Hisey et al.: Fears and Fences: Bison on the Canadian Prairies

In Fears and Fences: Social and Material Barriers to Plains Bison on the Canadian Prairies, authors Forrest Hisey, Melissa Heppner, and Andrea Olive (all Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga) conduct a qualitative study to determine the largest barriers to the “rewilding” of bison on the Canadian Great Plains with a particular focus on the attitudes of some settlors that conflict with Indigenous groups’ efforts to reintroduce bison.  

The authors recount the ecological and cultural importance of the bison to Indigenous groups on the Great Plains. Bison were systematically hunted during colonization due to their spiritual significance to Indigenous communities. For example, the authors describe how the Crow community considers bison to be “brothers to humans.” Despite strong state-led efforts in some regions of Canada, reintroduction programs are still slow moving on the prairies and are primarily led by local Indigenous groups. The most significant barrier to reintroduction is a struggle over resources among bison, cattle, and crop production.  

This qualitative study was conducted through a “political ecology” lens in which the authors conducted interviews of “settlors” in the Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan provinces. The primary barriers identified through these interviews are social, disease, safety, and infrastructure concerns. The authors focus most narrowly on the social barriers which seem to be the primary drivers of opposition. These social factors include political opposition to reintroduction which, similar to the United States, is amplified by the private property system in Canada. The authors illustrate this issue by referencing the concerns and reactions of cattle ranchers neighboring Yellowstone Park exhibit when dealing with bison exiting the park and entering private property.  

Hisey, Heppner, and Olive emphasize the lack of scholarship on efforts to reintroduce bison to the Great Plains and the barriers impeding the return of these animals to their natural environment for ecological and cultural purposes. They advocate for further research into the role that bison should play on the modern Great Plains and how existing barriers might be overcome.