Redux: Bison Roam in the Badlands

Part of the Badlands Opens to Bison—for the First Time in 150 Years

by Brigit Katz Smithsonian.com

Last Friday, four bison waited quietly inside a grey trailer parked on the plains of South Dakota’s Badlands National Park. When the doors of the trailer swung open, the hulking animals darted out and galloped across the snow-covered, windswept landscape—the first inhabitants of territory that has not been occupied by bison since the 1870s.

As Seth Tupper of the Rapid City Journal explains, staff released the bison as part of an effort to expand the animals’ range in the national park, which encompasses a stretch of dramatic rock formations, canyons and grasslands on the edge of the Great Plains in South Dakota. Bison have long roamed the rugged, western part of the park, but a parcel of privately owned land blocked their migration into the central area of the park’s North Unit, where most visitors spend their time.

In 2014, with support from the U.S. Forest Service and non-profit groups like the World Wildlife Fund, the park secured a land swap with the Don Kelly Ranch, which owned the key piece of territory, thus opening the land up to bison migration.

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Carol Duff, MSN, BA, RN

Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.

She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.

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