Bison Range is national treasure

Inter Lake editorial

It's a place that truly lives up to its status as a national wildlife refuge.

The National Bison Range south of here, it is true, provides a refuge for a huge variety of birds, wildlife, plants and wildflowers in its almost 19,000 acres of native palouse prairie, mixed fir and pine forests, brushy draws and riparian areas.

But the refuge status has more meaning when you consider that the Bison Range played a key role in preventing the American bison from becoming extinct.

That role is particularly noteworthy this year as the Bison Range celebrates its centennial.

Often forgotten when people gaze at the beauty and diversity of natural wonders at the Moiese refuge is that the establishment of the range and the dedication of bison backers helped save the species from extermination 100 years ago.

Bison once numbered 30 million to 60 million across North America in the 1800s. But a well-executed slaughter had drastically reduced that number by the start of the century.

By 1902, there were only 700 bison remaining in private herds. The only protected herd, in Yellowstone National Park, had a whopping 23 animals. Bison numbers were at rock bottom and the species' future hung in the balance.

Enter the National Bison Range and a cast of characters ranging from a Pend Oreille Indian named Walking Coyote to Kalispell's Conrad family. They were partly responsible for the bison that were first transplanted to the new range.

Help was provided, too, by a president named Teddy Roosevelt and the American Bison Society.

From the arrival of the first bison a year after the Bison Range was created to the current robust bison herd marks a conservation success story that has played out over the course of a century.

Today there are half a million bison, a number that attests to the farsightedness of those who set aside a place for bison back in 1908.

The Bison Range today remains a stunning place to visit.

Take some time to tour the refuge.

Watch elk and deer graze near Mission Creek. Snap photos of the showy fields of arrowleaf balsamroot on the range's exposed hills. Gasp as you reach the summit of the Red Sleep Mountain Drive and suddenly encounter the stunning tableau of the Mission Mountains rising sharply above the Mission Valley. Listen for the distinctive song of the meadowlark.

And look in wonder at the cavorting bison calves - the next generation of the effort to preserve the species.

Those calves would not be there - and there might be no bison anywhere for people to appreciate - if the Bison Range had never been set aside.