November 1 is officially national Bison Day! But that doesn't mean people will be heading out into the chill to grill up their favorite sweet-but-tender burgers. Just last week, the Senate passed a resolution establishing a national Bison Day in an attempt to restore dialogue about the restoration and conservation of buffalo in North America.
Still, that doesn't mean the bison burger shouldn't be on the menu. The very fact that we can cook and eat a once protected animal is a testament to what the day celebrates - the immensely successful recovery of North American buffalo populations.
Back during the 1700s, bison likely numbered in the tens-of-millions. However, thanks to westward expansion, it was estimated there were fewer than 1,100 individual bison left by the early 1900s. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, westward expansion and the establishment of a railway system were devastating, particularly to the Southern heard - where bison herds were even hunted from train cars.
Finally, in 1905, the first efforts to protect bison on a national scale were taken with the formation of the American Bison Society, with President Theodore Roosevelt being one of its key founders.
Amazingly, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reports that thanks to ceaseless conservation efforts and a private interest in bison meat, hundreds of thousands of the animals can now be found in North America. It's for that reason that many senators see the animal as a symbol of US success.
"Once nearly extinct, the bison has made a remarkable comeback," Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) said in a statement. "Bison is playing an increasing role in agriculture in South Dakota and the West as bison ranching expands. National Bison Day gives all of us an opportunity to celebrate the bison as a living embodiment of the United States."
The senator is one of two primary sponsors and 20 co-sponsors that want to see a national Bison Day as an annual occurrence.
John Calvelli, WCS Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, even went as far as calling the North American buffalo "as quintessentially American as baseball, apple pie and the bald eagle."
Still, according to the WCS, despite their immense recovery, bison herds aren't as truly free-roaming as they once were. Much like with the recovery of white rhinos in Africa, bison recovery was heavily dependent on private interests and ranching, leading to the great majority of North America's bison to be semi-domestic.
That's why bison enthusiasts find solace in the fact that just last week, eleven Native American tribes signed a treaty affirming their commitment to making the bison once again a wild herd animal in the Great Plains.