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Assessing the environmental footprint of grazing bison in the United States
Author
Cammack, KM
Menendez, H
Husmann, A
Brennan, J
Zuidema, D
Antaya, A
Blair, A
Publisher
XII International Rangeland Congress
Publication Year
2025
Body

The bison is a highly held species in the United States (U.S.) due to its historic and cultural significance along with its distinction as the national mammal. Despite a drastic decline in the 1800s, the U.S. bison population is rebounding with nearly 250,000 existing within private operations, federal, state and public herds, and public lands (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2024). A majority of this population is owned and raised privately as livestock. However, several herds also exist as conservation or Indigenous herds. As the bison production sector continues to grow, its impact on the climate is coming into question. Similar to other grazing ruminant livestock, bison emit greenhouse gases (GHG), which are often publicly associated with negative environmental impacts. However, bison can also positively impact the environment by contributing to healthy grasslands and carbon sequestration through grazing action. South Dakota State University (SDSU) was recently awarded a commodity development grant focused on grazing livestock producers, including bison producers. A primary goal of this project is to assess the environmental impacts of bison grazing systems and to encourage sustainable land management practices by providing producers with practice incentives and creating novel market opportunities. To accomplish this, SDSU is partnering with bison producers in the Northern Great Plains to implement sustainable grazing and land management practices and subsequently measure, monitor and verify associated GHG and carbon impacts. Measur ements include soil carbon and GHG, along with estimates of bison GHG emissions measured using GreenFeed (C-Lock, Inc., Rapid City, SD, USA) technology. Data generated from this project will help establish baseline environmental impact estimates for grazing bison, which are needed to help inform producer management decisions and guide future market development opportunities.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Additional Information
This paper is part of the larger XII International Rangelands Congress Proceedings. Page Numbers: 1363-1367. Theme: Theme 5 / Innovative tools for addressing risk
ISSN
978-0-646-72121-7
Conference Name
International Rangeland Congress
Collection
International Rangelands Congress
Keywords
Bison
grazing
greenhouse gas
soil carbon