On November 29, 2006, a Congressional Update about the wild bison management at Neal Smith National Wildlife was sent to 20 local Congressional offices in Iowa.

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U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TAKES ACTION TO ENHANCE MANAGEMENT OF WILD BISON ON NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES - Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge Will Move Existing Bison Herd and Receive New Animals

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking action to better conserve and protect wild bison on units of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

As part of this management strategy, Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, located near Prairie City, Iowa, will be transferring the 48 bison currently at the refuge to two different Native American Tribes.  The round-up and transfer of these bison will occur during the last week of November.  As part of the transfer agreement, the tribes are required to maintain the bison for at least one year before any could be slaughtered for food or other uses.  “Our goal is to help the tribes establish new herds, or build existing bison herds on their property,” said Neal Smith Refuge Manager Nancy Gilbertson.  “Bison are a culturally important animal for Native American tribes in Iowa and across the prairie.  I’m glad these animals will be used to help tribes maintain an important part of their heritage”  Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge will receive 25 new bison from the National Bison Range in northwestern Montana sometime in mid-December.

Another aspect of this action involves moving the existing bison herd at Sullys Hill National Game Preserve in northeastern North Dakota to Ft. Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in the Sand Hills region of north-central Nebraska.  This movement will begin in early December 2006, and will be completed by the end of the calendar year. 

The purpose of moving the bison from Sullys Hill to Ft. Niobrara is to provide sufficient room to expand the Sullys Hill bison herd.  The Service, using the best available scientific information, has determined that the Sullys Hill herd is the only Service herd without detectable hybridization with cattle. Other Service herds contain valuable and unique genetic components of wild bison, with only minute levels of introduced cattle genes.

The majority of bison in the United States exist in private herds, which have higher rates of hybridization from domestic cattle.  This makes the Service bison herds, especially those without detectable hybridization or with low levels of detectable hybridization especially valuable for the long-term conservation of wild bison.

The Sullys Hill herd, however, is small and only consists of less than 40 animals. The Service is concerned that this genetically unique herd could lose genetic diversity if maintained at its current location at Sullys Hill, where a limited amount of available bison habitat dictates a small herd size. Additional habitat at Ft. Niobrara will permit the herd to grow to a size that helps minimize genetic loss.

Following the movement of bison from Sullys Hill to Ft. Niobrara, the Service will redistribute some of the existing bison at the National Bison Range in northwestern Montana to Sullys Hill, and to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in central Iowa.  The purpose of this phase of the action is intended to maintain a small but genetically unique group of bison at Sullys Hill and enhance the long-term conservation value of the herd at National Bison Range and potentially, throughout the refuge system, by distributing some National Bison Range animals to other sites.  This phase will be completed later during winter, 2006-2007. 

“Bison are a keystone species of the American west,” said Mitch King, Director of the Service’s Mountain-Prairie Region, which includes North Dakota, Montana and Nebraska.  “This action will enhance our bison management efforts and our habitat restoration and conservation efforts by redistributing existing, unique genetic material to appropriate sites throughout the Region and to other Service Regions with bison herds.” 

King added: “In the early 1900s, Sullys Hill, Ft. Niobrara, National Bison Range, and other units of the national wildlife refuge system played an important role in the national effort to recover bison from near extinction.  These stations, including Sullys Hill, today retain their historic value as repositories for the genetic material necessary for the long-term conservation of the refuge system’s bison herds.  In many ways, this latest action is a continuation of one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s early conservation successes and underscores the evolution of the National Wildlife Refuge System and its role in the conservation of America’s wildlife heritage.”

Bison were historically an integral component of the North American prairie ecosystem.  Migrating bison provided essential functions, such as grazing and other disturbances that, together with fire, drove key ecological processes on the prairie.  The decimation of the historic bison herds across the continent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries removed this component from the prairie ecosystem. As the Service works to restore and conserve prairie habitats throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System, the agency has identified wild bison as a species that can and will play a vital role in this effort.