Return of the Bison A Story of Survival, Restoration, and a Wilder World

About this book

Return of the Bison is the story of how this symbol of the American West was once almost lost to history and of the continuing journey to bring bison back from the brink. Author and naturalist Roger Di Silvestro explores the complex history of the bison's decimation and how a rising awareness of their possible extinction formed the roots of many modern wildlife conservation approaches. Weaving in natural history and fascinating historical context featuring personalities such as Teddy Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and William T. Hornaday, Di Silvestro traces the decades it took to begin to save the bison, often with little hope and plagued by discouraging setbacks. Di Silvestro explores the key role in the story of America's Indigenous people, whose fate was intertwined with the bison's and whose conservation work is important not only for the animal's recovery but also for their own cultural renewal.

Di Silvestro also examines the plight of European bison and the latest challenges facing the species in the US: Are the bison doomed to be treated like cattle, fenced and contained? Or will they be listed as an endangered species, requiring us to treat them like the wild animals they are?

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Biography

Roger Di Silvestro is a former writer and editor for Defenders of Wildlife, the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and other organizations, as well as a former communications director for the National Parks Conservation Association. He is the author of ten books, most recently Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest for Recovery in the American West and In the Shadow of Wounded Knee: The Untold Final Story of the Indian Wars. He lives in Virginia.