1,016 bison now roam an American prairie reserve — a conservation herd passes four figures for the first time

On the open grasslands of Montana, a herd built to bring the prairie back has reached a number worth pausing on. American Prairie, a nonprofit piecing together a vast wild-prairie reserve, counted 1,016 bison in its annual calf count — the first time the herd has passed 1,000. The reserve now spans 603,657 acres, mixing land the nonprofit owns with public land it leases, so the roaming herd can shape the grassland the way bison did when they numbered in the tens of millions. The milestone nearly didn't happen: the Bureau of Land Management cancelled the nonprofit's grazing permits on three federal allotments and ordered the herd removed, but a federal judge paused that order in September, finding the nonprofit's reading of the law very likely correct. The dispute isn't settled — but for now, the herd stays, grows, and keeps restoring the prairie.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program