The buffalo are still staying safe in the Park, and my time in Gardiner is coming to a close. I’ve actually extended my stay twice – because buffalo were getting close to the park boundary, but thankfully, each time was a false alarm. They are moving around, though, grazing and getting strong, and taking over the roads in the park, letting everyone know that they own the place!
Hunt parties still stalk the borders of the park, either after elk, or just waiting impatiently for buffalo to kill.
It is so backwards, because all who are buffalo people should be here at the edge of the park, not waiting to kill but waiting to welcome the buffalo who come down from the high places, waiting with celebration and song, waiting to tell the buffalo how important and needed and loved they are.
Instead, I get up every morning and take my first loop around, hoping NOT to see buffalo, hoping I have to drive well into the park to find our friends.
But that’s how it is under this Interagency Bison Mis-Management Plan – governments and entities and agencies and people with guns preventing the buffalo from bringing their healing presence to this land.
So, we hope NOT to see buffalo, we hope they stay safe in the park. And as spring starts showing her face, it seems more and more likely that they will stay put, and will be spared here on the north side this season.
What a difference a week makes!
Spring is arriving, most certainly. The snows have gone in the low areas and the southern slopes. I have seen robins and bluebirds, and the ticks are out in full force. The road I struggled with just over a week ago is bare dirt. Trails are sloppy, and my boots caked in mud. While the mornings are still cold, by afternoon the days are warm, and the buffalo laze in the sun. May they stay safe and strong, and rebuild their numbers.
And here, on the outside, we’ll keep fighting for a world where we welcome them with celebration and song, instead of bullets and fences.