Bison again will thunder across Nachusa Grasslands prairie

FRANKLIN GROVE – Cody Considine couldn’t help but smile as he stood on a high hill overlooking the old Holland farm site at Nachusa Grasslands on a clear sunny day last week.

“Right there, where you see that fencing, is where we will be directing the bison into the corral when we have our roundups,” said Considine, restoration ecologist at the Grasslands.

That’s right, he said bison. And yep, right here in Lee County, just a few miles from Dixon and Oregon.

Casual visitors to the 3,000-acre preserve, which is owned and operated by The Nature Conservancy, probably haven’t noticed all the extra activity going on these past few months.

Volunteers, staff, and contractors have been working side-by-side to put up fence and a state-of-the-art bison corral for the nonprofit preserve’s newest addition, the first of which will arrive this week.

And that’s just the past few months. The real foundation for getting a conservation herd of bison at the Grasslands started years ago. It involved raising about $6 million for the project, and also has been accomplished through hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours that helped to reshape the farmland back into a habitat that could again support bison.

“I’m anxious, concerned; there’s a lot of tasks yet to be done,” said Bill Kleiman, preserve manager. “We started thinking about this in the early 1990s, but then we decided we had too much restoration work to do, so we put the dream off for another 15 years.”

That dream begins this week when the first bison arrive at their new home.

“We will start out with 15 to 20 and hope to have around 50 when it’s all said and done,” said Considine, who is headed to Iowa this week to help bring back the first bison.

The Nature Conservancy has 13 preserves with about 5,500 bison; those destined for the Grasslands come from its preserves, such as Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.

Wind Cave bison are unique because they have not been bred with cattle.

“The Wind Cave herd has been closed since the 1900s,” Considine said. “It’s pure and has had no cattle integration."

The Grasslands bison will be trucked in livestock trailers and spend several weeks in the corral before being released into larger trap pastures, where they will gradually acclimate to their new 500-acre home. Eventually, they will have about 1,500 acres of land to roam.

It's a “soft release” designed to reduce the stress on the animals.

Some will be fitted with a GPS ear chip so scientists can track them and study their habits. The microchips also will contain data about the animal, including its age, weight, and DNA profile.

“We’ll be able to track how often they come to water, what certain areas they are using, where they winter, where they are calving, and whether they form one main group or keep their family groups,” Considine said. “The microchip will have genetic data on it.”

A 6-foot fence made with high tensile woven wire and reinforced with cast iron pipes repurposed from old oil well drilling pipe will keep the herd within its designated prairie. How the animals graze and what they eat also will be studied.

Every fall, they will be moved from their large grassland units to a smaller fenced area near the corral, and eventually into the corral, where they will be guided into a squeeze chute for inoculations and a checkup.

This will be the first Nature Conservancy herd to live at a preserve east of the Mississippi and also the first conservation herd in Illinois.

“They won’t be free-range roaming, but it won’t be zoo-like at all,” Considine said.

The herd's primary purpose is to help the prairie thrive.

“Their diet is almost 99.9 percent grass," Considine said. "Bison eat grass and that helps native forbs [flowers] thrive. We expect there will be a better balance, and that will help other species of the prairie. It creates a mosaic of diversity across the landscape.”

For example, bison dung should help the preserve's ornate box turtle population to increase and become healthier.

“The dung attracts beetles, and turtles eat beetles," Considine said. "Their grazing may give the turtles more lanes to walk. There are lot of things we don’t know yet, too.”

Be a bison buddy

The new bison herd eventually will graze over 1,500 acres at Nachusa Grasslands, at 8772 S. Lowden Road in Franklin Grove.

Visitor areas, yet to be built, will provide spots where the public may be able to watch the herd. Programming will be added to help teach visitors about the bison and how they’ll benefit the preserve.

In addition to the regular opportunities to help out at the grasslands, a corps of bison volunteers will be needed to check fence and monitor the herd, and eventually give tours and act as docents at the viewing stands.

Go to www.nachusagrasslands.org or contact preserve manager Bill Kleiman at 815-456-2340 or bkleiman@tnc.org to learn more about the preserve, its new herd, or to become a volunteer.

About the corral

Years of study, hours of observation, and lots of elbow grease have gone into the creation of the bison corral at Nachusa Grasslands.

Volunteers and part-time contractors were busy last week, putting the final touches on the large facility, built on an old livestock feed lot.

“The last 4 or 5 years, we’ve been going all over to observe other bison managers, learning how to do it,” said Cody Considine, the preserve's restoration ecologist. “We’ve incorporated low-stress handling techniques.”

Some of those techniques include teardrop-shaped enclosures, winding entryways, special squeeze chutes designed for bison, and no catwalks.

“Bison don’t like something above them, so no catwalks. And bison are more athletic than traditional cattle, so we kept that in mind,” Considine said.

World-renowned animal behaviorist Temple Grandin looked over the design and has giving her “blessing”. Considine said she might visit the facility next year.

Gates between the different sections of the corral will be operated by remote control. Its centerpiece is the Berlinic Cube, specifically designed for bison.

“We can have cows and calves in here together,” Considine said, referring to the squeeze chute. “The veterinarian will be able to look at the bison and do what needs to be done with as little stress as possible.”

The corral, which cost around $300,000, will be used to introduce new bison to the grasslands and will be an essential element in the annual roundup once the herd is established.