Northern Great Plains

WWF’s Northern Great Plains program began in 2000. Since then, WWF has played an integral role in charting a sustainable future for the region. By bringing together local communities, landowners, governments, scientists, conservation experts and industry, we are achieving lasting results in the conservation and restoration of the region’s natural heritage. 

Bison reintroduction project
In May 2006 we celebrated the arrival of the first calves born into the herd of American bison that WWF and APF have successfully reintroduced into the American Prairie Reserve of northeast Montana. While most of the 500,000 American bison currently in public or commercial herds contain some cattle DNA (the result of cross-breeding efforts at the beginning of the 20th century), this conservation herd has been drawn from bison at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, one of the genetically healthiest herds in North America that shows no sign of cattle DNA.

The American Prairie Reserve's herd of free-ranging bison welcomed its first new arrivals in May 2006.
© Steven Morello

Over the next five years, the herd will grow to over 300 bison, with a long-term goal of several thousand. The herd is destined to become one of the most important in North America, significantly helping to preserve and to restore the bison's traditional role on the plains. WWF is also taking a leading role, in collaboration with various conservation groups and governmental agencies, to develop a continent-wide action plan to conserve the plains bison. 

Light at the end of the tunnel for the black-footed ferret.
© Daniel J Cox / NaturalExposures.com

2000s

• Helped launch American Prairie Foundation (APF). Since 2002, APF has existed as an independent Montana-based land trust with the sole focus of establishing the American Prairie Reserve in northeast Montana.
• Published, in cooperation with 16 local, regional and national conservation groups, “Ocean of Grass,” a landmark regional assessment of biodiversity
• Established a new conservation herd of bison on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana—the first time in 120 years that America’s largest land mammal has roamed these wild lands
• Launched the Grasslands 2010 project with Grassland Foundation to establish a common framework for conserving wildlife and creating reserves on private lands
• Developed with U.S. and Canadian partners a plan to conserve critical native prairie stretching across the U.S.-Canada border