Los Altos Town Crier » Los Altos Morning Forum speaker shares vision for prairie preserve

By Jan Fenwick

Image from article Los Altos Morning Forum speaker shares vision for prairie preserve

Sean Gerrity of the American Prairie Foundation addresses Morning Forum Nov. 15.

Wouldn’t it be a thrill for our children and grandchildren to travel to Montana to view not only large herds of free-roaming buffalo, but also to experience tule elk, fox, badgers, black and grizzly bears, prairie dogs and a variety of birds? Such a vision may become reality if the American Prairie Foundation (APF) has its way.

Sean Gerrity, APF president, outlined the successful initial efforts for locating and establishing a prairie preserve during a Nov. 15 Los Altos Morning Forum talk. Gerrity moved from the Bay Area to Montana and now oversees 31,000 acres of grasslands, 11,000 of which are owned and 20,000 leased.

The APF project began four years ago with a search for a grassland ecosystem that could support a bison herd and myriad other plant and animal species. The World Wildlife Fund found in north-central Montana a mostly pristine mixed-grass prairie where a patchwork of public and private lands and a federal wildlife refuge teemed with native flora and fauna. The area has had a 10 percent population loss each decade since World War I, and there is little, if no, infrastructure.

Gerrity said 16 American bison were released into the preserve this month, several of which are pregnant mothers imported from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. They are among the few genetically pure buffalo left and are free from brucellosis, a disease that plagues the species. APF hopes to add 20 to 30 bison each year from different stock, Gerrity said, and envisions in 2025 herds of buffalo and other large game, including the grizzly bear, populating the area.

APF’s vision, said Gerrity, is to restore a sense of wonder and pride in saving a unique biome and to provide for America’s children a living lab of thousands of species of flora and fauna.

APF partners with the World Wildlife Fund, Bureau of Land Management, Nature Conservancy and other Montana agencies.

For more information on the American Prairie Foundation, visit www.americanprairie.org.

Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.