by Wes Olson and Johane Janelle
UNIVERSITY OF REGINA PRESS
2022/$39.95/304 pp.
The UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal this past December brought the extinction crisis to the headlines. Though less discussed than climate change, the potential effects of biodiversity loss are stark: depleted soils and accelerated erosion, an absence of pollinator species, collapsed fisheries, the loss of plant-based medicine—a homogeneous world susceptible to invasive species and future pathogens.
Against the backdrop of this crisis—in which global wildlife populations have declined by nearly 70 per cent over the past 40 years—The Ecological Buffalo transcends its presentation as a niche science and nature photography book and becomes broadly topical and relevant. It was not so long ago when bison numbered in the tens of millions and thundered in herds that asserted their presence as this continent’s most ubiquitous and vital ungulate species. That the lone bull gracing the cover of this book—with its imposing hump and forequarters, moulted winter coat and lustrous cape—can look exotic to today’s reader is a testament to the transformations that have taken place as we move into a post-ecocidal world.
As is perfunctory in almost any discussion of bison, we are taken on a journey in space and time, through vast grasslands that nurtured Indigenous confederations from Canada to Mexico, a land teeming with elk and antelope, birds and bugs, wolves and grizzlies. We learn that bison were the linchpin to everything in this ecosystem, from microbiota up to apex predator. “And with them,” writes author Wes Olson, “went the songs of countless insectivorous birds. Only the sigh of the wind through lonely grasses remained to lament their loss.”
To be sure, the bulk of this book is spent describing in astonishing detail the moveable feast that is a bison herd. Strands of shed fur become bird’s nests. Migration means seed dispersal. Every defecation becomes a microbiome; every carcass, a banquet. Photographer Johane Janelle and Wes Olson—a long-time warden at Elk Island National Park—have an obvious passion for this iconic species, and readers will find Janelle’s photography and Olson’s artwork and poetry especially moving.
Though greatly diminished, the northern wood bison range and residual prairie grasslands today still house a treasure-trove of diversity, from burrowing owls to short-horned lizards to sage grouse and pronghorn. The Ecological Buffalo shows the wonder and abundance of these ecosystems where bison are a keystone species. One gets the agonizing feeling that a shroud of crisis could be lifted by simply expanding the bison range and letting them live free.
Geoffrey Picketts works and writes at Alberta Views.
_______________________________________
