Because I have retired from academia does not mean I have quit reading or have walked away from literature. Not by a long shot, folks. I am almost always reading at least two books, usually one fiction and one non-fiction.
In the non-fiction category I recently read two books on buffalo: The Time of the Buffalo by T. McHugh and Dale F. Lott’s American Bison: A Natural History. These are two books to read if you want to learn something real about the American bison and the environment of the Great Plains. Both books cover a lot of ground, ranging from the genealogical history of the buffalo to a proposal for the restoration of the wild, as opposed to the domesticated, buffalo. Both books are well written, albeit in different styles; both are well researched and contain thorough bibliographies and indices. Both are good reads with easy to comprehend narrative presentations and a sense of humor.
Aside: without humor the seemingly capricious and often comical actions of animals, the vastness, space and violence of nature on the Great Plains would be so overwhelming as to render this area almost uninhabitable by human beings. Humor mitigates hardship; irony generates an edge-like humor. The American bison, once thought to be the enemy of peace and progress, was brought near to extinction by a “right thinking,” non-native population. The last laugh is yet to come; still a long way off because the irony is only now being realized. A good author gets this and McHugh and Lott are good authors.
Later this month the buffalo on this ranch will be turned out to winter pasture on the U.S. Forest Service managed grasslands, year number two of unfettered, undisturbed grazing in the natural habitat on which these animals deserve to be. We relish the opportunity to turn them out on the winter pasture. Hell, we draw straws to see who gets to open the gate. Open the gate and get out of the way; the herd is on the move. Moving back to where it was when we came on the scene. Irony? “Buffalo were carried to near extinction by fear and utility. Then other attitudes saved them from total extinction and gave the species its present hoofhold on the future….its future will be decided by private attitudes of the future and by the politics that determine which attitudes are implemented. In America today all wild things and wilderness always hang by the slender thread of individuals giving a damn.” (Dale F. Lott, American Bison, p. 184). And that, my friends, is where each and every one of us enters the picture-“individuals giving a damn.” No joke.