The idea of a Buffalo Commons is slowly but
surely becoming a reality in the Great Plains
By Doug Rich
When Professors Frank and Deborah Popper made a return visit to Kansas recently they could have begun their comments with "We told you so," but they did not. Instead they graciously thanked Kansas State University for inviting them to speak and update their vision of a Buffalo Commons on the Great Plains.
In 1987 Frank and Debra Popper, both professors at Rutgers University at the time, published their first article on the Great Plains which outlined their vision of the Buffalo Commons. At the time many who live and work in the Great Plains dismissed their ideas. Then Governor of Kansas Mike Hayden, was a very outspoken critic of the Poppers vision of the future in the Great Plains. Hayden, now Secretary for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, shared the stage with the Poppers on February 11 at the K-State Student Union Forum Hall.
"I am here to say, 17 years later, that I was wrong," Hayden said. "Seventeen years ago we wondered what could a couple of interlopers from Rutgers know about the High Plains. Not only did what Frank and Deborah predict come true, but the truth is that the out-migration of the Great Plains has been even stronger than they predicted."
Hayden used his own family as an example of what has happened to the Great Plains as a region. "My family has been on the same ground for 90 years," he said. "In 1963 there were 16 of us whose primary source of income came from that land. In 2003 there were four people whose primary source of income came from that farm and three of them were over 80 years of age. Twelve of us had to do something else. In another 15 years there will be only one person whose primary source of income is that land. Most of my family has had to leave western Kansas to find economic opportunities."
"We never expected that article to have much of an audience," said Frank Popper. Their suggestion of a Buffalo Commons in the Great Plains was not a detailed blue print of what should take place but an alternative to the boom and bust cycles in the region. "It was an idea or metaphor for the environmental and ecological restoration of a lot of the Great Plains." They suggested new uses for the land that fell between conventional agriculture and pure wilderness with an emphasis on environmental protection and eco-tourism as a supplement, possibly a replacement, for existing agriculture. Buffalo and other native animal would replace cattle in many areas. "In the years sense, a good deal of what we expected came about." Drought, population decline, and aging of the population have continued at an accelerated pace. "A group of counties in the Sandhills of Nebraska became the poorest in the nation by some measures."
According to Frank and Deborah Popper, out-migration of the Great Plains actually began in the 1890s when harsh winter weather decimated cow herds and bankrupted ranchers throughout the Great Plains. Population declines were slowed somewhat by federal agricultural subsidies, the development of irrigation, and a thriving oil and gas industries. Although agricultural subsidies continue to support Great Plains agriculture, irrigation and energy are beginning to fade out. "The economy of the Great Plains is a three legged stool," said Hayden. "The legs of that stool are represented by the Hugoton gas field, the Ogallala Aquifer, and in the influx of Hispanic population. Two of those three legs are declining." Hayden noted that the Hugoton Gas field is declining at the rate of eight percent per year and the water level in the Ogallala Aquifer dropped another foot last year. The Hispanic population, however, continues to expand. Hayden said the only communities in western Kansas that are thriving at all are those with public infrastructure such as state universities, junior colleges, or votech schools.
"The problems we pointed to did not go away," said Frank Popper. "We could imagine a Buffalo Commons, but not all of the details. Life has filled those in." One of those details that Frank and Debra did not foresee was the emergence of a thriving Buffalo industry. Ranchers across the Great Plains began raising and selling Buffalo based on the high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol properties of the meat. Media mogul, Ted Turner, purchased nearly two million acres in the Great Plains and populated it with Buffalo. Even though the price for live Buffalo and for meat from Buffalo has declined in recent years, there is still a viable Buffalo industry. One that did not exist in 1987. Another detail has been filled in by environmental groups that have appeared to push along the idea of a Buffalo Commons. The Nature Conservancy is one group that has made large purchases of land in the Great Plains.
Mike Hayden said one of the things that hurts Western Kansas is the lack of public land. "The very few places where people congregated in western Kansas are on public lands," he said. According to Hayden, Kansas is on the opposite end of the scale from Alaska were 98 percent of the land is public. "We have not made enough of those investments in western Kansas." He pointed to the need to develop such landmarks as the Coronado Cross, Pawnee Rock, Castle Rock, and the Santa Fe Trail so they could be enjoyed by the public and increase tourism to this state.
"We made people squirm with our ideas," said Deborah Popper. She stressed that their idea did not include doing away with farming all together. Their idea for a Buffalo Commons was an alternative vision of how to develop the Great Plains. "We wanted to redefine how we see the Great Plains. We will not be able to fill in the details. That will be up to local minds, from people who know local conditions. Agriculture and restoration can work together."
Today, 17 years after the article was first published, not many people doubt what Frank and Deborah Popper said. "There is no question that some form of the Buffalo Commons will happen," said Frank Popper. "We believe it is a done deal."
Date: 2/19/04
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