Montana’s Glaciated Plains: Thinking Big Across Time and Space – American Prairie Reserve

American Prairie Reserve’s http://www.americanprairie.org/ mission to create a reserve of more than three million acres represents one of the largest conservation projects in the United States today.

The size of the project is hard to grasp – even a small piece of the 274,000 acres that currently comprise the Reserve seems like an endless "sea of grass" to both first-time and seasoned visitors.

However, after ten weeks of research on historical wildlife populations http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/24/top-predator-on-the-plains-wolf-bear-or-human/ of Montana’s glaciated plains, I have become increasingly convinced that APR’s vision is necessary. If we want to understand the behavior and ecology of grassland species, we need to think big.

Michelle Berry

Full Story: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/02/montanas-glaciated-plains-thinking-big-across-time-and-space/

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Conservation in Action at the American Prairie Reserve

Last week I made my final trip up to the prairie reserve. On the evening before I left, I went for a run to saturate my senses with the landscape. I eventually came to a valley where I decided to perch on a cottonwood tree and watch the sun go down. I closed my eyes for a few moments, and when I opened them, I saw a buffalo bull a few hundred yards in the distance that must have wandered off on his own. I then turned full circle and realized that I was surrounded by four other bulls that were quickly approaching me. I was overcome with excitement: All of the journals I had read by Lewis and Clark, Edwin Denig, George Catlin and others suddenly came alive, and I imagined an endless grass-filled landscape bursting with millions of buffalo, elk, and antelope and thousands of cougars, wolves, and bears.

Michelle Berry

Full Story: http://west.stanford.edu/news/conservation-action-american-prairie-reserve