Bison at Chickasaw National Recreation Area will soon have a new pasture/NPS file
Work on a new enclosure for bison at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma is getting under way this month, with fencing to be completed in the spring.
The park bison herd was established in February 1920, when three bison were brought to the park from Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and housed in a small pasture near Pavilion Springs. In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps began work on an 84-acre bison pasture, and the herd was moved to that location the following year, where they have lived ever since.
“We’ve had our bison herd in the same pasture for 86 years,” says Superintendent Bill Wright, “which is a long time to have such large animals in one place. We are building a new pasture on the other side of the highway, not as a replacement, but as a second pasture we can use to rotate the animals to and from. This will let us better manage the land in both areas for the benefit of the bison.”
The new enclosure will be 42 acres, and although smaller in size, has more grazing area available than the current pasture. Once the bison are relocated to the new pasture, park staff will be able to perform much needed prairie restoration work in the current enclosure to benefit this native species.
Planning for this project began in 2017. Work scheduled for this fall includes surveying and staking the fence line, as well as some vegetation removal to prepare the site for fencing. Visitors to the park may see machinery in the area as preparation work takes place.
To learn more about how the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior manage 19 bison herds in 12 states, including the herd at Chickasaw National Recreation Area, visit https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/protecting-bison.htm.
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I've been thinking that I ought to say something about this story; but, it's just so hard to even start. Everything about this story, this "recreation" area, the contrast between what this area should and could be and what it is, the role that bison now have in this area, the role that the people in the area have allowed these bison to be given, and the involvement of the NPS in all of it are all just so sad.
Bison confined to 84 acres for 86 years does not constitute a bison herd; that's just another prolonged hostage incident in southeast Oklahoma. And, the NPS in that part of the country thinks cutting the size of their pasture in half will be an improvement? Chickasaw my chapped cheeks, who are these Texian rednecks? What have they allowed themselves to become that they would think this is acceptable?
If 42 acres is all you got to spare, then don't bother wasting money and effort fencing any "new enclosure" for these miserable "prisoner" bison. Instead, put up a nice, little, air-conditioned building, maybe a thousand square feet; build a nice diorama of the pre-settlement vegetation and terrain of that area; get one of the local taxidermists to stuff a few of these pitiful "zombie" bison; arrange their stuffed bodies in a lifelike formation; and put up a nice bronze plaque declaring the scene to be the "Heritage of the Chickasaw" with a mention of the good that the oil and gas revenues have done or something like that. You could hire one of the local residents to come out every hour during the work day, maybe in costume, and recite a story of some sort. Or, forget the trouble and expense of hiring any of the local residents; just pay Disney to build a plastic animatronic character in whatever costume fits the current situation and culture and mount it in the diorama ...maybe a big fat animatronic bear playing a banjo.