Conservation parks are too small for buffalo viability

Evidence

According to conservation biologists like Reed Noss, much of the land on which the buffalo presently roam is not suited for their longterm viability. “Because biology has been absent from design decisions,” Noss writes, “park boundaries do not conform to ecological boundaries, and most parks and reserves are too small to maintain populations of wide-ranging animals over the long term or to perpetuate natural processes.” Noss considers that buffalo require reserves on the scale of one to ten million hectares (2,470,000 to 24,700,000 acres). Those must be contiguous acres, with corridors as well as core areas. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 796

Categorization

• XREF: Reserve-size biology parallels the tree/grafting infrastructure reading on how design scale shapes ecological function. — connects to: Restoring a buffalo commons would save the federal government money — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 784; Buffalo slaughter protects only about 3,000 cattle on wildlife-designated public land — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 766; Domesticating buffalo degrades their social structure and the land — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 801