Wildlife

Over the past 20 years The Nature Conservancy in Indiana has been converting 6,700 acres of row-crop agriculture at Kankakee Sands into a diverse prairie. The goal – to restore key prairie habitat and connectivity for wildlife.

“Most plants and animals have been able to make it back on their own,” Ted Anchor the Northwest Indiana Program Director says. “Bison was one of those that we had to make a concerted effort to bring back and do it for all the right reasons.”

Bringing back these native grazers restores interactions between plants, animals, and fire – improving the diversity of ecosystems and biodiversity along with it.

In October of 2016, 23 bison from South Dakota were released on the prairie in Kankakee Sands.