional collaboration in the Bison conservation literature, more research is needed to reconcile what appear to be incompatible values between ranchers and ecological conservationists.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49634,"journal":{"name":"Rangeland Ecology & Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Rangeland Ecology & Management","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550742424000125","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This technical note asks what role Canadian Bison ranchers play in conserving North American Bison. Bison are keystone species in grassland ecosystems and pose numerous ecological benefits as wild animals. Unfortunately, most wild Bison have been eradicated through the process of colonization. Today, over 90% of Bison exist in commercial production rather than for conservation; however, the Canadian Bison Association—an organization committed to protecting the industry—wishes to blur the line between the two. Conversations with a few members of the CBA suggest that ranching may support the numerical recovery of Bison but may not support ecological recovery. Although there have been calls for cross-jurisdictional collaboration in the Bison conservation literature, more research is needed to reconcile what appear to be incompatible values between ranchers and ecological conservationists.
期刊介绍:
Rangeland Ecology & Management publishes all topics-including ecology, management, socioeconomic and policy-pertaining to global rangelands. The journal''s mission is to inform academics, ecosystem managers and policy makers of science-based information to promote sound rangeland stewardship. Author submissions are published in five manuscript categories: original research papers, high-profile forum topics, concept syntheses, as well as research and technical notes.
Rangelands represent approximately 50% of the Earth''s land area and provision multiple ecosystem services for large human populations. This expansive and diverse land area functions as coupled human-ecological systems. Knowledge of both social and biophysical system components and their interactions represent the foundation for informed rangeland stewardship. Rangeland Ecology & Management uniquely integrates information from multiple system components to address current and pending challenges confronting global rangelands.