Ecological and social consequences of bison reintroduction in Colorado.
Open accessAbstract
Bison were instrumental in shaping North America's Great Plains. Interest in restoring this iconic species and their ecological role in grassland ecosystems is rapidly gaining momentum. To evaluate the potential for bison to enhance habitat quality for wildlife and catalyze public engagement in grassland conservation, we assessed both the ecological and social effects of a recent bison reintroduction (2015) to northern Colorado. Specifically, we explored the effect of bison reintroduction on: (a) bird density and habitat use, (b) mammal habitat use, (c) vegetation composition and structure, and (d) visitor connectedness, known as place attachment, to a shortgrass prairie. We predicted that bison reintroduction would reduce cover and height of some grasses and shrubs, which would increase density and habitat use for obligate shortgrass prairie birds, and increase habitat use for coyote and lagomorphs. In addition, we predicted that visitors would express stronger place attachment to this grassland once bison were reintroduced. To measure ecological and social responses, we surveyed birds, mammals, and plants; and conducted structured visitor surveys before and after bison reintroduction. We found few short‐term effects of bison on grassland bird density and habitat use, mammal habitat use, and vegetation composition and structure. However, we measured a significant increase in visitor place attachment to the grassland site 1 year after bison reintroduction. Our results suggest that a new bison reintroduction may have immediate positive benefits for connecting people to conservation, and that the ecological and social effects may unfold over different time scales. We recommend that future bison reintroduction efforts monitor ecological and social outcomes to advance reintroduction biology.
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Each Tribe has initiated community engagement activities to gain public support and rebuild a constituency for bison, based upon the perception that reconnecting the community with bison herds will provide multiple benefits.
“To that end, as demonstrated in the case studies, each Tribe has initiated community engagement activities to gain public support and rebuild a constituency for bison, based upon the perception that reconnecting the community with bison herds will provide multiple benefits (Haggerty et al., 2017;Wilkins et al., 2019).”
From The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains (2022) · cites this paper as Wilkins et al., 2019
The Discussion reports that bison reintroduction increased visitors’ attachment to a Colorado grassland and could strengthen public interest in conservation. It does not report that any Tribe initiated community engagement activities, sought to rebuild a constituency for bison, or held the stated perception; it says tribal perspectives were outside the study’s scope. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEffective bottom-up, community-based conservation projects must be built around a viable conservation target, but targets vary from community to community and even within communities.
“Effective bottom-up, community-based conservation projects must be built around a viable conservation target, but targets vary from community to community and even within communities (Souto et al., 2014;Wilkins et al., 2019).”
From The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains (2022) · cites this paper as Wilkins et al., 2019
The Introduction identifies bison as a possible focal species for grassland conservation, and the Discussion recommends considering stakeholder perspectives. Neither section addresses whether bottom-up, community-based projects must have a viable conservation target or whether targets vary between and within communities. Searches for those concepts found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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- Authors
- Wilkins, K., Pejchar, L., & Garvoille, R.
- Affiliations
- Colorado State University (US)
- Denver Zoo (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wilkins, Kate
- Venue
- Conservation Science and Practice
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-02
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2578-4854 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2917670079
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 1.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2020-05-21)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Conservation Science and Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Sigma Xi
- Audubon Society of Greater Denver
- American Association of University Women
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Ecology and biodiversity studies
- Keywords
- bison reintroduction, shortgrass steppe, grassland birds, habitat use, vegetation structure, coyote, lagomorphs, place attachment, wildlife conservation, northern Colorado
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